Focaccia bread

 

 

Kuali from The Star has collaborated with MIB (Malaysian Institute of Baking) for the past 2 years in which various baking classes has been held. Due to overwhelming responses, participants can only register for the baking class on a specific day at a specific given time. I wasn't very lucky in getting myself registered but I got lucky last week. I managed to get a place for the Saturday morning class which also happens to be the last baking class for year 2013. The remaining classes for year 2013 will be cooking class instead.

 

 

 

I'm not a great fan of focaccia bread as I'm more towards a sweet bread person. However this class will be teaching 2 other recipes and I thought to myself, why the hell not! I enjoyed the class tremendously. Don Yong himself, the founder of MIB, conducted the class. We spent first an hour or so on introduction and theory. The theoretical knowledge in baking is what I currently lack but of course, the next thing I lack is patience.

 

 

 

I find that bread baking is a splendid way to nurture one's patience. I still have a long road ahead to learn on this. This is the 1st time I made bread using a mixer instead of a bread machine or kneading  with my own hands. He taught us using the 'sponge' method, which is something pretty new to me. Bread came out looking great and tasted great as well. But like I said, I'm not much of a fan for savory bread so... I guess I won't be making this bread very often in the later days.

 

 

 

A friend of mine knew I was going for the class and asked the share the recipe. Well.. here it is..

Ingredients for sponge :

Bread flour  420g

Instant Yeast  4g

Cold Water  244g

Ingredients for dough :

Bread flour  180g

Instant dry yeast  6g

Malt Flour  24g

Oregano  4g

Rosemary  2g

Black pepper  2g

Salt  9g

Bread Improver (optional)  9g

Cold water  132g

Oven dried tomatoes  60g

Olive oil  48g

 

 

Method:

1. Prepare the sponge and ferment for 3 hours at room temperature, which is about 27C.
2. In an electric mixer, using a dough hook at slow speed, blend all the dry ingredients together for 1 minute.
3. Add water, dried tomatoes and sponge on slow speed for 2 minutes. Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes and add olive oil. Mix for another 10- minutes on medium speed until dough is fully developed.
4. Place dough on floured bench and cover with a plastic sheet for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 6 pieces, each 190g.
5. Roll out the dough to 6mm thick and place in a tray.
6. Proof dough for 30 minutes and make shallo9w indentations all over dough with your fingertips, then brush with olive oil, letting it pool in indentations.
7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 220C. Once baked, brush with olive oil.