I made another focaccia. It seems that whenever I don’t know what the make when I need to feed Alice in Wonderdoughland, I fall back to a focaccia. They are easy, forgiving and delicious. This is going to serve as my lunch for the nxt few days, but would also make a great side to a soup, a charcuterie platter, with a nice salad and a glass of wine. The Gorgonzola got all melty and is tart compared to the rest of the bread. Another winner to add to the rotation.
Ingredients
for the Dough (for one half sheet pan or two quarter sheet pans)
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh basil, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes in oil, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
Vegetable oil spray
For the topping
3-4 yukon gold potatoes, depending on the size
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus small stems for garnish
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup Gorgonzola crumbles
Directions
For the dough: Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add starter, room-temperature water and olive oil, and stir with wooden spoon until shaggy mass forms and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes. Sprinkle salt over dough and mix until fully incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes.
Place garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and basil in the middle of the dough ball. Using your wet hands, fold dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle, integrating the basil and garlic. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough 4 more times (total of 6 turns). Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes. Repeat folding technique, turning bowl each time, until dough tightens slightly, 3 to 6 turns total. Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Spray bottom of 13 x 9-inch baking pan liberally with oil spray. Transfer dough to prepared pan and spray top of dough lightly with oil spray.
Gently press dough into 10 by 7-inch oval of even thickness. Cover pan tightly with plastic and refrigerate for at least 16 hours or up to 24 hours.
Brush top of dough with 2 tablespoons oil. Spray rimmed baking sheet (including rim) with oil spray. Invert prepared sheet on top of pan and flip, allowing dough to fall onto sheet (you may need to lift pan and nudge dough at 1 end to release). If making two quarter sheet pans, divide the dough in half (if just making one half sheet, skip this division). Using your fingertips, gently dimple dough into even thickness and stretch toward edges of sheet to form 15 by 11-inch oval. Spray top of dough lightly with oil spray, cover loosely with plastic, and let rest until slightly puffy, about 1 hour.
Prepare your topping. Using a mandolin, very thinly slice the potatoes and give them a gentle squeeze to remove any water that developed. Take the drained potato slices and put them in a bowl. To the potatoes add the olive oil, minced rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Toss to coat the potatoes evenly. Spread out the potatoes over the surface of the focaccia, laying them close to each other, even overlapping if necessary. If there is excess watery oil (as the salt may have drawn some more water out of the potatoes), discard this. Sprinkle the surface with one final 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450F. Transfer sheet pan(s) to oven and bake until bottom of crust is evenly browned and top is lightly browned in spots, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheet(s) halfway through baking. Transfer sheet(s) to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Then, take the gorgonzola and cut it into small pieces or crumble it. Scatter it around the crisped top. The residual heat will melt the cheese into pleasing “puddles” all over the crisped browned potatoes. Run knife around rim of sheet to loosen focaccia and transfer to a cutting board. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary to garnish. When ready to eat, cut into 6-10 squares and serve with an additional drizzle olive oil for dipping.
