Fig Focaccia
When we arrived in Vermont to visit my editor for several intensive days of work on this book, she had made the focaccia from her children’s bread book for our lunch. Several days later, when we were winding up, I noticed on the windowsill a pint basket of fresh figs we hadn’t used up, and, remembering how much I loved the sweet fruit-studded focaccias I had had as a child, I suggested we improvise with those figs. So here is the recipe we put together, which celebrates a warm childhood memory reborn in the northern hills of Vermont. It fits right in with our dessert theme in this book of fresh fruits embedded in crusts, and is lovely for breakfast, for tea, or with after-dinner coffee.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 1 flattish oval loaf
Ingredients
Topping
Recommended Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Put the yeast in the large mixing bowl of the mixer and pour 1/4 cup of the warm water over it. Because this is quite a wet dough, it is easier to knead in a standing mixer, but if you do not have one just use a big bowl and mix by hand. Let the yeast stand a few minutes to dissolve, then smear it around with your finger to make sure it is softened. Mix the salt with the rest of the water, and pour it into the bowl along with 2 1/2 cups of the flour. Attach the dough hook, and let it knead the dough for about 2 minutes, adding just a little more flour if it seems very wet (or knead with a light touch by hand for 2 to 3 minutes).
Step 2
Lightly flour your work surface, and scrape the dough out of the bowl onto it. Turn the dough over on itself several times, using a dough scraper and your floured hands; don’t try to knead vigorously, because the dough is too wet and sticky.
Step 3
Clean out the mixing bowl and oil it lightly. Dump the dough in, and turn it to grease all over. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and leave the dough to rise until it has more than doubled in volume—about 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Step 4
Select eight plump figs of uniform size, and save them for the topping. Chop the rest roughly into about six pieces per fig, and mix them in with the risen dough, deflating it and distributing them evenly.
Step 5
Generously sprinkle cornmeal over an 8-by-12-inch area of the baking sheet. Turn the dough out onto the cornmeal, and smear the remaining oil over the top, spreading it around with your fingers. Now pat and stretch the dough out into an oval shape approximately 8 inches wide and 11 to 12 inches long. Cut the reserved figs in half, stem to bottom, and arrange them at even intervals on top of the dough, cut side up, pressing them in slightly. Sprinkle the sugar all over the top.
Step 6
Preheat the oven to 425°. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes while the oven heats, then bake it for 25 minutes. Remove the bread to a rack. It should settle and cool for at least 10 minutes; then serve it warm. It can, of course, be reheated.
Dealing with Idiosyncratic Ovens
Step 7
When I bake at home, I don’t hesitate to move things around the oven. It’s a large professional oven with spots of quite variable heat, and, perhaps because of the massive griddle that sits on top, it retains heat long after the thermostat is lowered. Even if the dial is at 300°, my oven’s top heat continues to brown foods like a broiler. These idiosyncrasies are a blessing in a way, because they demand that I pay attention to what is happening in the oven, and they’ve taught me how to move my dishes up and down on the racks and from the front to the back, to cover and uncover them as needed: to do whatever I need to do to get the dish that I want.
Step 8
I have incorporated these practices into many of my recipes, because using your whole oven to control the rates of cooking and browning will help you deal with the peculiarities of your own oven. And, of course, oven thermostats vary so much, just setting the dial for the same temperature does not ensure the same heat.
Step 9
The bread-pudding recipe on page 372 is a good example of how you can use the heat zones in your oven—and your racks—to your advantage. In the first step, you set both the heat and the pan of bread high up, so the top heat will quickly caramelize the bread without drying it out. But you set a rack in the middle—and lower the thermostat—to get more bottom heat on the baking dish, and slower cooking, to set the custard in the pudding. Stay flexible, though: you might want to move the pudding higher if the top is not browning as you want it—or you might need to cover it if it’s darkening too fast even at a lower temperature setting. And when you are roasting or braising in the oven and there is too much liquid in the pan, just set the pan directly on the floor of the oven, where you get the most intense bottom heat.
Step 10
So please don’t just let your oven do whatever it wants—there are ways to control it.
