Focaccia Breadstick Art

Carlos Jimenez & Kyleigh West Active Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 4 hours Servings: 6 to 8

This recipe is inspired by the popular trend of focaccia bread art. Focaccia bread art uses a regular focaccia bread recipe but includes placing a variety of vegetables and herbs on top of the bread to create a design. Popular designs include using vegetables and herbs to create flowers and plants and recreating popular pieces of art like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. This recipe uses those same ideas, by turning the bread into breadsticks and including a dipping sauce. The most important step is making the dough because it requires the most time. This recipe can be made by itself without the toppings as well, and it can be served as an appetizer.

Focaccia Dough 6¼ cups bread flour (30 oz. or 850g) 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (from one ¼-oz. packet) 3 cups of water Pinch of sugar 2 Tablespoons Diamond Crystal or 1 Tbsp. Morton kosher salt 5 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for greasing and drizzling Flaky sea salt

Toppings (if desired) Cherry tomatoes, halved 1 small red onion, sliced Sweet mini peppers, sliced Basil Mozzarella cheese

Tomato dipping sauce (optional) 1 can whole peeled tomatoes, in juice 1 small sweet onion, finely diced and minced 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced Pinch of sugar Pinch of pepper ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon oregano ½ teaspoon dried basil 1 tablespoon olive oil

Focaccia Dough 1. Add together 2 ½ cups of water and bread flour. Mix until shaggy dough forms, cover, and set aside. 2. Stir together ½ cup of warm water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl and dissolve together. Let it sit for 5 minutes until foamy. 3. After 5 minutes, add the yeast mixture to the shaggy dough. Knead together and allow the dough to absorb the yeast mixture. * 4. After a few minutes, knead salt in the dough. * 5. Continue kneading until the dough is uniform and sticky (it may be easier to use a spatula to knead the dough. This will prevent too much from sticking to your hands). * 6. Transfer to a large bowl that has been oiled with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and cover with oiled plastic wrap or a damp towel. Allow dough to rise at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, or until doubled in size. 7. After rising, oil a baking sheet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 8. Transfer the dough from the bowl to the baking sheet (recommend using a spatula to avoid sticking to your hands) 9. Stretch the dough to fit the dimensions of the sheet tray as best as you can. Cover with oiled plastic wrap, or an equally sized baking sheet, and allow to rise at room temperature for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes of rising, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. 10. After rising is complete, dimple (press down with your fingertips) the dough. Add cheese and any additional toppings you want. 11. Place in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. 12. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Remove from the baking sheet, cut, and enjoy with your favorite sauce!

* You can use a stand mixer to make these steps easier and less messy!

Dipping Sauce 1. Crush the tomatoes in a mixing bowl with a fork or your hands. You can also puree the tomatoes in a food processor. 2. In a medium-sized saucepan, over medium-high heat add the olive oil. Add the onions and saute until slightly translucent stirring constantly, about 4-5 minutes. 3. Add the garlic and saute for about a minute until the garlic is golden. 4. Quickly add the tomatoes into the saucepan. Stir well and reduce heat to a simmer. 5. Add the sugar, pepper, salt, oregano, and basil into the mixture. 6. Simmer over low heat, stirring often, for 15 minutes. This can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.

Virtual Bake Off

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Ai Yee Cheoh Plum blossom pastry with lotus paste filling. A delicate, flaky pastry, with a sweet, silky filling. This pastry reminds me of my mother, beautiful and delicate, just like her. It reminds me of home, where it is always Spring and Summer.

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Amanda Larsen It’s 2020 and the ice caps have melted. A lone penguin remains. He’s alone and scared, yet hopefully for a change. And change he will get...

Grace German My creation is a Dark Chocolate Babka, a chocolate twist bread. Featured on the Great British Baking Show, it brings together two of my new hobbies from 2020: viewing the TV show, and baking new and exciting dishes outside of my comfort zone. This dish, rich in history and flavor, has a light and fluffy base with a creamy, rich chocolate filling. It’s the perfect dish for breakfast, dessert, and everything in between! Chui-Pin Su Bread making journey has played an important moment in my life. I wasn’t allowed to eat bread during middle and high school time due to gluten sensitivity. At one point, I forgot the taste of it. Until a day when a baker encourages me to try sourdough making techniques, I got excited by the complicated theories behind it. So I experimented on the sourdough starter and yeast water until a sourdough bread was created successfully—this picture of focaccia, flavored with basil, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, kosher salt, and homemade garlic confit. It tasted

wonderfully pleasant, just like its look.

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Sarah Johnson My favorite part of the holidays since I can remember has been baking and decorating sugar cookies with my mom. I always excelled at my job as the ‘sprinkler’, but this spring I was promoted to head decorator when I started baking more at home due to the Coronavirus. Along with binge watching the Great British Baking Show and declaring my major as Entrepreneurship, I started thinking about opening my own home bakery for the holidays. This picture was taken of a few cookies from a batch I made to test my decorating skills for the first time and to get feedback from friends and family. I was so excited when I got the announcement email about the virtual bake off! The prize money from this contest would go towards kick-starting my holiday baking adventure.

Zach Upah In honor of the holiday season upon us, this rich chocolate cake displays some of the beauty that is seen on campus. Marbled chocolate shards are reminiscent of the snowy pine trees on campus that always remind me of the joy and beauty of this time of year. But it wouldn’t be complete without including the university’s three animal friends who bring a hearty laugh and smile to everyone who sees them. Together this represents the joy that this time of year brings and all of the delicious desserts that I will definitely be eating to my hearts content.

Yazan Abukhalil The purest form of Nostalgia is food and the ultimate form of food is bread. This creation takes me back to my childhood when I used to wakeup smelling the aromas coming from my mom’s old wood stove while baking. With all the different tastes I have in my family, ‘the beehive and the braid’ were the undisputed dishes. The beehive consists of fluffy dough balls filled with multiple cheese types mixed with olive oil and dried mint. Then it is coated with egg wash that creates the shiny golden color. For finishing, it is sprinkled with white sesame seeds and black sesame seeds bringing a contrast in color to this piece of art. The bread braid is the delicate form of happiness. This special type of braid is made from one dough strip, unlike other types of braid, and baked at low heat to achieve the ultimate foamy and tender bread texture. It is perfect with soup in a cozy family dinner or with omelette and cheese in a fresh breakfast. While being far from home and family, I decided to learn how to bake these creations. The result of tens of video calls with mom, and tens of trials, is shown in the photo. With this story being told about the beehive and braid, they will be the first items to be added to my future bakery menu.