04/04/2021
A friend recently made a focaccia that looked like this 'overnight' version that I've tried once before. I've been thinking about trying it again and I needed to make one to take to a family lunch today. I had limited time this morning, so it seemed like a good idea to make it last night, ahead of time (to ferment slowly in the fridge) and therefore leaving me more room to make more HCBs first thing today.
The dough was pretty much the same ratios of ingredients as my normal 'rise for a few hours' recipe, but somehow it just didn't 'dough up' and stayed really sloppy, gloopy and runny. When I checked it this morning it was still pretty runny, but it had all the bubbles. I tried to have faith, and I held tight to the trust that a friend, who uses this recipe a lot, had in the recipe. She tends to wing it a bit more than I do and isn't so precise with the measurements, and assured me that it would work or be a fun experiment!
Despite the recipe telling me to roll the dough into a ball, I managed to POUR the gloop into a dish. I carried it oh so carefully, on my lap, all the way to our lunch location, so mindful of it spilling out of the dish all over me, the car, everything. I watched as all the air slowly bubbled to the top and burst as we drove the hour to Mt Tamborine. Still, I held the faith!
I got it into the oven ASAP. I reduced the heat a little, thinking to balance it out with a little longer cooking time, to counter the extra liquid that I felt the dough had. Oh my goodness! After 5 minutes, it began to look like an actual bread!
I was STUNNED. I couldn't stop exclaiming how it ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE BREAD! This weird, gloopy, sloppy mess turned into a spongy, crispy-on-the-outside, delicious focaccia!!! It still held enough air and bubbles to soak up the juices and sauces from our magnificent lunch and was just incredible - made moreso by the fear and excitement of the unusual fermentation/consistency.
So, sometimes recipes are weird. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. But it's all fun and games and learning :D
