Soup Baked Into Bread? Lobster Bisque Foccacia

Okay, hear me out. Some soups you dip and some you dip your bread into. And then there's ones that you just go ahead and bake into the bread. That's basically what soup bread is. I don't really know if this is genius or chaos, but today, lobster bisque focaccia. That sounds just... And yes, there will be soup to dip it into. So let's make it. For a French lobster bisque, or the French way, is to do a mirepoix, which is carrots, this big-ass carrot right here, celery, onions, and then also, for the French way, blu-blu, one fennel bulb, which adds a little bit more of this richness and unique flavor. I like to add leeks. I just love leeks, and I feel like soups always have leeks in them. And I'm gonna add garlic, because I'm Middle Eastern, we just love garlic. Just to add a little kick to the soup, I'm gonna go ahead and add some jalapenos, why not? And then we've got the lobster as well, which is in the fridge. French like to do it with some sort of alcohol, like a cognac. I didn't wanna do the cognac, so I went ahead and did a white wine, a Sauvignon Blanc. You don't have to buy the most expensive bottle. Buy something that you can cook with. For those of you that are already thinking about, well, bread can't have alcohol in it. It's gonna mess with the fermentation. Well, we've got this covered, ma'am and sir, bread nerds out there. I'm a bread nerd too, and I made sure I did my research. So we're gonna cook the alcohol out of it, create the stock. We're gonna save some of the stock for the bread, and the other half for the soup. So let's do it. Just a quick reason why I did such a rough chop. All of this is gonna get blended anyway. There's really no point in putting in all this effort to do a fine chop to blend it all back together. Like that's just kind of working backwards, and it wastes time. So here's a fun little tip. I take a medium-sized trash bag, and I put it next to my island. So when I'm cutting up vegetables, I don't have to keep going to the trash can, and I just throw them in there. So I got two lobster tails. I know what y'all thinking. Oh my God, girl, you eating lobster? You must be rich. No, girl, $20, 18.98 for two lobster tails. So we're gonna go ahead and cut the shells off of these because that's what's gonna give us the flavor in our broth. So you wanna pull the meat, save the shells because that's where all the flavor's hiding. Then straight into a hot pan with a tiny bit of oil so they turn that deep lobster red. Then you wanna go ahead and add your onions, carrots, celery, fennel, garlic, tomato paste, wine, herbs, and lastly, water. You wanna let it all hang out and do its thing. Strain it, and here's a trick. I split it. The lean, fat-free stock, that's for the dough. The rest, that's headed straight to bisque land. Got our broth, and check the temperature before I mix it up with the flour and the starter. You wanna make sure it's at least somewhere between 85 to 90. So right now I'm way above that, going to 104. So I'm gonna just wait until this cools down. You can also pop it in the fridge. Just make sure you watch it when you put it in the fridge because you don't want it to get too cold either. So you wanna remove the shells out of the soup, and then I hit it with the immersion blender until it's completely smooth. In goes the butter, cream, and a pinch of salt. Split your stock before you put salt because you don't want your infused soup to have salt in it. When you're creating your sourdough, you will stunt the fermentation process because that's for after you auto-lease. That is so good. A little bit more salt. It's like an inception of lobster bisque. Back on the burner, a little lemon zest and juice. Then I steal a bit, spread it thin, and let it dehydrate. While I'm waiting for the stock to cool down a little bit, I'm gonna set up my proofer. This is literally the best thing I've ever bought for bread making. It's not an ad, it's just an amazing tool. And it's so easy to set up, as you can see. So you put water in here and it keeps everything kind of hydrated and moist so your dough doesn't dry out, so you can even leave it in here uncovered. So I'm gonna put that in there, have a little cover for this. And this is great for if you live in a very cold environment or winter time when it's just not that warm in your house, you can really keep the temperature of your dough in check. Put a little water in here. So I like to turn this on to get it started. And then I will put my dough in here. Stock, starter, flour, that's it. No overthinking. I let it auto-lease in the proofer so the flour gets a head start on absorbing all that lobster flavor. Then you wanna go ahead and add your salt and oil and mix it until it comes together. From here, just a few coil folds, half an hour apart, and then I let it bulk ferment until it's puffy and alive. We're gonna do our first stretch and fold. So I always like to get my fingers slightly wet. So you're just gonna fold the dough, bringing it to the middle. And what you're doing, forming the gluten for the bread to start building structure. I just love making bread. It's just like so satisfying and relaxing, like meditative almost. And then I'll just pick it up and do one, two, three. That was 10. 10 coil folds, and then I'll just tuck it under and back into my proofer for another 30. And then we're gonna do this again three times. If you're planning on doing something while you're trying to do this, it's probably not gonna work. Making sourdough is not super long process, but just that first part where you have to constantly fold the bread, like you have to be there to do this. All right, see you guys in 30. First coil folds. Nothing fancy, just lifting and tucking to build a little strength. The dough's still loose, but that's the point. We've got time. So this is our last coil and fold. This is Mitch Jr. He is smelling very good. Oh, that smells so good. I'm already seeing like the bubbles on top, which is a good sign. That means that the yeast is yeastin'. The fermentation is happening, and that's what we want. Into the fridge. Day two, I shredded some gruyere and comte, and then take yesterday's dehydrated bisque and break it into little flavor shards. I was cheap with the lobster tails, so I ran back to the store. Worth it, more shells, more meat. After I shell the lobster, I make the butter. Two sticks on low with smashed garlic, no browning. Shells go in just to pull flavor, and then out. I add tarragon and cilantro, warm the lobster meat in there, pull the meat, and save the butter for the focaccia. Dough comes out the fridge. I stretch it gently to try and keep every bubble. Herbs go in, bisque shards, some cheese, fold it up like an envelope, seam side down into a well-oiled nine by 13. After about two and a half hours, he's ready. Brush with lobster butter, more bisque shards, tuck the lobster into the dimples, and finish with the rest of the cheese. Into the oven at 425. While it bakes, the remaining lobster meat goes into the bisque to warm through. When the bread is done, I wait 30 minutes. Yes, wait, or you'll have focaccia mush. Then it's open crumb, light, airy, and ready to dunk in that bisque. I hope you liked it. Lobster bisque focaccia. Let me know in the comments what you guys think of this video and the bread that I made. Any suggestions on what else I should add to it and what bread I should make next. And if you wanna see more of this, obviously subscribe, comment, like, share. Do all that stuff. Until next time, see ya.