Focaccia is a pizza-esque Italian bread enriched with extra virgin olive oil and usually herb flavoured. With focaccia you can experiment with lots of flavours, stuffing & toppings. When I was thinking about baking this bread, I intended to do a plain rosemary focaccia, but then I caught sight of some leftover olives in the fridge and decided to add them for a bit of flourish.

The recipe below is really easy to follow, you should give it a go….

• 500 grams all-purpose flour
• 350 mls water
• 2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 45 mls extra virgin olive oil
• 75 grams spanish black olives chopped
• 4 sprigs rosemary(finely chop 2 sprigs, the other 2 just remove the leaves)
• Salt & extra virgin olive oil

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, yeast in a large bowl.
2. Add water & olive oil to the dry ingredients, combine to form a sticky dough.
3. Cover the bowl and set it aside for about 30 minutes, during this time autolysis happens. During autolysis the flour absorbs as much water as it can, resulting in a dough that is easier to work with and requires less kneading.
4. Lightly oil your work surface & your hands with olive oil, turn out dough on to work surface. Knead the dough until its soft & elastic, this takes about 10-15 minutes. The oil on your hands keep the dough from sticking on to it.
5. Once kneading is done, set the dough aside in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for about 120 minutes.
6. After 120 minutes knock down the dough. Turn out dough on to your work surface.
7. Add the chopped rosemary & the chopped olives on to the dough, then lightly knead for about two minutes to combine the rosemary & olives.
8. Generously oil a large baking tray with olive oil.
9. Spread the dough on to the baking tray, whilst spreading you might find the dough springing back when you try pushing it wide. Don’t worry about this.
10. Cover the baking tray and let the dough prove for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
11. After 30 minutes, dimple the dough using your fingers. On this bread I also experimented with a fork.
12. Generously spread olive oil on top of the dough, followed by a few pinches of salt, some chopped olives & rosemary leaves.
13. Place the baking tray with dough in the centre of the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes.
14. After baking, remove from tray and let bread cool on a wire rack.
15. Enjoy!

Just wanted to share this amazing banana bread I made today. I got the recipe,from joyofbaking.com, this is my favourite banana bread recipe. Try it out, its great.

]]> http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/05/simplicity-banana-bread/feed/ 0 http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/03/cheddar-margherita-pizza-with-pimento-meatballs/ http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/03/cheddar-margherita-pizza-with-pimento-meatballs/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:49:22 +0000 Kiplagat http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/?p=148

This is a really fast pizza I made for lunch, it is assembled rather than cooked from scratch. This is the lazy pizza that tastes better than anything Debonairs pizza or Pizza inn in Nairobi can do IMO. It is probably cheaper too.

• Grill ready made meatballs. I used the KMC(kenya meat commision) one’s, sprinkled some pimento, tumeric & coriander on the meatballs before grilling.
• Using a pizza base from the supermarket, spread some ketchup on the base.
• Add tomato slices.
• Place basil leaves on top of tomato slices.
• Slice meatballs into halves. Place meatball halves on top of the basil leaves.
• Grate some cheddar cheese & sprinkle on top of pizza. The more mature the cheddar the bigger the flavour hit
• Season with black pepper.
• Baking 240 degree centrigrade oven for 8 minutes.
• Presto…. Voila….. Mambo kwisha!
• Eat it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

]]> http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/03/cheddar-margherita-pizza-with-pimento-meatballs/feed/ 0 http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/02/chocolate-pithivier/ http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/2009/02/chocolate-pithivier/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:22:15 +0000 Kiplagat http://arapleting.com/porkygourmand/?p=99

Pithiviers are a speciality from the town of Pithiviers in the south of France. They are usually served as coffee cakes. The traditional filling is an almond cream mixture with a hint of rum.

This recipe is adapted from Liam Tomlin’s book “Season to Taste”. Liam Tomlin is current executive chef at Cape Grace,Cape Town and former head chef of famed but now closed sydney restaurant Banc. His proteges at Banc have become prominent Australian restauranteurs; Chui Lee Luke at Claude’s, Justin North at Becasse, Peter Sheppard at Caveau, Warren Turnbull at Assiette , Matthew Kemp at Restaurant Balzac.

To make this pithiviers you need the following.

Puff Pastry

I took the easy way out & bought frozen puff pastry from the supermarket.

