The First bread From The Book Was Pretty Good (2007-11-08)
I just found out that the food processor can knead your bread dough! Perhaps this is a fact most bread makers already know, but I sure did not know. I had let my food processor's plastic blade go to waste all these years, I can't believe I could be such a dodo bird (kicks myself). A minute or two whizzing in the processor is all it takes to make the dough smooth as a baby's bottom, the kind of elasticity that I can never achieve manually. Well anyway, since I discovered the wonder of the plastic blade, I've never looked back on kneading dough by hand, perhaps just to shape the processed dough very briefly on the board for the last 10 seconds or so.
The very first recipe I chose to do from
the book is focaccia.
The reason being that I simply love this bread and it'd go really well
with the salad I already planned to have that day. The result's
pretty good, almost great except that I thought it could improve even
more had I not flubbed the recipe by missing a step. How could I
miss a step (letting the dough rest for 15 minutes after punching down)
when the book is right in front of me?! Go figure.
Had I taken a photo of the ingredient list and posted it, I'd have violated copyright law. If I write out the recipe word for word, I'd still violate copyright. But I can post the recipe in my own words and I should be off the legality hook. Since the recipe is printed in Japanese, basically the English recipe I post HAS to be my own words. The focaccia I made is ever so slightly dense and toothsome which is how I like this Italian bread.
Focaccia
Bread flour 200gm, instant yeast 4gm, warm water (30C/86F) about 100ml, salt 4gm, sugar 6gm, olive oil 20ml, olives and rosemary for topping.
Put flour, yeast, sugar in a large food processor with plastic
blade
and blend for 5 seconds. Pour in water while the motor is on and
blend for 50 seconds. Add salt and oil, blend for 20 more
seconds.
Since altitude and humidity
can affect the amount of water flour
absorbs, adjust water amount accordingly. Peek through the
feeding tube and you should see the dough become smooth
and elastic at this stage.
Don't over-process as it will tear the gluten resulting in a tough
dough and sucky rising afterwards. Gather dough and roll
it into a ball on a slightly floured board (I rolled mine on a Silpat
and only a smidgen of flour's needed, maybe less than 1/8tsp). Be
careful not to over-flour the
board or you'll throw off the flour ratio in the recipe resulting in a
hard dough. You strong people can also do the whole thing by hand
for 10 to 15 minutes until dough is smooth.
Cover dough in a slightly oiled bowl with plastic, let rise for an
hour till double in size. Turn out dough, release gas (hahaha),
lightly shape into a ball,
let rest for 15 minutes to relax the gluten. This step is
important.
Roll out dough into 20cmX25cm, let it rest for 30 min or till double
again. Brush top with olive oil, use finger to make indentations,
stuff them with sliced olives or rosemary. Bake at 190C for 20
min. Transfer to a rack and let it cool before
cutting.
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