Taste FOOD / WINE / DINING OUT
On The Rise
FOCACCIA IS HEATING UP IN THE 805 AS LOCAL BAKERS INFUSE THE TRADITIONAL DIMPLED BREAD WITH FLAVOR. By Jaime Lewis
OLIVE, CAPER, AND ROSEMARY FOCACCIA “This is my most popular focaccia,” Bercusson says. “It sells out every time.” She credits the bread’s popularity to its Castelvetrano olives, salty capers, and rosemary-steeped oil. Bercusson suggests serving slices of it alongside cheese and charcuterie plates. Makes an 18x13-inch flatbread DOUGH 2 sprigs rosemary ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk 3¼ cups plus 3 tablespoons 00 flour ¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1¼ teaspoons brewer’s yeast (dry) 1 teaspoon sugar 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt 1½ cups tepid water Olive oil spray TOPPING 30 green olives (Bercusson uses Mezzetta brand)
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“In Italy, it’s very much the normal habit to go to the forno [bakery] to buy the bread for the day,” she says. “We often bought focaccia, because it’s so delicious: slightly less airy than a Tuscan loaf and flavorful, because it includes so much olive oil.” At The Tuscan Bakery, Bercusson specializes in traditional savory focaccia as well as sweet focaccia, made with seasonal ingredients. Up the coast in Arroyo Grande, pastry chef Matthew Molacek makes focaccia at Ember (emberwoodfire.com) using his own levain, or natural yeast starter. Here, he and Bercusson share a few favorite focaccia recipes, including Molacek’s guide to starting your own levain at home.
Nonpareil capers to taste rosemary sprig tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Coarse salt to taste
To make dough: Place two sprigs of rosemary in a small frying pan or saucepan and cover them with olive oil. Set pan over a low heat and bring oil to a simmer. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and let oil cool in pan. Coat large bowl lightly with olive oil spray; set aside. Using a microwaveable cup, heat milk in microwave for 10 to 12 seconds. In a large mixing bowl combine 00 and allpurpose flours, brewer’s yeast, and sugar. Stir these ingredients together, then add salt. Make a hollow in the center of mixture and pour in water and then milk. Make sure the oil is no longer hot, remove and discard rosemary, and add oil to yeast mixture. Stir to combine and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment. Mix on low to medium speed for about 3 minutes. (Alternatively, stir by hand until the dough is smooth and soft.) Turn dough out on a floured surface. Roll dough up (use a scraper if it sticks), then roll again from the narrow end. Shape dough into a ball and place it in
oiled bowl. Lightly spray top of dough with oil and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise, ideally in the oven on proofing setting, for 3 to 4 hours, until it triples in size. (If you do not have a proofer or an oven with a proofing setting, a warm spot in your home will also work.) The ideal temperature is 82°F, but at a lower temperature, the dough will just take a little longer to rise. When dough has tripled in size, turn it out onto a floured surface and make a letter fold: pick up one side of the dough and fold it a third of the way over the rest. Then fold over the opposite side so that it covers the first. Put dough back in bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it to rise in a warm spot/proofer for 30 minutes. Turn it out again and do another letter fold, this time folding the other two sides. Put it back in the bowl, cover it with the plastic wrap and let it rise for 30 more minutes. Lightly coat a half-sheet pan with olive oil spray; set aside. If not using your oven to proof the dough, then set it to 485°F. Otherwise, wait to do this until the dough is ready to come out. When 30 minutes has elapsed, turn dough out onto the lightly oiled half-sheet pan and gently spread it, using your fingers. It may not spread all the way to the edges at first. You may need to stretch it, then
GARY MOSS
M
ade with a healthy dose of olive oil, the yeasted Italian flatbread, focaccia, is dimpled and dusted with herbs and coarse salt and baked in a low, flat tray to an irresistibly crisp and oily result. “It’s not an elegant bread,” says Sarah Bercusson of The Tuscan Bakery (thetuscanbakery. com) in Thousand Oaks, “but it’s so flavorful you just don’t care.” Bercusson is English but spent her childhood and adolescence in Florence, where the aroma of bread lilts outside every bakery. Since moving stateside eight years ago, she has re-created the Tuscan-style focaccia of her youth, schiacciata, and now sells it at farmers’ markets and to order.
