In addition to baking, I barbecue a lot. And one thing I’ve learned in making great bread and great barbecue is to have the patience – and trust – to leave your dough or meat alone. Especially with baking, sometimes it’s SO tempting to check how your baking is going, but temperature fluctuations can have a deleterious effect on your bread. So, as in the words of Nancy Reagan, “Just say no!”

In the first 10-15 minutes of baking, when you’re applying steam to certain bread, opening your oven will release the steam and your bread will not get oven spring because it’s the steam that keeps the crust moist and allows the bread to expand. Talk about killing a bake!

Several people have asked me why their bread doesn’t spring much, and many times I find out it’s because they open their oven door to see how their bread’s doing. I know, it can be tortuous to have to wait, but if you have a little trust in the process, you’ll be rewarded. Remember the saying, curiosity killed the cat.

I had to learn lots and lots of patience when I started barbecuing in earnest. For instance, a pork butt requires at least 12 hours. A brisket can take up to 16 hours! Of course, there will be times when basting or spritzing the meat is necessary, but in between those times, I’ve had to learn to just let the meat cook, lest it come out tough and chewy, and no one want that.

So, have some patience, trust in the process, and let your dough do its thing!

Happy Baking!

There are times when I want some bread and don’t have the patience nor time to make a loaf of sourdough. Today was one of those days. I had meetings solid in the morning, had a major architectural problem to solve, and though I knew that I wanted some bread for dinner this evening, I didn’t have the time to get a levain started; truth be told, I just didn’t want to fuss over a starter. It was a bit of a dilemma

So, to solve my dilemma, I turned to a yeasted same-day recipe that I’ve developed over the years. I got the inspiration for this loaf when I attended a retreat, and the chef had a huge mixing bowl filled with proofing dough. I asked her about her process and decided to develop my own same-day bread.

The challenge with making a loaf like this is that it can turn out to be insipid and with a crumb that dries out easily. But this bread has plenty of flavor due to the addition of a bit of honey and the use of T90 bread flour for a bit of whole grain and diastatic malt powder. The diastatic malt powder is optional. It provides a bit of flavor but more importantly, it will produce a soft crust and a moist but not gummy crumb. This is a perfect loaf for making sandwiches!

Formula

Final Dough

Mix. Thoroughly combine all the dry ingredients together in one large bowl. Dissolve the honey in the water then add the water in batches to the dry ingredients until there are no dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix to a shaggy mass.

Bulk Fermentation. (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours) Do two sets of stretches and folds every half-hour in the first hour, then resting the ball on the seams. Make sure you stretch the dough to its extents during folding. You really want to develop the gluten network! After the final stretch and fold, allow the dough to expand in volume to almost double. With this amount of yeast, plus the addition of honey and malt, on a warm day like today (it’s 75º in my kitchen), a half-hour after the last fold was all I needed to complete bulk fermentation.

Pre-Shape/Bench Rest. Pour the dough out onto your work surface, then shape it into a boule, making sure the skin is nice and taut. Pop any large bubbles that form – there may be a lot! Cover it with a tea cloth then let it bench rest for twenty minutes.

Now would be a good time to preheat your oven and Dutch oven to 475℉

Shaping/Final Fermentation. ~45 min to an hour. Turn the dough over, then gently punch it down. Don’t be too rough! Shape it into a boule or a batard, then place it seam-side-up in a well-floured banneton, then place the banneton in the fridge for final fermentation. Do the poke test to make sure it’s ready. As with any bread, you want to make sure that final fermentation completes, less you get a fool’s crumb.

Bake. Bake at 475℉ for 20 minutes covered I also thrown in a couple of small chips of ice to add to the steam. Remove the lid and finish baking at 425℉ for 20 minutes.

Cool for at least an hour before slicing! Happy Baking!

