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Hello!
There’s a LOT going on around here this week; the big move of all your Insiders content and memberships is on the home stretch, and pending inevitable tech hiccups I’ll be back in your inboxes very soon to share the ins and outs of the new Steam Oven Insiders (and with it, a refreshed Steam & Bake site).
Although almost all my waking (and many sleeping) moments are deep in website tech-world, I’ve still baked in preparation for today’s newsletter! It wasn’t a huge demand, because the focaccia that stars here is a joy to make and eat. I hope you’ll feel the same about it as I do.
Focaccia also happens to be absolutely ripe for ‘dressing up’, so today’s Season Flip section suggests several seasonal ideas for ingredients to bake atop or stuff inside your beautiful bread.
Happy baking, see you in a fortnight.
Emily x
PS Our newsletter format is slightly altered today, with the entire newsletter contents included below (ie no clicking through to the Insiders articles and recipes as separate entities). Because I’m unsure what state the site will be in over the next week or two, I want to make sure you have ready access to today’s recipe and can refer back to it easily. For those of you who like to log in and go back to archived recipes and newsletters later, don’t worry. Today’s content will still be uploaded to the new site, as soon as it’s practical to do so.
PPS I know most of you have received my email re tech hiccups this week; this is just a little add-on to note that if you see anything odd or dysfunctional on the Insiders site over the next couple of weeks, please don’t worry! My developer and I are working to address all the little niggles that happen with a big move, as fast as we can get to them. If there are to be any lengthy down times for the site I’ll keep you posted as far in advance as I can.
New to Cook: No Knead Focaccia
Want to print ONLY the recipe, not the whole newsletter? I’ve made you a pdf as a stand-in to print, while we wait for the usual recipe card to be uploaded to the website.
Remember when no-knead bread was a ‘thing’ several years ago? Its popularity in food media has sadly waned but plenty of us are still making it, all the time. Me included, and, after today, hopefully you, with this outstanding no-knead focaccia recipe.
No-knead bread is every bit as good as its labor-intensive kneaded counterparts and much lower on the effort scale.
Although the craze of a few years back mostly focused on large round loaves, focaccia is an equally brilliant candidate for no-knead methods, and faster to get from ingredients to finished loaf.
In effect, you dump the ingredients in a bowl and roughly mix them all together. Come back every so often to stretch and fold the dough over on itself so it develops a good gluten structure. Then blob it onto a pan and bake, hot and fast. The end result is a bubbly, rustic, chewy flatbread that you’ll be desperate to eat before it’s even cooled down.
The Season Flip
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Southern Hemisphere (wintery focaccia breads)
Potato and Rosemary Focaccia
Potatoes AND bread? I promise it’s great, and if you’ve ever enjoyed a potato pizza this is going to be for you. Make your no-knead focaccia as written, and before you bake, cover the top with thinly sliced potatoes (2 medium potatoes will do one large focaccia per today’s recipe; use 3-4 potatoes if you want to do both loaves), extra olive oil, flaky salt and picked rosemary leaves. The potato slices bake, crisp slightly and meld with the dough in the oven, becoming a double-carbs delight that can be eaten alone or split and filled with deli meats.
Leek, Thyme and Honey Focaccia
In this variation, sliced leeks and fragrant thyme are baked on top of your bread, so the tops of the leeks begin to turn golden and the bits underneath soften and sweeten. 1 large or 2 smaller leeks will be plenty; slice them about ½” (just over 1cm) thick and arrange over the top of your prepared dough before baking. Finish the focaccia with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of flaky salt as it comes out of the oven, and serve it with a cheese board.
Northern Hemisphere (summery focaccia breads)
Cherry Tomato Focaccia
This is exactly what it sounds like! Make the focaccia exactly as written, but put a pound (500g) of cherry tomatoes all over the top just before you do the olive oil and salt. A mix of sizes and colors is great, and I halve any larger cherry tomatoes for both visual effect and speed of cooking. Bonus points for adding some sliced garlic cloves along with the tomatoes. When you take the focaccia out of the oven, drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over it along with the extra oil. This version will take a little longer to bake than the others, because the cherry tomatoes add density to the loaf. Plan on adding around 4-5 minutes to your overall baking time.
Fig and Hazelnut Focaccia
Only do this when figs are at their peak, and when they are, make this at least once a week. Ha. You’ll need about 3 figs per focaccia, sliced thickly. Scatter them over the surface just before the olive oil goes on. You may wish to skip the salt; I think it brings something to the figs. Scatter a handful of roughly chopped hazelnuts over the figs, then bake. If you really want to up the ante, add shaved parmesan to the loaf just after it comes out of the oven.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
This issue, I’m holding over the couple of short AMA questions I received over the fortnight, and will address them next issue. Call it a casualty of website shifting and demanding children. 😉 I hope you’ll understand.