BLT with Sourdough Focaccia

The BLT is an American pleasure that appears to be widely unknown among certain demographies. The first time I made this for Ronny with regular bread, he loved it. This was my lunch today and I have to say that it was pretty damn good.

After slicing the Sourdough Focaccia which had Moroccan oil cured black olives, rosemary, thyme and oregano baked into it, I toasted the slices. Then I spread a luxurious amount of Spanish cream cheese onto one side and piled on the iceberg lettuce, two thin slices of tomatoes, thin slices of red onion and two crispy pieces of bacon.

Even though the English invented the sandwich, the Americans have elevated sandwich making into an art form with their different types of bread, toasted or not toasted, and the wide variety of ingredients they use. Unlike the English, the Americans weren't shy about being innovative and we have them to thank for the BLT.

Certain sources like to trace back the origins of BLT to Victorian times and attempt to hand over the credit for this invention to the English by saying that 'Recipes are not invented, they evolve', I think we can pretty safely say that BLT in its current state is American cuisine.

Anyway, who cares? Let people who want to take credit for things argue forever. I'm going to eat another sandwich!

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

This the aftermath of the disaster involving the Sourdough Chocolate Cake from King Arthur Flour. I'm posting this for you, Lori.

Sourdough Herb & Olive Bread

When I fed 'Zlatan' this weekend, I kept separating his children into different bowls and making more and more 'Zlatan' and ended-up with too much sourdough bubbling all over the place, so I made a Sourdough Chocolate Cake which turned out to be a delightfully moist cake, but we were impatient and took it out of the bundt pan too quickly and guess what? It became unsuitable for photography. However, I can tell you that it tasted great and that I'd make it again. I also baked a loaf of bread and made two medium sized buns yesterday with some spelt flour thrown into it but I still had more sponge.

So as I write this, I'm making more of Jim Lahey's No Knead Baguettes and am trying out a new recipe from Sarah's Musings: Sourdough Focaccia.

Sourdough Herb & Olive Bread - Adapted from the Sourdough Focaccia recipe from 'Sarah's Musings'

You start out by mixing these together:

1.5 Cups Sponge (a starter that has been proofed)

1 Cup Finger Warm Water

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Dark Honey

1 Cup AP Flour

This mixture was fermented for 1 hour.

Then, I mixed in:

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tsp Fine Sea Salt

...and more AP flour.

It should be noted that when using yeast, I prefer to mix in some AP flour first before I put in any oil or salt which the yeast do not like. I am not sure this makes much difference, but if you have had experiences with your bread not rising, this might help. Yeast feast on flour and this will help them multiply, but salt and oil will hinder them from propagating.

Now, Sarah's recipes says 4 cups flour, but flour varies in absorbency and starters/sponge can have more or less water in them, so although this gives you a very rough idea of how much flour you might need, the rule of thumb is to always trust your eyes and hands more when making the dough. I used around 4 cups + a little more flour, but you might need more or less.

So I put in as much AP flour was was necessary to make a smooth elastic dough.

I kneaded it for 5-7 minutes until it was smooth and elastic.

Then I put it back in the bowl to rest.

Sarah used a clean oiled bowl, but I have found that if you're a lazy and messy cook like me, your bread will not die if you just put it back in the dirty (dirty with yeast and flour) bowl you used to ferment the sponge. I guess this is why she's presumably a good homemaker, and I'm not - but I digress...

I covered the bowl with a cloth and let it rise for 1.5 - 2 hours as stipulated.

I then mixed in some herbs: 2 tsp oregano, 2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp rosemary.

I also mixed in 100g of oil cured black olives (pitted and chopped up).

I then lined a pan with more extra virgin olive oil and pressed the dough into the pan just like I did when I made Ilva's sweet focaccia. I wondered about letting it rest for another hour as Ilva's recipe did not require this additional step, but then I thought: It's sourdough and it will rise more slowly than the dried stuff I use.

So I let it rest for 60 minutes.

I was going to brush the dough with more olive oil, but like Sarah's, mine spilled over from the bottom of the pan on top of the dough too, so all I did was sprinkle some fleur de sel over it before I put it into the preheated oven.

Unfortunately, my biggest rectangular pan wasn't big enough and the thickness of the dough was more like 3 cm rather than 1.5 - 2 cm.

I baked it at 230 C (450 F) for around 25 minutes. I had a feeling it should bake for at least 30 minutes, but the top had become quite brown so I took it out of the oven.

...and here it is - a bread baked along the lines of a focaccia bread, but more robust. It is sinfully delicious when you have it with herb & garlic butter. Whatever you decide to call this bread, the crust is crisp and the inside of the loaf is lovely and moist. Don't forget to let it rest for 20 minutes before cutting it.

