Herb Bread or Pizza Dough
When it comes to making bread, many things affect the outcome, some more obvious than others. Most important is the flour. You cannot make good bread from mediocre flour. Choose flour that is unbleached, untreated, and free of additives. All flours, and especially whole-grain flours, will eventually spoil and taste and smell rancid. Try to buy flour that’s relatively fresh; your best bet is to look for a local organic food retailer with a rapid turnover who sells in bulk. The water makes a difference, too; both its temperature and its quantity influence texture. The type of leavening agent and the length of time bread is allowed to sit and rise will both affect the outcome enormously: quickbreads made with baking soda or powder are tender and almost cakelike, while breads leavened with wild yeast and given repeated slow risings will be the chewiest and crustiest, with the most complex flavors. Weather also affects bread: humidity, heat, and cold each exert their influence. All this makes baking ever-changing and forever fascinating. There is a world of breads: quickbreads such as cornbread and Irish soda bread that are easy to put on the table on relatively short notice; wonderful flatbreads such as tortillas fresh off the griddle or whole-wheat-flour puris that puff up when they’re fried or pita bread grilled over a fire; and the classic yeasted breads of France and Italy—including my everyday favorite, levain bread. Levain bread is leavened with a natural starter of wild yeast and allowed a long, slow fermentation and rising period in canvas-lined baskets. Traditionally, before each batch is baked, some of the starter is held back to leaven the next batch. Rather than give a recipe for a levain-type bread (which is a little complicated to make at home), I offer instead a recipe for a dough that’s versatile enough to be formed and baked as a flat crusty focaccia or a traditional pizza. (Kids love to stretch out the dough and make their own pizzas.)
Recipe information
Yield
makes one focaccia or two 10-inch pizzas
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Stir together: 2 teaspoons dry yeast, 1/2 cup lukewarm water.
Step 2
Add and mix well: 1/4 cup unbleached white flour, 1/4 cup rye flour.
Step 3
Allow this mixture to sit until quite bubbly, about 30 minutes.
Step 4
Mix together in another bowl: 3 1/4 cups unbleached white flour, 1 teaspoon salt.
Step 5
Stir this into the yeast and flour mixture with: 3/4 cup cold water, 1/4 cup olive oil.
Step 6
Mix thoroughly by hand or in an electric stand mixer. If working by hand, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until the dough is soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. If the dough is too wet and sticky, add more flour, but only enough to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Or use the mixer, fitted with the dough hook, and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough is the right texture when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl of the mixer, but still adheres to the bottom. A very soft, slightly moist dough will make the best focaccia.
Step 7
Put the dough in a large bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours. For an even better-tasting and more supple dough, let the dough rise slowly overnight in the refrigerator. (Remove from the refrigerator 2 hours before shaping.)
Step 8
Generously oil a 10-inch by 15 1/2-inch rimmed baking or sheet pan. Gently remove the dough from the bowl and flatten it on the baking pan, shaping it to fit the pan by gently pressing down from the center out towards the edges. If the dough starts to resist and spring back, let it rest for 10 minutes, then continue shaping. Try not to deflate or smash all of the air out of the dough as you are shaping it. Dimple the surface of the dough by lightly poking it with your fingertips.
Step 9
Drizzle with: 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Step 10
Cover and let rise until doubled in height, about 2 hours.
Step 11
While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 450°F. If you have one, place a baking stone on the lower rack and let it heat for 30 minutes before baking the bread. Sprinkle the dough with: 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt and put the baking pan directly on the stone. Bake the focaccia until golden and crisp on the top and bottom, about 20 to 25 minutes. Invert the pan to remove the bread and place on a rack to cool.
variation
Step 12
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or sage leaves over the dough before baking.
Step 13
Chop about 1 tablespoon fresh tender herbs and add to the dough with the oil.
Step 14
Divide the dough in two before shaping and press into two 1/2-inch-thick disks. Put the disks into oiled 8-inch pie plates. Dimple, oil, let rise as above, and bake, checking after 10 minutes.
Step 15
Top with sautéed onions, cheese, tomato slices, or sautéed greens before baking.
