I love making Focaccia bread! I love letting it rise into a fluffy pillow and then dimpling it with my fingertips, but this one was even better! I got to push beautiful mushrooms into the pillow & watch the dough rise around them. The texture this bread created was amazing and kept better overnight than most of the ones I have made before.
Chanterelle Sage Focaccia Bread:
inspired by
this recipe
sponge:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3/4 cup flour
1 in a small bowl stir together yeast and water until dissolved
2 then stir in the flour
3 cover with plastic wrap and set in warm dry place to rise for 45minutes-1hour, until it about doubles in size
(you can turn your oven on its lowest temp and then turn it off and place bowl inside)
dough:
3-4 small Yukon gold potatoes (8 oz)
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 tbs olive oil
3/4 cup flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (or white wheat flour)
2 tsp sea salt
olive oil for drizzling
2 tbs sage; chopped
15-20 wild mushrooms (chanterelle, oyster & such)
coarse sea salt
1 while the sponge is rising boil the potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork, 8-10 minutes
2 peel the skin off the potatoes, mash them, and push through a sieve or potato ricer(not as hard as it sounds, but it would also be okay if you just mash them very well)
3 let potatoes cool
4 in a small bowl mix yeast and water together and let sit until foamy, 3-5 minutes
5 in a large bowl add sponge, olive oil, potatoes, flour, yeast & water mixture, and salt
6 mix together until all are incorporated
7 then, using the dough hook, knead the dough on medium speed for 7-10 minutes, beware it's a sticky dough, the dough should come together and slap the sides of the bowl when it is finished
8 cover with plastic wrap and place in warm dry place for 1 1/2 hours
9 place parchment paper on baking sheet and sprinkle with flour
10 turn dough out onto paper and shape into a rectangle, sprinkle the top with flour and pull/form the dough until it is about as large as your baking sheet
11 cover with a towel and let rise 45minutes-1hour
12 preheat oven to 425 degrees F and mix chopped sage, about 2 tbs of olive oil in a small bowl
13 cut the stems off the mushrooms and pour olive oil/sage mixture into the bowl and coat mushrooms
14 uncover the dough and using your fingertips press dimples evenly over the dough
15 then press mushrooms into some of the dimples, finally drizzle remaining olive oil/sage over the dough, you may need to add a little more oil drizzle overtop
16 sprinkle with a little sea salt and bake for 20-25 minutes
note: if you're eating it that day- no problem, but if you're making it for the next day try this:
1 when it comes out of the oven let cool for 10-15 minutes
2 place a towel over the focaccia, and leave it on the baking sheet
3 wrap towel, bread, and baking sheet in plastic wrap
4 when you go to serve it preheat oven to 350 degrees F and finish them off with a few minutes, 3-5, in the oven
this trick will insure your bread won't be to dry