2. Roll out the puff pastry
3. Use a 8 cm pastry cutter to cut round bases and tops for the pithiviers.
4. Place tops and bases in the fridge for 30 minutes for pastry to rest before assembling the pithiviers

Creme patissiere (Pastry Cream)

• 1 Egg yolk
• 125 mls milk
• 2 1/2 tbsps plain flour
• 35 grams caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

2. Combine milk and vanilla essence in sauce pan bring to boil, then set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar then whisk it silly. It will take a while. What you want is a mixture very pale, double in volume, thick consistency. Mixture should come down like a ribbon off the whisk(hard to explain)
4. Fold flour into egg yolks sugar mixture.
5. Take 1/3 of milk mixture, combine into egg sugar mixture in bowl.
6. Add egg sugar mixture from bowl, add to saucepan contain milk mixture.
7. Place saucepan on medium heat, whisk slowly until it thickens to shiny thick custard. This takes about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Chocolate almond filling

• 100 grams dark chocolate
• 55 grams caster sugar
• 55 grams almond meal
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg

2. Melt chocolate over a bain-marie(bowl over simmering water)
3. Cream together butter & sugar. Then stir in the egg, almond meal and cocoa powder. Add the melted chocolate and mix until the chocolate is fully incorporated.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour until reasonably firm to mold into patties that about 6 cm in diameter. Freeze patties until ready to use.

Chocolate sauce

• 50 grams dark chocolate
• 75 mls cream
• 25 grams unsalted butter

2. Bring cream to boil.
3. Add chunks of chocolate into hot cream & incorporate it.
4. Finish it off with the butter & set aside

Assembly

• Place pastry base on floured surface, put a chocolate almond patty into the centre of the pastry bases. Brush the edge of base with egg wash.
• Place a pastry top over the chocolate patty and mould it around the patty removing any air pockets between patty & filling.
• Mark a pattern on pithivier with the tip of a knife
• Brush with egg wash then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Mark border with back of knife. Preheat oven to 220 degrees centigrade. Refrigerate again for 30 minutes.
• Bake pithiviers for about 15 minutes until crisp & golden

Serve with chocolate sauce & vanilla ice cream

Inspired by Jacques Pepin’s Tart Carree from his book “La Technique(Complete Techniques)”.

This tarts were amazing, banana & custard(creme patissiere) is one of my favourite flavour combinations.

Puff pastry shell

I used frozen Puff Pastry bought at Nakumatt, not as good as home made one. The commercial varieties use random vegetable oils/fats instead of butter.

2. Cut puff pastry into squares.
3. Fold into triangle
4. Measure & mark about 1 cm into border of square sides of triangle. Cut along marked line.
5. Unfold, you should have square piece of pastry in the centre & large strip of pastry bordering the centre piece.
6. Brush outer edges of centre pastry with water.
7. Now the tricky bit.Fold outer pastry onto opposite edge, aligning its border with that of centre pastry.Trim edges.
8. Using a fork, poke numerous holes in centre pastry to stop it from rising.
9. Baking in 220 degrees oven for 20 minutes, then set aside.

Creme patissiere (Pastry Cream)

• 3 Egg yolks
• 100 mls milk
• 100 mls cream
• 25 grams plain flour
• 50 grams caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

2. Combine milk, cream & vanilla essence in sauce pan bring to boil, then set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar then whisk it silly. It will take a while. What you want is a mixture very pale, double in volume, thick consistency. Mixture should come down like a ribbon off the whisk(hard to explain)
4. Fold flour into egg yolks sugar mixture.
5. Take 1/3 of milk mixture, combine into egg sugar mixture in bowl.
6. Add egg sugar mixture from bowl, add to saucepan contain mill mixture.
7. Place saucepan on medium heat, whisk slowly until it thickens to shiny thick custard. This takes about 5 minutes. Set aside in fridge until ready to use

Caramel

• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup water

2. Combine in pan, heat until colour changes to hazelnut brown.

Assembly

2. Pour thin layer of caramel on the bottom of puff pastry shells. The caramel adds some crunch & also stops pastry from getting soggy
3. Spread creme patissiere(pastry cream) inside pastry shell
4. Arrange fruit on top of pastry shell
5. Dust with icing sugar & cinnamon

I love baking bread by hand, it is a slow but rewarding process. This bread took about 4 hours to prepare & bake. I am still a novice at baking, but the results so far have been very rewarding. You cannot compare home baked bread to the commercial crap in the supermarket. The only bread I buy now are from little bakeries that do artisan style bread. The bread at these bakeries may cost more, the taste & craftsmanship justifies the premium.

The first bread I baked was a foccacia, it turned out so good I thought I was born baking. Second bread was a white boule, it was a total disaster….. really bad. I always try to get better with every bread, the perfect loaf seems elusive. I’ll get there on my 10,000th loaf……

Recipe for this boule

I have adapted this recipe for myself from a variety of sources. Still trying to achieve the perfect bread.

Prep & Baking

This bread does not need any spread, I just dip it into some extra virgin olive oil with balsamic vinegar. yummo!