Focaccia

Snow in Seattle means muted footfalls and tire-swishing in the early morning. Buses sloosh cautiously along the streets: late, indifferent, and half full. The city stays home, eats soup, and plays board games.

We remember what it’s like to feel winter closing in around the walls.

I know. It’s a little silly. But to be fair, Seattle doesn’t have the equipment or preparations in place to function properly in snow the way other cities do. Last year, I had a job that wouldn’t let me be snowed in, even for a day. I had to push my way out, bundled and grumpy as an interrupted bear. This year I’m privileged.

So I allowed the snow to shut my door and my kitchen kept me warm.

There’s something luxurious and expansive about baking yeasted bread when there’s snow outside. I’m in no hurry and a slow hour of rising is pleasant as that fresh malty scent searches out every corner of the apartment. And with my good buttery olive oil? I swear I smelled the olive trees baking in their foreign heat.

Focaccia*

Makes 1 9x12-inch pan, about 8 slices

2 eggs

1 egg white

40g (1/3 cup) tapioca starch

20g (3 Tbls) potato starch

20g (3 Tbls) potato flour

50g (1/2 cup) sweet rice flour

60g (1/2 cup) sorghum or brown rice flour

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp dried basil, crushed

1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

2 tsp brown sugar

2 Tbls golden flaxseeds, ground

2 Tbls good olive oil, additional for pan

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 - 3/4 cup warm water (no warmer than 120F)

Warm oven slightly, then turn it off to provide a warm place for the bread to rise. Alternatively, prepare a warm space in your kitchen where it can rise undisturbed. Pour 1-2 Tbls olive oil into 9x12-inch pan and rub it all around, letting excess pool on the bottom. Set aside.

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or a hand mixer), combine eggs and egg white. Start on a low setting for about 1 minute, then move it to medium, then run on high speed for 4-5 minutes, until eggs are airy and have doubled in volume.

While the eggs beat, combine flours, yeast, salt, herbs, and brown sugar in a separate bowl. In a small dish, stir together ground flaxseeds, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar.

When eggs are ready, turn mixer down to low and pour in olive oil mixture. While it runs, spoon in flour mixture and pour in some of the warm water. Depending on the moisture in your kitchen, you may use barely 1/2 cup water or a full 3/4 cup. You want the dough to be very wet and sticky, but not runny.

Scrape dough into oiled pan and gently nudge it out to the edges. It’s okay if it doesn’t quite make it to all the edges; as it rises, it’ll fill out. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel that can be secured so it doesn’t touch the top of the dough. Let dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour or a little more.

When dough is ready, turn oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Drizzle olive oil over the surface of the focaccia, then sprinkle with a dusting of sea salt and/or more herbs. You can also set halved olives into the dough at this stage. When oven has heated, bake focaccia 20-30 minutes, until golden on top and browned on the edges. Serve warm or keep in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.

This makes a spectacular grilled cheese sandwich.

*Adapted from Avec Baking’s Focaccia Bread

Taste PCC & Avec Baking

I attended Taste PCC in Issaquah a few weeks ago. It’s a fun little fair where local vendors who sell their products at PCC Natural Markets can hand out samples directly to customers. I came for work (we ran the Tony’s Coffees &Teas booth), but I took a little time out in the day to chat with vendors and taste some new gluten-free products. Here are the two products you shouldn’t miss.

Zing Nutrition Bar

5/5 Spoons

 These deserve some attention. Wheat-, gluten-, and soy-free, many of the flavors are also dairy-free. I’ve never had a nutrition bar that is so well-suited to my dietary needs and tastes so delicious! They’re relatively high in protein and prove an ideal airplane travel meal. You know: the food stash those of us with allergies generally bring along on our travels. Add it to your list.

Avec Baking Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Mix

5/5 Spoons

This is one of the best gluten-free all-purpose flour mixes I’ve tried. Denise Cooley, the creator, explained to me herself that she uses freshly ground flours from a mill in Bellingham, WA, and how this makes a huge difference in the flavor and function of the mix. It tastes wonderful, plus it includes whole grains such as sorghum and brown rice.