Summary of ingredients used in this recipe:

1.5 Cups Sourdough Starter

5 - 8 Cups AP Flour*

1/4 Cup + 1/2 Cup + 4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil*

1 Tbsp Honey

2 Tsp Fine Sea Salt

2 Tbsp Fleur de Sel*

2 Tsp Oregano

2 Tsp Thyme

100 g Oil Cured Black Olives

*These are approximate portions. Use more or less depending on what's needed. The amount of fleur de sel you will sprinkle on top of your focaccia for example is really up to you.

Note: I don't watch football, but Ronny does. Guess who named the starter? On a more serious note, when you bake bread with salt sprinkled on top, it will make your bread damp. You either need to consume everything right away or if you have leftovers, you can preheat your oven to 200C and warm the bread for about 10 minutes. I like to sprinkle more fleur de sel over the bread when reheating them.

A Sweet Focaccia from Lucullian Delights

If you ever have a craving for ever so slightly sweetened rustic bread, this is the recipe. I urge you to read the original post Ilva made as her photograph is much better for one, and there's just something delightful about the way she writes.

To make this recipe you don't need many ingredients. All you need is yeast, flour (AP flour), sugar, salt, milk, almonds and some olive oil. Ilva used a wet yeast, but I used dry yeast. I used marcona almonds and some sweet olive oil from Riviera Ligure.

These were lovely fresh out of the oven and were still very nice the next day.

Sweet Focaccia with Almonds - Lucullian Delights

Ingredients

1 Packet Dried Yeast (5g)

2-3 Tbsp Sugar + some for sprinkling on top of the focaccia

1 Pinch Sea Salt

3 dl Milk

5 dl AP Flour +

50g Marcona Almonds (blanched & chopped)

4 Tbsps Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Riviera Ligure

Step 1: Warm the milk until it's slightly warm to the touch and pour it over the yeast you have put into a preferably plastic bowl. Add the sugar and salt and let it stand while you chop the almonds.

Step 2: Chop the almonds and then put them into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

Step 3: Add the AP flour. Do this 1/2 cup at a time. You may need less or more flour than 5 dl. I used maybe 7dl or more flour. The absorbency of flour can vary from region to region, brand to brand and weather conditions (humidity) can change how much flour you need to get a nice elastic smooth dough. Always trust your eyes and fingers more than amounts noted in recipes.

Step 4: When you have a nice smooth elastic dough, cover it and leave it for 1 hour.

Step 5: Put enough olive oil inside a 21.5 cm x 21.5 cm baking pan and make sure it is covered with a light film of oil.

Step 6: Press the dough into the pan so that it is 1.5 cm - 2 cm high. Cover it and turn on the oven to 200C.

Step 7: When the oven is preheated, drizzle some more olive oil over the dough and sprinkle a generous dose of sugar. The sugar you have put into the dough will not really be apparent so if you want a sweet cake, make sure you sprinkle enough sugar on top.

Step 8: Bake in the oven for 15- 25 minutes or until the focaccia is a golden brown.

Note 1: The amount of yeast is not that important. Don't freak out if your packet of yeast is 3g or 7g. Yeast given the time and right environment will propagate and increase. If you feel the yeast hasn't increased sufficiently, then leave it to rise for longer than 60 minutes.

Note 2: Ilva used a bigger pan, but it worked fine with a smaller pan, i.e. 21.5 cm x 21. 5 cm. If your pan is a little bigger or smaller, don't freak out. Just don't use anything drastically bigger or smaller.

Note 3: Because this is a sweet focaccia, I would choose a mild tasting olive oil with a sweet flavor for use in this recipe. I opted for the extra virgin olive oil that Samuele sent me rather than the local olive oil for this reason. I would use local Spanish olive oil for a savory focaccia.

Cranberry Oatmeal Bar Cookies

Perhaps because Spain has a lot of local produce, fresh fruit and vegetables are a lot cheaper compared to their dried, frozen or canned cousins. When it comes to dried fruit, there also isn't a great deal of variety available all year round. You mostly see the supermarkets and stores saturated with dried or candied fruit during the months leading up to Christmas and after that they just kind of disappear.

Mercadona, however sell 90g packets of cranberries and so I made a batch of these delicious Cranberry Oatmeal Bars. For the recipe, please go here.

These were very good just as they were, but I'd like to experiment a bit with this recipe some time soon and increase the amount of oatmeal and add some omega-6 rich walnuts so that I can kid myself that the bars are good for my rheumatism.