Exploring Crazy Dough Focaccia in Gemma's Bread Series Episode 5

Hi Bold Bakers! Recently I made crazy dough in a video. Now crazy dough is one dough that you can make so many different breads from, both sweet and savory, like cinnamon rolls and even pizza. Last week I used it to make Nutella loaf, and this week I'm gonna use the same dough to make an Italian focaccia. So let's get baking. So we're gonna start out with our dough. Now like I said, I made this dough in a previous video, it is so simple to make and you don't even need a kitchen mixer, you can mix it all by hand. The recipe for it can be found on my website, BiggerBolderBaking.com, and as always if you're new to my channel don't forget to tap that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my other crazy dough videos. Okay, so here is my dough ready to go. Now over here I have a baking tin Now this baking tin is brushed generously with olive oil because this bread is kind of an oily kind of a bread, it makes it really delicious, so lots of nice olive oil in there. And then I'm just gonna take my dough, here we go, and all you want to do is just push it into the sides of your tin, just keep on moving it all the way around with your fingers. You might pull back a little bit but just keep on pushing them. The tin I'm using is around 8 inches by 12 inches but you can use any size you like. He's all nice in the corners, this is looking fantastic. When he's all pushed out and nice and even, I'm gonna cover it with some cling wrap to make sure that the air doesn't get at him, and then I'm gonna lay over a nice clean tea towel to keep him nice and warm and snug. So if you haven't had focaccia before, it's like an Italian flatbread, a little bit like a pizza, you put yummy stuff on top, it's really really delicious. Now for right now we're gonna set him aside at room temperature, kind of warm, for around an hour and a half and we're gonna let him rise and get nice and bubbly. So now I'm going to show you how you can get that shape and texture a focaccia has, the way it's kind of bubbly. So what you want to do is just peel away your cling wrap and your towel, and then in with your fingers, just go ahead and start piercing the dough. Right in with your fingers, now I know this might seem a little bit weird, you're knocking out all the air, but that's what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to knock out all the air. Give it a nice little push down like this. So now to get a little bit more scientific on you, the reason that we knock out the air is so we can actually build even bigger bubbles. So you're not getting rid of bubbles, you're actually creating even more of them. So that's why we do that. Now there are no rules when it comes to topping your focaccia, you can add anything you like on there. Big bulbs of garlic, some prosciutto ham, anything you like. What I'm going to add on are some whole olives. I'm just gonna take them, they're black olives, and just break them in my hands and then shove them all over the top of my focaccia. I love black olives, you can use green, you don't like olives, don't put them on at all, that's totally fine. But there's something about the little bit of salty in them that I think works really well with the bread. I have a lot of olives on here, but next I'm gonna add on some sun-dried tomatoes, which I absolutely love sun-dried tomatoes, I'm going to rip them apart a little bit, and then dot them all over the top too. I love sun-dried tomatoes because they're that little bit salty as well, but there's really concentrated flavor because they've been dried out. They're yummy. And then last but not least, some fresh rosemary. Now go ahead and just stick a few sprigs of it all around the top. As you can see there's no rhythm or rhyme to this but in the end it looks so beautiful. It's very rustic. This is a very rustic dish. Lovely. Now the reason that I'm making this series is because I don't want you to be intimidated by bread making, it is such a simple thing to do. Also I want you to check out all of the other videos that I used making crazy dough, because you can see just the array that you can make. Now last but not least, I love to scatter some sea salt all over the top. Don't be shy with this now. It's lovely when it's baked and has a little bit of a crunch, and then do you know what, I just saw this oil here from the tomatoes, I'm actually gonna drizzle this over the top too. Like I said, focaccia is kind of an oily bread, this is going to soak into it when it bakes, oh, yum. Yum yum yum. Okie dokie. This looks beautiful. Now, what you want to do now is cover it up in cling wrap again, and lay your tea towel over it. Now we're going to set them aside again for another 30 minutes and let them proof before we bake them off. So I had a little sneaky peek at our dough and it is ready for the oven. As you can see it has grown in size, it's risen up and has lots of nice little bubbles in there so this is perfect. Now we're gonna bake them off in a nice hot oven. Bake your focaccia off at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius for roughly 20 minutes or until golden brown. So I'm really happy with how my focaccia turned out, I think it looks gorgeous. Now this has cooled down so I'm gonna remove it from the tin and I'm gonna start cutting it up. Now you're not gonna believe this, but I actually made this focaccia with crazy dough that had been frozen. I made lots of it last week, and then I popped it into the freezer, I labeled it, and then I wanted to make focaccia, so I took it out, and it worked perfectly. So remember that about crazy dough, you can always freeze it and use it for other things. Okay, check out this focaccia. How gorgeous is that, you see all those lovely bubbles that we created in the indents with our fingers? This could not be more perfect. Focaccia is the perfect bread for any occasion. It works great for sandwiches and it even is just lovely by itself straight out of the oven. Have to give it a little taste. This is such a gorgeous bread, nice and warm. The tomatoes are kind of sweet, the olives are salty, and the rosemary, oh my gosh. This is such a beautiful loaf of bread, I really really hope you try it. Come back next week because I'm gonna show you how you can take crazy dough and make it into homemade pretzels. I'll see you really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.