This is a short post but long on flavor.  It’s all about the first focaccia I ever made with Tartine bread dough — and in fact, the best focaccia I have made yet.

Yesterday was baking day.  Monday night I had started my leaven , and all day Tuesday I let the bread dough develop.  Wednesday morning (early) I baked.  I decided to make a double recipe (i.e four loaves worth of dough).  The first pair was a cranberry-walnut country-style bread, using 60/35/5 ratio of organic bread flour (KAF)/home-ground whole wheat (a little coarser than usual)/and home-ground rye flour.  We froze one loaf, enjoyed half of the other one, and gave Steve a present at dinner of the remaining half.

The other recipe was 80/20 (no rye) — a lighter whole grain bread style.  Baked one loaf for the freezer and put the other in a banneton, covered with a dish towel, in the refrigerator to retard development.  This afternoon (Thursday) we liberated the dough from the refrigerator and  — after it warmed up to be workable — put it to use for a focaccia studded with thinly-sliced Yukon Gold potatoes and hand-picked Provencal thyme from my raised-bed garden.  Chad Robertson’s recipe called for salting the potatoes to remove much of the excess moisture, then mixing together with olive oil, freshly-ground black pepper, and thyme.  The potatoes are distributed all over the surface of the dough, which is stretched across a rimmed baking sheet, then baked in a 500° F. oven until the potatoes are crispy.  Accompanied by a couple of glasses of 2007 Damaschito Aglianico from Basilicata, the results were extremely gratifying.  To be repeated — early and often.