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| Kim's Rosemary Focaccia Courtesy of The Finer Cookie |
Faithy nibbled off all the crusty sides first and just couldn't stop eating it. She also had to keep an eye on her mixer while it was mixing the dough so it wouldn't walk off the counter. Nancy thought it was wonderful and it was hard not to eat half the pan. Although she did call her dough ball a "gluten sort of glom" - LOL. Speaking of dough, Kim said that the feel of the dough gave her the "willies" but it was so, so tender. Her and her husband would rather eat it than get the wonderful picture of it, which is shown above.
One of the best posts was from Marie. She has already baked through The Bread Bible and decided to join us and do it again. The focaccia was the first bread she made and she definitely had her problems with it but out of those problems came a wonderful friendship with Rose. "It's hard to understand how I could have such fond memories of the biggest baking disaster of my life--this very same beautiful rosemary focaccia, the first bread I made from The Bread Bible, and one that almost led to the death of my nascent bread-baking hobby." I'm glad that didn't happen! My favorite quote from her post - "Don't you sometimes marvel at all the food that you use routinely now and had never heard of 20 or 30 years ago? Maldon sea salt is one; actually, focaccia is another. Probably some of you young people never had to undergo a life without focaccia, but I did. And I also walked 5 miles to school." I'm wondering about that 5 mile walk to school.
Vicki takes us way back to 1980 when she first tasted focaccia in San Francisco. A delightful post for sure. She also went the extra step and made the poached garlic, some pesto and some garlic oil. Speaking of overachievers, Mendy wins that award this month. Not only did he make a double batch of dough but he mixed it BY HAND! This dough is runny and soupy enough but to mix it like he did - oh my.
Michele also used the poached garlic but she just happened to have some already made in the fridge. Don't we all? She also said it was the "best focaccia ever!" Kristina didn't have to buy rosemary at the store, oh no, she had hers growing on her windowsill. Don't we all? Even though she accidentally used the dough hook, her focaccia came out great, good enough to serve to her friends around a winter campfire. She's braver than I am :)
Jenn was quite the trooper. She made the recipe twice! After figuring out that she needed to use the flour Rose suggested, her focaccia turned out wonderful although she isn't a huge fan of focaccia, Jenn thought it was much better than what you can get in a restaurant.
Catherine swore it was beginners luck that hers came together just like it was supposed to but after looking at the pictures of her dough, I'd say she knew what she was doing. She also baked it in her convection microwave. She was another one who couldn't stop eating it.
And then there's Elle. She is the newest member of our Bake Along and her Mom is none other than Vicki. I laughed the whole time reading her post and the best part was when she introduced her Magical Proofing Box of the Future. Her poor husband had to go shopping with her to get what she needed for the recipe. Lucky for her dog DJ, he was the recipient of a new squeaky toy from the shopping trip! Unfortunately she used the wrong yeast but her bread still turned out good. I'm glad to hear that she would definitely make it again - but this time with the correct yeast :)
I didn't have too many problems making the focaccia either. I used too big of a pan so it came out a little thin but still oh so good.
Next month we will be making Pita Bread. Something I've always wanted to make but just never have. No excuses now!
Glori
