It’s a new year and for Christmas Caleb got me “Dessert Person” by Claire Saffitz. I’m pretty sure Caleb got this cookbook more for himself because he loves Claire and wants me to make him desserts but here we are with “my” present.
I do also love Claire and like to bake so this wasn’t a huge stretch and I’m pretty excited for this cookbook as well.
First up was a savory bread recipe which Claire also covers in her book as well - Focaccia!
My friend Julia and her husband Dan also got this cookbook recently and made focaccia so I took some tips from them and started on my way.
I love focaccia and ate it almost every day were were there when I went to Italy in high school as well as when I did my month long work/study in college too.
Claire makes it super easy to follow along in the book with photos but also had her videos which are fun to watch and use during the process as well.
Focaccia is pretty open ended and you can top it however you’d like so I decided on this first run that I’d do a simple garlic and rosemary version with chili flakes for a little kick as well. I realized I had some leftover fingerling potatoes that I needed to use up as well and I LOVED this focaccia with potatoes on it when I was in Italy too which was unexpected so I wanted to try to recreate it.
The video and recipe were simple to follow and It was exciting to make a bread without having to worry about all the overnight proofing and resting and kneading and more proofing which I’m too impatient for.
I did have a mishap where the extra olive oil in the pan that gives the bottom and edges a nice crispy-ness that is a signature of focaccia started to bubble over in the oven and set off the smoke alarm and make our kitchen smell like wax very early on in the process. I’ll have to prep the oven better next time and figure out a game plan to prevent this because it was really stressful and made the end of the process horrible.
In terms of the actual bake of the bread though, it came out really really beautiful and I was really proud of myself with it. The potatoes weren’t a success and were cut a little too thick and over-salted for sure. I ended up picking them off the final bread and the bread underneath was perfectly fine. It was worth a try but I guess I’ll have to go back to Italy for that.
The rest of the bread was so soft and fluffy in the middle and had a great crips on the edge and bottom. A huge successful outcome for a first attempt. I want to make it again soon because I LOVE eating focaccia but I’ll have to give myself some time to forget the olive oil smoke mess.