East of Eden and West of Winchester: Focaccia Fridays!

Ok, so making focaccia has to be the easiest yeast bread to conquer. I always felt like baking bread was daunting: the kneading, rising, and the yeast all freaked me out. My first bread project was pizza crust. Very easy and very painless. But, a little unimpressive. Yes, the flavor and texture was better than something I could buy at a store and bake in my oven but I didn't feel like I had done anything special. I moved on to focaccia. The recipe looked simple enough, the directions were clear and easy. Most importantly, I had all of the ingredients in my house already. I made the basic recipe with just olive oil and sea salt on top. Very good but I still felt a little bored by it. The texture was perfect and the distinctive fresh bread taste (mixed with the warmth that comes from hot out of the oven bread) was delicious. But, I felt like I could do more.

Next came caramelized onion focaccia. It is perfect. It is sweet and tangy and cheesy thanks to the addition of some Parmesan cheese on top. But, that was not enough.

Yesterday I made what I call "half and half" focaccia. One half of the bread is topped with caramelized onions, red pepper flakes (just a smidge), and Parmesan cheese. The other half of the bread is topped with fresh rosemary, sea salt, and asiago cheese. Trader Joe's even makes an asiago cheese that has a slight rosemary flavor thanks to the dried herb in the rind. I used that yesterday when I invented the half and half creation. The onion half stays extra moist, without being soggy, but the rosemary half got a little dry the next day. I want to try an olive version of the bread and a sun dried tomato version. The recipe is so easy and versatile, I could probably add anything that I wanted to it.