Babes Bake Potato Focaccine

With the cooler weather coming in October and early November, I find myself drawn to baking again. Between now and late November there are usually plenty of occasions to have adult beverages and this Potato Focaccine from Italy is perfect to accompany them. As Kitchen of the Month I was able to choose the recipe challenge for November, so I hope you enjoy these!

These are like tiny focaccia. I found them on the blog My Pinch of Italy and they sounded just right for the November challenge. You can eat them the same day or save for a day in a paper bag, but beyond that they probably become stale. They are made with potatoes, which give them some keeping ability, and are flavored with olive oil and sea salt and sage, but you can use another herb like rosemary or thyme as I did. The flour is O Italian flour or a mixture of that and durum wheat flour but again, a small substitution of another flour will probably be OK, just keep a large quantity of the O flour (I used OO pizza flour and unbleached white bread flour).

Here is what Fiorenza of My Pinch of Italy says about the Focaccine: "Potato focaccine, as they are the little version of focaccia, they suit perfectly as an aperitif with friends, as a starter or for a picnic, or even simply because you like them and have a craving for them. They are usually flavored with rosemary or thyme which are perfect, but we decided to use sage, just as good and we are so happy with it.

Their peculiarity is not only in the size, is especially in the dough, as potatoes add softness to it. Adding potatoes in the dough is not unusual in the Italian baking product at all, especially in the South of Italy.
Here is another example with potato in the dough with this Apulian Focaccia – apulian-focaccia"

I decided to go with a more traditional rosemary version since I have a bush the size of a Volkswagen van of rosemary, so an endless supply.

 The recipe calls for 1 centimeter rounds, but that is less than 1/2 an inch, which seems pretty small. I used a piping tip to cut mine out and they were just about an inch (2.54 centimeters) in diameter. That allowed me to make far more than a dozen of them at that size. It also turns out that I was reading it wrong. The thickness of the patted out dough should be about 1 centimeter, but the focaccine themselves should be wider, about the size of a biscuit or small roll. Not knowing that, I made the little ones and  I loved them...a delicious little morsel...and it makes it easier to eat many at a sitting. Went great with a cup of apple cider, spiced, with a bit of bourbon added.  These are a bit crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and quite addictive.

Photo below by the recipe shows what mine looked like using that size (1 inch). I recommend going heavy with the final drizzle of olive oil.  The rest of my dough was baked in a 9-inch cake tin as a regular focaccia, which was wonderful, too. 

Do head around to the other Bread Baking Babes sites to see what they did...I suspect that their focaccine are biscuit shaped and sized and equally delicious.

Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories HERE
Kelly of A Messy Kitchen HERE
Cathy of Bread Experience HERE
Judy of Judy's Gross Eats HERE
Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups HERE
Elizabeth of blog from OUR kitchen HERE

If you would like to be a Bread Baking Buddy, just bake by November 29th and send me an email with a photo and the URL where you posted. I'll post the round-up as close to Dec. 1 as I can. My email is plachman at sonic dot net.

Potato Focaccine

10-12 focaccine, Preparation 25 minutes + 2 hours and half of leavening, Cooking time 25-30 minutes

• 150g of yellow or white mealy potatoes
• 400g of Italian flour ‘0’ (Manitoba flour) – or 200g Italian flour ‘0’ (Manitoba flour) mixed with 200g durum wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Fresh yeast, 15 g or dry instant yeast, 8 g
• 3 tablespoons of Evoo – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Lukewarm water, 200 ml
• 7-8 fresh sage leaves, chopped
• sea salt, to taste

Method

Boil the potatoes in plenty of unsalted water. You can peel them or boil them with their peel and then pass them in the potato masher.

When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain and let them cool, but not cool them completely or it will be difficult to mix them to the flour. Once lukewarm and crushed, reduce them to mashed and add the puree in the bowl with the flour. Dissolve the dry yeast in lukewarm water, about 100 ml, or the fresh yeast.

Tips: the water must not be hot or it will kill the yeast. Instead it must be lukewarm, this will help it.

Chop the sage leaves with a knife or with scissors. In Italy we also use a kitchen tool called ‘mezzaluna’.

In a large bowl put the flours and add the freshly chopped sage. Add the water with the melted yeast inside and mix with a wooden spoon. Pour the Evoo and start kneading the ingredients with your hands.

Tips: You can dissolve the salt in the remaining water so that it does not cancel out the work of the yeast. Yeast and salt should never be joined together at the same time.

Add the rest of the water with the salt dissolved in it, and knead well for 10 minutes until you get a soft and moist dough that will be a bit sticky as well.
Cover it now with a plastic wrap or a cloth and let it rise for at least 2 hours in a warm and dry place.

When the dough is doubled, roll it out with your hands, no rolling-pin (these are focaccine and not pizza). The tip of the fingers will help create the characteristic dimples where the oil collects in little puddles.  Add a bit of flour on the chopping board or the kitchen table so you can work it better. Form discs of about 1 centimeter with a pastry cutter or with an upside-down glass, place them on a baking tray covered with parchment paper and leave them for another 30 minutes. Once also this last leavening is finished, press focaccine in the centre to form the edge and brush with Evoo.

Bake at 180 ° C (160 C fan) (350 F) for about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. When cooked, flavor your focaccine with a drizzle of olive oil and rock salt. 

How to keep them?
Potato focaccine are good to eat freshly baked, however you can store them in a paper bag for a day.

Elle's tip: Use some of the water you boiled the potatoes in as your water to dissolve the yeast...after it has cooled down to lukewarm...and your dough will be even nicer.