Flavour Bombs & Overnight focaccia
- Whipped miso butter
- Grange garlic
- Quick chilli and radish pickle
- Sweet dukkah
Overnight focaccia (Half topped with Mount Zero Kalamata Olives and toasted walnut, half topped with Grange garlic)
This recipe's long, cold fermentation time builds a beautiful, chewy, sour flavour that I love. And while the whole process does take up to a day, actual 'hands-on' time is under an hour.
Focaccia is such a wonderful thing to make for all kinds of occasions; for picnics, to cut into chunks and have alongside bowls of soup, to slice horizontally for excellent sandwiches, I could go on and on…
Prep time 45 mins
Cook time 30 mins
Makes 2 focaccias (about 20x30cm each)
1 kg white baker's flour (high protein)
2 tsp instant yeast
800g room temperature water
1 tsp Grampians honey
20g Murray River Salt Flakes
Step 1 (let's say we're starting at 6 pm)
Combine the flour, yeast, water and Grampians honey in a large bowl and with your hands, work the mixture together until you have a sticky, shaggy dough. Cover with a tea towel and leave for 30 minutes.
Step 2 (6.30 pm)
Add the Murray River Salt Flakes and 40g more water and mix in with your hands again. Cover and leave for another 30 minutes.
Step 3 (7 pm-9 pm)
Now we will do 4 x 'stretch and folds' every half an hour for the next 2 hours. So, for the first one, start with damp hands and scoop about a quarter of the dough up from one side, stretch it up and fold over the rest. Spin the bowl a quarter turn, scoop and stretch, and repeat until you've done four-folds. Cover the bowl again and leave for another half an hour. Repeat this process three more times every half an hour.
Step 4 (9 pm)
Now we're ready for the bulk fermentation stage, which means we will put the dough in the fridge overnight or for up to 24 hours to rise slowly.
Step 5 (7 am)
I would like my focaccia for lunch, so we'll take the dough out of the fridge in the morning, turn it onto a work surface and divide it into two. Shape each piece into a flat disc shape, cover it with a tea towel and leave it at room temperature for another half an hour.
Step 6 (7.30 am)
Drizzle a little Mount Zero Olive Oil into two medium-sized roasting tins and, using your hands, rub it all over the base of the tins. Gently transfer each piece of dough into the tins; even gentler still, begin pressing and pushing it to fit. It won't give much straight away, but that's why we'll leave the dough now for a bit longer (a few hours) to relax.
Step 7 (11.30 am)
Preheat the oven to 200C. It's been four hours since we placed the dough into their trays, but you could halve this time if it's hot where/when you are. It's not an exact science at this stage! Nevertheless, we're finally close to cooking!
Now is the time to press in whatever toppings you're going with (see below for some ideas). I read once that you might approach pressing into focaccia dough like you're playing the piano softly—gentle pressing rather than prodding. And because the dough will rise as it bakes, as we want it to, you want to push your toppings quite deep into the dough, or they might pop up and burn as they cook.
Drizzle with a little more olive oil and perhaps sprinkle with sea salt, depending on whatever else you've added on top. Cook your focaccia for 30 minutes or until puffed and deeply golden.
Step 8 (12 pm onwards) Yum! You're done.
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Variations
Grange garlic and rosemary focaccia
For the focaccia, follow the recipe above, but around step 7, spread the top of your lovely bubbly dough with about 1 tablespoon of the Grange garlic and drizzle with the Mount Zero Olive Oil. Top with a few sprigs of rosemary and bake until golden.
Mount Zero Kalamata olive and walnut
Toast a cup of walnuts in the oven until fragrant and lightly golden. Let cool, then press into the dough with a cup of Mount Zero Kalamata olives at step 7 above.
Whipped miso butter
This is incredibly good just with bread but also atop baked potatoes or sweet potatoes, tossed through steamed vegetables, or anywhere else you want butter but to make it fancy. It's wonderful as a starter, served with crusty bread and a pickle or two.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Prep time 10 mins
250g Red Feather butter, room temperature (it needs to be properly soft)
100g miso paste (I like white miso)
1/3 cup buttermilk
Combine the Red Feather butter and miso in the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
Whisk for five minutes or until the butter and miso have become very pale and fluffy.
Lower the speed a little and drizzle in the buttermilk. Whisk until completely incorporated. Then, increase speed again and whisk for a couple more minutes. Serve at room temperature.
Sweet Dukkah
I sprinkle this stuff on everything, from porridge to bircher muesli, cheesecakes, poached and fresh fruit and pancakes with natural yogurt. It's an incredibly useful thing to have in the pantry and can jazz up pretty much anything with flavour and crunch.
Makes about 1 cup
Prep time 20 mins
Cook time 10 mins
1/2 cup (65g) hazelnuts or walnuts
1/3 cup (30g) Herbie’s sesame seeds
2 tablespoons Herbie’s poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon Herbie’s coriander seeds
2/3 cup raw, unsalted pistachio nuts
1/2 teaspoon Herbie’s ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Herbie’s ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp Herbie’s ground cardamom
2 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of Murray River salt flakes
Preheat oven to 180C. Spread hazelnuts or walnuts onto a baking sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Add the sesame and poppy seeds, and continue to toast for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.
Combine hazelnuts/walnuts and pistachios in a food processor or mortar and pestle and blitz or bash until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, brown sugar and salt to the food processor or mortar. Give another quick blitz/bash and taste. Adjust the sugar/salt if you think it needs it. Store in a jar or airtight container.
Quick pickled chilli and radish
A super easy and delicious little pickle, you could swap the radish here and replace it with fennel, carrot, or pretty much any vegetable you fancy.
Makes about 1 big jar
Prep time 10 mins
150mls rice vinegar
100g sugar
1 tsp Murray River salt flakes
1 bunch radishes, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced
4 large red chillies, sliced into thin rounds
Combine the rice vinegar, half a cup of water, the sugar and salt in a small saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
Pack the radishes and chillies in a medium-sized jar, pour over the pickling liquid and push down so the liquid covers everything. Seal and store in the fridge.
This should be fine to serve after an hour but even better after a day or two. The heat of the chillies will die down a little in time.
Enjoy to make and sharing these tasty ideas with family and friends.
