Chapter 2.5: Food Network Focaccia and Completed Ciabatta!

I'm a lot happier today because the new focaccia recipe turned out excellently! As did the ciabatta, even though I gave it an extra rising overnight. As soon as the timer went off for the oven, I could smell the yeasty, olive oil and rosemary smell wafting through the kitchen. I couldn't wait to try it, so I sliced into the hot bread and took a bite! Yum! I could slice this in half and use it for sandwich bread. I had sprinkled kosher salt on the top before baking so it had a nice saltiness to it too. It's a unique flavor just so that after you eat one bite, you want to take another and another. The bread is moist, I think from the olive oil. 

I was visiting a friend at Stanford yesterday, and I saw tons of rosmary bushes everywhere. An idea came to mind --> steal some for my focaccia bread! Fresh rosemary tastes way better than dried rosemary in breads! Thank you Stanford :). 

Activating yeast for ciabatta bread

A word on YEAST. Yet again, I realized the importance of activating active dry yeast in some warm water with sugar, before using it in dough. Interestingly though in this new recipe I'm trying to do for Japanese sweet red bean bread, it said to mix yeast, flour, egg, water, and butter before letting the yeast rise. Interesting. We shall see how those turn out tonight, and see if the yeast will be at fault. Hopefully not!

Here is the finished Ciabatta! Also called "Italian Slipper". It was fluffy and moist, with a nice crispiness on the outside, and lots of holes on the inside :). Honestly tasted quite similar to the focaccia but without the olive oily and rosemary taste. Probably delicious warm with some butter and jam spread on it :). Success!