Herb and Tomato Focaccia

I have some big news to share: I’m very close to buying a house!! (Escrow is almost closing!) It was a long and difficult journey to finally get our house– and a journey full of a lot of rejection and dashed hopes, but we are finally here and couldn’t be more thrilled about our future home. Once the doom and anxiety of being a full-blown adult with a mortgage payment subsided, I started to get very excited at the work we’ll be doing to the place and in no time I was pinning up a storm of kitchen cabinets, outdoor entertaining spaces and bathroom tile inspiration. Our home is a fixer-upper (oh, and I have some serious kitchen renovation plans that you’ll be sure to hear about) but the thing that sold us on the place was the big lush yard. Outdoor square footage is surprisingly hard to come by in Los Angeles. The yard is overgrown and wild right now, but I have long-waited for the day I could go to Home Depot to pick up my own garden beds, get my hands dirty in some soil and plant me a proper herb and tomato garden. I’ve lived in an apartment my entire young adult life with dull and crappy house plants that I usually managed to kill within a year. The fact that I’ll have a plot of earth to take care of now and watch flourish is truly gift that I won’t be taking for granted! Also, you reap the rewards of having a green thumb like making this incredible herb and tomato focaccia!

Some notes about this bread: this is the first time I’ve made bread using a sponge starter, which is a small bit of pre-fermented yeast and dough. It adds that bit of tang and depth of flavor, reminiscent of a sourdough and totally worth the extra step! I am a convert now and will be using a sponge starter with any bread I make.  Another note about bread making, I’ve started to use a scale when baking bread and it truly makes a huge difference. I’ve included both measurements in this recipe, but I highly encourage you to purchase a kitchen scale. I topped this focaccia with easy-to-grow garden herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil and finished it off with healthy sprinkling of scallions. The whole tomatoes get blistered and roasted and go perfect with the herbs. Serve this at a dinner party as your appetizer center piece with lots of good extra virgin olive oil, flake sea salt, fresh herbs, ricotta and olives.

HERB AND TOMATO FOCACCIA

Ingredients for Focaccia Sponge:

• 1/8 packed teaspoons of cake yeast or 1/16 teaspoon of active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons (3.04 ounces) of bread flour

Ingredients for Focaccia Dough:

• 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (11.04 ounces) water
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of olive oil divided, plus more for brushing
• Focaccia sponge
• 2 packed tablespoons and 1/4 packed teaspoons (0.39 ounces) of fresh cake yeast or 1 3/4 teaspoons (0.195 ounces) of active dry yeast
• 3 1/3 to 3 2/3 cups (15 to 16.45 ounces) of bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon (0.39 ounces) of kosher salt
• 1 small handful of fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 small handful fresh thyme leaves
• 4-5 green onions, white and green-white parts thinly sliced
• 2 clusters of small tomatoes
• 1 large handful of fresh basil leaves
• Flake sea salt

Directions:

• 24 hours before you plan to bake your focaccia, sprinkle the 1/16 teaspoon of active dry yeast over the 1/2 cup of water and set aside for a few minutes so that the water absorbs the yeast. Stir in the bread flour until combined in a thick wet paste. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature (ideally 68 to 70 degrees) for 12 to 24 hours.
• 3 1/2 hours before you bake your focaccia, place the water, the tablespoon of olive oil and the sponge in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Over low speed add the yeast and bread flour. Mix the ingredients on low speed for two minutes until thoroughly combined.
• With the mixer running, add the salt, increase to medium speed and continue mixing until the dough is smooth and starts to pull away from the bowl, 6 to 8 minutes. If the dough is too sticky and is not really pulling from the sides of the bowl, add more bread flour a little at a time.
• Lightly grease a bowl large enough to hold the dough when it doubles in size with olive oil. Turn the dough out of the mixer bowl into the oiled bowl. Wrap with plastic wrap tightly and set at room temperature (ideally 68 to 70 degrees) until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and fold the edges of the dough toward the center. Turn the dough over, folded side down, back into the bowl. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and set aside until it has doubled, about 1 hour.
• Pour 1/4 cup of olive oil into a large sheet pan until it is well coated.
• Turn the dough out onto the oiled sheet pan and gently stretch out the dough to fill up the pan, being careful not to deflate the dough and not to over work it. The dough will spring back into its shape, but leave it covered with a clean towel for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to the highest temperature it will go. After the dough has relaxed gently spread the dough with your fingertips, again being careful not to deflate or overwork the dough and gently punch dimples into the dough.
• Brush the top with more olive oil, and sprinkle with the fresh rosemary, thyme and scallions. Place the tomatoes on top of the dough and sprinkle with flake sea salt.
• Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until the bread is golden brown.
• Remove and sprinkle with the whole basil leaves.
• Once cool enough to handle, remove from the pan onto a cutting surface and cut into squares.
• Serve with olive oil, flake sea salt, olives, ricotta, and more tomatoes and herbs.

(images by honestlyYUM, recipe inspired from here)