It passed my Fannie Farmer Biscuit Challenge. One of my favorite cookbooks is The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, published in 1896 by Fannie Merritt Farmer. I love seeing how recipes used to function closer to their original form. There are over 56,700,000 Google results for “biscuits,” but Fannie has only 3. They’re simple recipes—a great starting place for gluten-free experimentation. Making her biscuits gluten-free requires a truly stellar gluten-free flour mix. I change very little about the recipe, but use the weight equivalent of gluten-free mix where the recipe calls for regular flour. (I also sub vegan butter for the butter and lard, and replace the milk with soymilk and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar to curdle it like buttermilk.) Only King Arthur Flour’s gluten-free mix passed it before. And I like the biscuits from Avec Baking’s mix better.

On the back of the Avec Baking mix, you’ll find a recipe for focaccia bread. This recipe includes xanthan and guar gums, but these are optional. You don’t need the gums, just some ground flaxseed. I’ve included the original Avec Baking focaccia recipe below, along with my own variation. I made it twice in a week and still can’t seem to keep it around more than a day. My husband, who digests gluten just fine, snatches it up the minute it emerges from the oven. Delicious.

Avec Baking Focaccia Bread

Makes 1 9x11-inch pan

1 ¼ tsp yeast

1 ½ cups Avec Baking Gluten Free Flour mix

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp guar gum

2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

½ tsp good salt

¼ cup apple juice

½ cup water less 2 Tbls

2 large eggs + 1 egg white

2 Tbls olive oil

½ tsp cider vinegar

Topping

2 Tbls olive oil, 1 12 tsp dried rosemary, sprinkle of good salt, kalamata olives cut in half. Optional: sprinkle of fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Prepare a 9x11 baking dish with a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkling of Avec Baking Gluten Free Flour Mix and set aside. Put eggs and egg white in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment. Begin on low and whip the eggs. As the eggs start to break down, slowly increase the speed up to high and continue for 3-5 minutes or until the eggs double in volume and become frothy and pale yellow. While the eggs are whisking, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and the remaining wet ingredients into another bowl. Once the eggs are done, turn mixer down to low and incorporate your wet and dry ingredients. Mix until incorporated and no lumps remain. Turn dough out to prepared pan. Using an offset spatula spread the dough evenly. The dough will be sticky so work quickly as to not lose the air you have work to incorporate. Cover with aluminum foil and let rise for about 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F while dough is rising. Once dough has risen, remove foil and sprinkle with toppings. If using olives, place them gently on the surface without pressing them in too firmly. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer to cooling rack and enjoy!

Beyond Celery Variation on Avec’s Focaccia

Makes 1 9x11-inch pan

1 ¼ tsp yeast

190g (1 ½ cups) Avec Baking Gluten Free Flour mix

½ tsp sea salt

1 tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried rosemary

Slightly less than ¾ cup water

2 tsp brown sugar

2 eggs

1 egg white

2 Tbls olive oil

½ tsp cider vinegar

2 Tbls ground golden flaxseed

Follow directions as above, stirring the ground flaxseed and brown sugar into the wet ingredients. I find plastic wrap works better than aluminum foil when the dough is rising.

Injera 1

Adventures in the kitchen don’t always turn out as you expect or hope. Such was the case with my first attempt at injera, the tangy fermented Ethiopian flatbread.

Wild yeast from the air took up residence in my batter as it was supposed to.

Bubbles formed, the batter poofed up, and it smelled tangy and fermented as it was supposed to.

It held together and cooked on the skillet till bubbles appeared all over its surface as they were supposed to.

But it ended up oddly stretchy and doughy. Almost—but not quite—edible. Too much sweet rice flour. Alas! I go back to the recipe, tweak here tuck there, and try again. Next time will be better.

This is how beautiful recipes are born: through trial, error, and the washing of dishes and ovens. It’s why I love the kitchen. Every recipe is a new map to follow and you never know quite where it’ll lead you. Injera took me back to the Yeasted Bread Road. I’ve made two batches of sourdough English muffins in the last two days. One nearly worked. And my sourdough starter makes divine sourdough pancakes. My best discovery in the last week is that sourdough pancakes, when made without sugar, fried in olive oil, and dusted in sea salt, become a convincing quick skillet focaccia bread.

Who would have thought that focaccia could be a 15 minute process?