Update 9/18/2024: I just made patty melts for my kids’ dinner this evening and they both said the bread was FIRE! My son made a huge sandwich with it earlier in the day. Looks like I will be making yet another loaf. 🙂

Notes

• There’s an obsession in the home baking world with creating an ear. Having baked this loaf many times, this will not create an ear or make a small ear at best, even if you make a deep cut. There are a few reasons for this: 1) The crust is thin on this type of loaf; 2) The diastatic malt moistens the dough, making a soft crust; 3) Finally, the yeast action is so dramatic during baking that the loaf expands too fast for an ear to form.
  • You may be concerned about the loaf not having much flavor since both bulk and final fermentation add up to just over two hours. That’s the reason for using a bit of whole grain flour, honey, and diastatic malt. The addition of these ingredients provides subtle but important flavor enhancement.
  • As I mentioned above, this makes a perfect sandwich loaf! Looking at the picture, you’ll notice there aren’t any large holes. But there are many, many small holes. Squeezing the loaf after it cools feels like you’re squeezing a sponge; the crumb is exceptionally light and airy! And using high-gluten flour helps the loaf keep its structure during baking.

Now that I’ve gotten into making wood-fired pizza, I’m back to making dough on a regular basis. And more importantly for me, I’ve revived my mother culture to create levain which I use for all my dough now. Yeah, I know… Yeast is typically used for Italian breads, but there is nothing like the texture and flavor of a dough risen with a sourdough culture.

In doing my research on focaccia, like other Italian breads, there are various kinds depending on the region. This recipe is a sourdough riff on Ligurian focaccia which tends to be a thicker, puffier kind as compared to a Genovese focaccia which is thin like flatbread. Also, even though I list honey as part of the formula, I didn’t include it in my final dough because I baked it in my wood-fired pizza oven. And even though it is baked in a pan, I didn’t want to risk the sugar burning. However, if you’re baking in a regular oven, by all means, include the honey! Either way, it’s still delicious.

And finally, I wanted to add a little complexity to the flavor profile by using whole grain, fine ground semolina flour. The results were spectacular!

Formula

Final Dough

The final dough will fit in a standard 9″ X 13″ baking pan.

Make the Levain. Make a 1:5:5 levain; that is, one part starter to five parts flour and water each. If you make the levain the night before, you can let it ferment overnight on the counter, then mix the dough in the morning. If you want to do a same-day bake, once you’ve mixed the levain, place it in the oven with the light on and maintain a temperature of 78℉-82℉. This will favor yeast activity over bacterial activity.

Mix. In a small bowl, measure out the levain you’ll need, then add all the water to it and dissolve the levain. Add the honey and whisk to dissolve. Add the olive oil to this mixture (don’t worry, it won’t mix). In a separate, large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to ensure even distribution. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to a shaggy mass, making sure there are no lumps or dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides, cover, then rest for 10 minutes.

Bulk Fermentation, Folding. 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Fold the dough every 30 minutes in the first hour and half of bulk fermentation. By the third fold, you should have achieved a nice windowpane. If you haven’t, then do one more fold. Allow the dough to rest until it has almost doubled in volume.

Final Fermentation. Punch down the dough, shape it into a rough rectangle in the shape of a 9″ X 13″ pan. Place into the pan, then use your fingers to spread out the dough and distribute it evenly in the pan. Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes. After resting, sprinkle flaky salt on top and fresh rosemary all over the top. Sprinkle good extra virgin olive oil over the entire surface, then dimple the dough to let the oil pool in the dimples.

Bake. In a conventional oven, bake at 450℉ for 25 minutes or until the top becomes a nice chestnut brown. If baking in a wood-fired pizza oven, the focaccia will only take about 10 minutes. Don’t let it get too close to the flame to avoid burning and turn the pan every 30 seconds to achieve and even bake. Like a Neapolitan pizza crust, you should get charred spots.

Remove from the oven. Spray or sprinkle more olive oil on top, then lightly powder with freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes. It’s best when it’s warm!

My son who lives in San Francisco was telling me the other day that a trend with pizza in the city – at least with the places he and his fiancé frequent – is crust made from sourdough. I took it as a tacit challenge. Plus, I hadn’t used my starter in months, so it gave me an excuse to wake it up. And now that I’ve done it, I’m going to go Mandalorian and say, “This is the way!”

