Late summer veggie focaccia

This is what I’m talking about - sweet corn, tomatoes and a delectable focaccia for summer perfection on a sheet pan. Yes!

Even though it’s officially autumn on the calendar, there’s still time to reap summer’s bounty. As a matter of fact, Steve and I have amassed a wonderful stash of sweet corn in the freezer for fall and winter soups, chowders, frittatas, baked corn pudding, cheesy corn muffins and more.

I simply had to give this one a go. Based on the recipe from Melissa Weller’s “A Good Bake”, it’s focaccia with an interesting twist. Whipped cream! Can you believe it??

I’ll go through the steps with you so as to share my experience with the process. If you’re a fan of very detail oriented recipes/instructions, you should put Melissa’s book on your list.

You’ve got the basics of bread making here - flour, water, yeast, salt - put together using my favorite poolish approach.

Make the poolish (blend 120 g bread flour, 1/2 cup room temp water, 1/16 teaspoon instant yeast in a bowl and cover) the evening before so it sits at room temperature overnight for about 12 hours as it “pre”-ferments. You see it below in its bubbly goodness. Let’s hear it for planning ahead, eh?

To make the final dough place 313 g room temperature (70-75ºF) water in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the poolish and 450 g all purpose flour. Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 2-3 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer, place a teaspoon/3 g instant yeast and 12 g fine sea salt separately on top of the dough and let sit uncovered for 30 minutes. This allows the dough to autolyse (flour and water have a chance to start developing gluten before introducing the salt and yeast to the mix).

Autolyse step

Return to the stand mixer with the dough hook, mix on low speed for a couple of minutes then increase to medium speed for three minutes. Remove the dough hook and bowl from the stand, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let ferment for 2 hours. Turn once half way through.

The following images give you a sense of what’s happening.

Dough at the end of mixing

The one hour mark

End of bulk fermentation

Focaccia tends to be what I call a rough and tumble sort of dough - I think you can appreciate that in the photos above.

Now it’s time to pan it up! Have a half sheet pan on hand, pour 75 g (5-6 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil into it and spread it around evenly with your hands. Another thing about focaccia - LOTS of olive oil!!

Using a bowl scraper, scrape the dough onto the sheet pan in a pile and coat it with oil. Let it rest 20 minutes then proceed with stretching and dimpling it with your fingertips to work it into the corners and edges. It’s fun!

It will start to spring back so give it another 20 minute rest.

First stretch and dimple

Finish stretching and dimpling to get the dough into the corners of the pan. Now set it aside to proof about 45 minutes.

Ready to top!

Heat the oven to 425ºF. Meanwhile whip 3/4 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks, dollop it onto the dough and gently spread it with an offset spatula.

Cream dolloped

Cream spread - oh boy!!

Let’s assume that any health benefits from the olive oil are pretty much erased by the whipped cream. You gotta live, right?

To top - a pint of small, sweet variety tomatoes, halved and placed over the cream . . . . . .

then sprinkle on the kernels cut off of one ear of corn . . . . . .

then sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, chopped fresh or dried herbs of choice (we use a salt free pizza seasoning mix) and 1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano.

Bake 30-35 minutes until golden brown, rotating the sheet pan 1/2 way through. Remove the focaccia with a large spatula onto a cooling rack.

I’m here to tell you that even with all of that olive oil, there can be some sticking so use some elbow grease and determination if needed to do the deed. I ended up cutting it in the pan and getting the pieces out without too much trouble with the help of my trusty spatula.

We were so eager to try it that I forgot to snap a picture just out of the oven. Oh well.

This is good stuff! Just the right thickness, chewy and superb with the fresh veggies. We enjoyed it with a simple green salad and cut the rest (save for two pieces) to freeze for later.

The next day for lunch we warmed those two pieces up with an egg on top - about 20-25 minutes in a 350 oven to set the egg then a short broil to lend just the right crunch. Delicious!

Enjoy autumn everyone. It’s my favorite time of year, and I hope you love it too!

Roadside asters

Caprese gougères

Tomatoes and basil here we come!! It's sum-sum-sum-sum-sum-sum-summertime, and we're deep into it. I've been dreaming of a caprese salad and now's the time.

Another visit to The Cheese Lady was in order to score some fresh mozzarella and a tasty grating cheese for some delicious gougères, essentially a cheesy version of profiteroles.

Gruyère is the cheese that's often used in savory gougères but one can certainly waver and choose something equally as tasty. Since I was filling them with mozzarella, tomato and basil, I thought some mozzarella or similar cheese would be a decent addition to the pâte à choux, but I didn't really want a run-of-the-mill grated mozz from the supermarket.

The Cheese Lady to the rescue! A pecorino Toscano was suggested as a good stand in for mozzarella, so that's what I chose for my choux paste. Wanting a little something to grate on the choux tops, I went with a Comté.

You might notice on the package above that the label reads gruyère de Comté, prompting one to ask "What's the diff between that and gruyère, eh? From my very brief research, I learned that a classic gruyère is produced in Switzerland, while a gruyère de Comté comes from the Franche-Comté region (newly re-formed as Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in early 2016) of France on the Swiss border. And, just to add to the confusion, I'll throw one more name in there - the similar Emmental which is also produced in Switzerland but has holes, unlike gruyère. They're all good if you ask me.

So let's make some gougères already.

Basic pâte à choux is made with milk, water, butter, a bit of salt and sugar, flour and egg. For a savory version like this I delete the sugar, add in some black pepper and mustard powder, as well as grated cheese. You could also add herbs if desired, like some dried thyme or basil. Just click here for the full recipe.

Once you've completed the process, just pipe or scoop 'em out onto parchment lined sheet pans. 

In this case I topped them with some grated Comté before popping them in the 400ºF oven.

It's generally recommended that you leave the oven door closed for the first 10 minutes of baking, otherwise the puffs can fall. I usually turn the temp down to 375ºF at that point and give them another 15-20 minutes to finish. Remember to pay attention to what's going on in there!

Ooooh - nice and browned and just begging to be filled and tasted.

On of the beauties of making choux puffs is you can freeze them for later, either unbaked or baked. Cool! Just add 5 minutes or so to the baking time if baking right out of the freezer or, if using already baked puffs that have been frozen, re-crisp them in a 350º oven for 10 minutes or so before filling. The perfect do-ahead treat.

Time to make the caprese salad.

Fresh mozzarella balls from The Cheese Lady plus fresh basil and campari tomatoes from the Fulton Farmer's Market are ready to be chopped and combined with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

For around 40 puffs I used 8 ounces mozz, a generous cup of seeded and chopped tomatoes, about 1/2 cup chopped, packed fresh basil and 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Et voilà!

The puffs were crispy outside and creamy-cheesy inside with just the right amount of moisture for my liking.

Since I was making these for an afternoon event, I waited as long as possible before filling the puffs so as to avoid sogginess. I lit upon an idea and lightly toasted up some panko bread crumbs, stashing a few in the bottom of each puff. What genius!

Once they were all filled, I boxed them up and hit the road! Of course, I had made extras so I could sample a couple. Not bad at all, folks, although I did hanker for a more upfront cheesiness to the gougère and decided the pecorino Toscano was too mild. So next time - gruyère or Comté here we come!