Receta Herbed Olive Spelt Foccacia
I used to be OCD about cooking contests. In 2008, I entered 178 recipes. In 2009, at the height of my mania, I entered 313. In 2010, I entered 147. That is about the time I started this blog. In 2011, I entered only twenty-eight.
Now I am OCD about blogging.
I guess it is a mania trade-off. Who knows, but I am still cooking.
(I have previously posted about my obsession with the best burger contest. I was sure I had a winner with every recipe like Aromatic Thai Burgers and Brat Burgers with “Dunkelized” Onions and “Poblanocado” Burgers with Jicama-Radish Salad and Lime-Chipotle Vinaigrette. Notice I never made the cook-off! )
Every new year, I try to start out with a theme.
One year it was 39 Days of Soup.
I failed at that one.
Last year, it was the Great Clean-out (regarding the pantry). It was somewhat successful.
So this year, I am going to go through my HUGE stockpile of contest winners, hopefuls, and failures. (Don’t worry, I will revisit the failures and make them perfect before I post!) Ha!
Herbed Olives
To start this theme out, which I will call my OCD Revisited Recipes, I found a Parmesan-Rosemary Focaccia Bread recipe in my archives. I wanted to use the Herbed Olives from my last post so I came up with the following:
- Herbed Olive Spelt Focaccia
- 1 T. yeast
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 1/3 c. warm water
- 3 c. spelt flour
- 1 t. Kosher salt
- 1/2 t. course ground pepper
- 4 T. extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 T. fresh rosemary, chopped
- ¼ c. chopped Herbed Olives
In the bowl of a heavy stand mixer (equipped with a dough hook) dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Mix in flour, salt, pepper, and 3 T. olive oil. (I used some of the herbed olive oil from my olive mix.)
Mix dough until pliable. Add rosemary and olives; knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes. Remove dough from mixing bowl and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise until doubled (about 30-45 minutes).
After the first rising.
After dough has risen, punch it down and place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon baking pad. Press dough out to about ½ inch thick. Prick dough with a fork.
Ready for the second rising.
Let rise again until doubled (about 20 minutes.) Brush with remaining 1 T. olive oil.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25 minutes.
Nice and glossy from the oven.
Yes, that is a bite.
As we have both eaten our weight in fudge, dipped pretzels, chocolate coated Oreos, cheese balls, brownies, and other holiday fare, I am serving this tonight with a simple green salad (from the hoop house).
This recipe was not a winner, but I think I have improved on it. In fact, I am not sure which contest it was even entered in. But, I do have my slick liner notes with the following description to wow the judges:
Great for a chicken-goat cheese pizza topping or thin sliced sandwich with sliced roma tomatoes and basil.
Wow, this all actually sounds pretty good. I wonder if there is a recipe contest currently open for breads?
Postscript: A few other things I have become competitive (and OCD) about are Secret Recipe Club and Cook the Books Club. I had been so busy that I hadn’t dropped by CTB in forever!!!!!! When I did earlier this week, I found out I had won the last round!