I got an absolutely incredible oven spring from this dough. And the trick to that was building up a super-active levain, one that doubled in less than two hours. With the pie above, though I laid my toppings almost to the edge, it popped up so much that it pushed everything in! The result for both pies was crispy skin and chewy crumbs.

Baker’s Formula

Final Dough

Make the levain. As I mentioned above, I built up lots of activity in my starter to where it peaked in less than two hours. This was a basic 1:1:1 levain using AP flour. Since I had to wake up my starter, it took me three days and a few feedings to get to this point. Technically, you don’t have to do this, but your levain should pass the float test, and not just pass it. It should float on the water like it’s Styrofoam.

Mix. When the levain is ready, dissolve it in the warm water until fully broken down. Add the flour and mix to a shaggy mass, making sure no dry bits or large lumps are left.

Fermento-lyse. Allow the mixture to rest for at least 30 minutes to hydrate the flour. Once that’s done, add the salt, and work it into the dough until you don’t feel any salt crystals.

Knead. You can knead by hand, but I just knead in my KitchenAid at speed 2 for 5-7 minutes to really develop the gluten.

Scale and Cold Ferment. Once you’re done kneading, scale out two 450g dough balls, then form them into tight balls. I shape them like I’m shaping mini boules. Place the balls in a well-oiled container. Then pop them in the fridge for at least 48 hours.

Final Fermentation. On baking day, remove the balls. They will probably have collapsed in the container. That’s fine. Reshape them into tight balls, then place them covered in a warm place to come to room temperature. This may take 2-3 hours depending on your ambient temperature.

Make pizza. There are so many different techniques out there, so I’ll leave it to you to find out how to shape and top your pies.

NOTE: If those dough balls are too large, you can easily half the recipe ingredients and make 225g balls that will make 10-12″ pizzas.

I finally got a pizza oven for my backyard kitchen, so of course I had to make some dough. I have been using a super-simple formula that works as a quick dough and for cold fermenting. It’s more along the veins of a Neopolitan-style dough, but I use King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill bread flour as opposed to 00 flour since it’s more accessible.

Overall Formula

Final Dough

For the final dough, I make two 450g balls.

The process for this is simple.

Mix. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and yeast until well-incorporated. Add the water, and mix thoroughly until no dry ingredients are apparent.

Knead. Knead the dough for 10 minutes by hand, or if you’re using a mixer like I do, run the mixer at medium-low (position 2 on a KitchenAid) for 5 minutes.

Alternatively, once you mix the dough, you can just put some plastic wrap over it and let it sit for 8-12 hours. But note that if you take the no-knead approach, if the weather is warm, I’d use half the yeast to keep the dough from over-proofing.

Bulk Fermentation (Quick Dough). Once the dough is kneaded, form it into a nice, tight ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in volume. On a warm day, this can take less than an hour. Once it has doubled, divide it into two equal balls, and shape each like you would a boule.

Final Fermenation (Quick Dough).Transfer the balls to a parchement-lined sheet pan, cover with a tea cloth and let them rise for at least an hour. They should expand about 75%.

Bulk Fermentation (Cold Ferment). This is my preferred way. Once the dough is kneaded, immediately divide the dough into two equal pieces. Shape each into a tight boule and transfer them to a container that will give them room to expand. I use a couple of plastic ramen bowls. Cover the container(s) with plastic (I put my ramen bowls in a jumbo ziploc), then place them in the fridge for up to 72 hours.

The advantage of a long, cold ferment is that yeast activity is retarded, but bacterial activity isn’t. Organic acids are allowed to develop in the dough that will help with its extensibility but more importantly, add all sorts of flavor. The texture of the final cooked pizza crust also becomes airy and creamy.

Final Fermentation (Cold Ferment). Remove the balls from the fridge and place on a parchment-lined sheet. Cover with a damp tea cloth and allow them to come to room temperature. This can take a couple of hours. Technically, you can work with the dough right out of the fridge, but cold dough is incredibly difficult to work with and can easily tear.

Shape. Shape into pizza crust. The 450g balls will make 12″-14″ crusts. Here’s a great video on how to shape pizza dough: