Shakshuka Focaccia - Individual Rounds

Don't let the ridiculously long instructions scare you off from making these shakshuka focaccia rounds by Uri Scheft, founder of Breads Bakery. The instructions are long because they involve dough, plus the tomato-based matbucha topping for the dough, but the actual effort required (as you can see from the prep time) is really quite minimal. Just read the instructions thoroughly before you start and if you have any questions or find some part unclear, don't hesitate to ask!

Before we go any further, perhaps we should clarify what shakshuka is, in case you've been living under a rock or not in a major US city, where shakshuka appeared overnight in the last few years on what felt like 70% of all brunch menus. There are many, many recipes out there for shakshuka, but it can be essentially summarized as a (breakfast) dish of eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce, historically originating in either the Ottoman Empire or Yemen, recently popularized in the US by chefs like Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi.

The first time we made these, Caleb cut his into pieces with a knife and fork all refined-like, whereas I tore off a side of mine and used it stir my perfectly poached egg into the sauce and ate from the dipped bread. Caleb highly recommends eating it my way.

There's a recipe on Food52 that tries to recreate these individual serving shakshuka focaccias as a single sheet pan focaccia, but it's nowhere close to as good. First, it uses a different dough base, second, it uses a way more complicated tomato-based sauce, and third, it's not as fun to eat. It's true your oven needs to be on for longer, and there are about two extra steps involved to make these single-serve, but the extra effort is completely worth it. With your own shakshuka focaccia, you can use the high-sided "wall" to stir together and scoop out the middle sauce and egg, plus you get to personalize your focaccia by adding cheese and picking your own seed toppings. These are essentially a breakfast (or dinner!) poached egg-bread bowl. If you're looking for a different tomato-based sauce to use, I really like this version from Tori Avey (and so did Kate and Jon).

Because the instructions are quite lengthy, I don't want to babble on too long here, but I do want to impart some words of wisdom:

1. This matbucha sauce is amazing and Caleb has asked me to make it three times in the span of a week because it's so good.. So good, I received nightly texts about it. You might want to do yourself a favor and double or triple the recipe, but if you do that, keep in mind that the sauce will need double or triple the time to reduce.
2. It seems strange to quarter the serrano peppers lengthwise, rather than chopping them into smaller pieces, but trust me, I've tried it multiple ways and this way is the best. The lengthwise quarters melt into the sauce and they can be easily picked out by people who don't want to eat them. (Do remember that it's easier to add heat than to take it away. As written, this sauce has exactly the right amount of heat for me, however I love spicy food.)
3. If you're cooking for six, you might consider pre-baking the focaccia rounds then simply adding the heated filling and a poached/fried egg to the top so that everyone can easily eat at the same time.
4. Make a deeper depression in the matbucha sauce than you think you will need for your eggs because otherwise you'll wind up with egg white escaping up and over your bread walls.
5. To add more vegetables, wilt some chopped spinach or baby greens into the reduced matbucha sauce, or once the focaccias are cooked, sprinkle on some (frozen) baby peas and stir them in to heat. Alternatively, just serve with a side salad.
6. Be really careful when you transfer the filled rounds on the parchment sheet to the oven.
7. See the notes at the bottom of the recipe for baking four rounds at a time and for using fresh tomatoes.

Once filled, these should be served the same day, so if you don't intend to eat them all, bake the focaccia shells without the filling and store them in an air-tight container for 3-4 days (although they are best eaten the same day they are baked).

Slightly altered from Breaking Breads for enhanced clarity and deeper explanations.

Shakshuka Focaccia

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Course: Bread, Brunch, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Keyword: Breads Bakery, Breaking Breads, Matbucha, No-knead dough

Prep Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Rising time (minimum): 2 hours hours

Total Time: 4 hours hours

Servings: 6 rounds

Ingredients

Matbucha

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
• 4-6 cloves garlic
• 1-2 serrano or jalapeno peppers tops cut off, split lengthwise
• 28 ounce can pureed tomatoes or 10-12 large ripe tomatoes* see notes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar if tomatoes are unripe

No-Knead Focaccia

• 680 grams (3 cups) cool room-temperature water
• 3 grams (½ teaspoon) active dry yeast or 10 grams (1 ¼ tablespoons) fresh yeast
• 850 grams (6 ¾ cups) all-purpose flour (11.7% protein) or "00" pizza flour plus "lots" of extra for dusting
• 10 grams (2 teaspoons) granulated sugar
• 10 grams (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
• 2-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil more as needed
• 40 grams (¼ cup) sesame seeds, nigella (black sesame), or everything spice mix more as needed

Topping

• 6 large eggs
• crumbled feta, thinly sliced halloumi, or shaved semi-soft cheese
• 15 grams (¼ cup) fresh parsley finely chopped
• flaky salt as needed

Instructions

Matbucha

• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and split serrano peppers, then cook, stirring often, until the garlic is lightly golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce the heat to low.
• Add the pureed, whole or shredded tomatoes; then stir in the salt and the sugar (if using). Cook the tomato mixture, stirring every so often (while you make the focaccia dough), until the liquid has completely evaporated and the tomatoes have broken down to a jam-like consistency, about 2 hours.
• Let the matbucha cool a bit and serve it warm, at room temperature, or cold. Refrigerate the matbucha in an airtight container for up to I week.

No-Knead Focaccia

• Prepare the dough: pour the water into a very large bowl or "bread-rising container" such as a Cambro bucket. Stir the yeast into the water (crumbling it to break it apart if using fresh yeast) so the yeast is completely dissolved. Following this order exactly, add the flour, sugar, then salt to the water in the bowl. Use your clean, de-ring-ed hands to swirl everything together, then scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl/container with a plastic bench scraper or hard plastic spatula. Shape your hand like a cup then scoop the dough away from the sides of the bowl and fold it on top of itself, continuing to mix it by hand like this for about 1 minute, at which point there should be no clumps remaining. Cover the bowl with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and set it aside in a draft-free corner of your kitchen for about 30 minutes, at which point the dough should have relaxed into the bowl and risen slightly.
• Turn 1: Remove the plastic wrap, then drizzle a little olive oil around the edges of the dough and onto your hands. Using your hands and a bench scraper to help you grab onto one-quarter of the dough from a bottom edge, stretch the dough section up and flop it over onto the middle of the dough ball. Do not  press down, which would release gas in the dough. Repeat this process three times, giving the dough a total of four folds. Slide the bench scraper under the dough ball and turn it over, so the bottom now faces you. Re-cover with the plastic wrap and set the bowl aside for another 20-30 minutes.
  
• At this point, you should be able to see a little gluten development. If you grab a small section of dough and stretch it too far, it will rip easily instead of stretching out into a paper-thin layer (also known as the windowpane test).
  
• Turn 2: Repeat the "folding" you did in step 2, taking a bottom "corner" and folding it up and over the top of the rest of the dough, doing this a total of four times (once for each "corner"). Cover the dough again and let it rest another 20-30 minutes. The dough should appear smoother after this rest and when you stretch a corner of the dough it should stretch a lot further before breaking. 
  
• Optional time loop: At this point, you can proceed with the recipe or, if you need more time, A) refrigerate the dough overnight then bring it back to room temperature (leave out for about 1-2 hours) before proceeding OR B) continue the 4 corner fold process every hour or two for another 3-5 hours. This dough is pretty flexible about timing.
  
• Preheat: When you're about 1 hour away from wanting the focaccia, place a pizza stone* (large enough to accommodate 2 focaccia rounds), baking steel or sheet pan in your oven, with your two oven racks evenly spaced in the oven (one at the lower third, one at the upper third). Start preheating your oven to 500 F. [The oven and baking stones/pans ought to be at temperature for about 30 minutes before you start baking.]
  
• Divide the dough: Heavily flour a clean work surface. Use the bench scraper (or your hands) to gently lift and transfer the risen dough onto the floured surface, then generously flour the top of the dough as well. This dough is quite sticky, you will need a lot. Using your hands, gently lift and stretch the dough out into a 14-by-8 inch rectangle. Using a bench scraper, divide the dough lengthwise to form 2 long strips, then divide each strip into 3 pieces to form 6 rectangles each. Fold the 4 corners of each piece up and towards the center, thus creating a round shape with a dip in the middle. Flip the rounds over.
  
• Proof the rounds: Cover the formed rounds with a clean kitchen towel or lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave them to rest in a draft-free, warm but not-too-hot spot for about 20-40 minutes. The rounds are ready when you  see a few bubbles on the surface of the dough and each piece has increased in volume by 50%.
  
• Shape and season the rounds: Place a sheet of parchment paper on a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet, if you have neither, a light but heatproof cutting board or piece of cardboard will work. Lightly flour the parchment paper, then place two of the dough rounds on top. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a small bowl, dip your fingertips into the bowl, then press your fingertips into the center of a dough round and press down to create a flat depression in the center (you're trying to create a bowl). Gently widen the depression into a circle, leaving a 1-inch border (or wall) around the edge of the dough. You want a flat middle with a tall edge to hold in the filling. Repeat with the other dough piece. Return to the first round and re-flatten the center, trying to make it as thin as possible.* Add ⅓ cup of the matbucha sauce to the center and spread the sauce out slightly. Sprinkle the sesame seeds/nigella seeds/everything spice mix around the edges of the dough (try not to get the seeds into the sauce. If you want to add cheese, sprinkle a little onto the matbucha. Make a depression in the middle of the matbucha and quickly crack an egg into the depression.
  
• Bake: Quickly slide the parchment sheet onto the preheated pizza stone and close the oven door. Bake until the breads are browned and the eggs are set. The original recipe says this should take 9-10 minutes, but in all three ovens I've used, it has taken 16-18 minutes for the eggs to set.
  

  While the first two focaccias are baking, prepare the next two rounds, waiting to crack in the egg until just before baking. Repeat the baking/preparing process with the remaining pieces of dough.
  
• Serve: Slide the parchment paper holding the cooked focaccia rounds onto a wire cooling rack. Drizzle the tops with more olive oil, sprinkle with flaky salt and chopped parsley. Serve warm while yolks are still runny, encouraging people to use the edges of the focaccia to scoop and eat the shakshuka middle.
  

Notes

*These focaccias are baked in twos, both to maintain the oven temperature and because most people only have one baking stone and one pizza peel. You can hasten the process by baking the first four focaccia at one time, which you'll want to do if you're feeding four people so no one has to wait, you will just need to be very quick about it. Preheat the oven with both top and bottom racks filled by a pizza stone/baking sheet. Set up two pizza peels/cardboard trays/rimless baking sheets with a pieces of floured parchment paper and proceed with the shaping instructions for four pieces of dough, waiting to crack the eggs into the four rounds until just before baking. Work very quickly to transfer the rounds to the oven (a second pair of hands would help here), minimizing the amount of time the door is open to keep the heat in.

To make the matbucha with 10-12 fresh tomatoes:

-1- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice and water, then set it aside.

-2- Cut a small X in the bottom of each tomato. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water until the skin at the X starts to curl, about 2 minutes. If the tomatoes are very under-ripe, they may need a minute or two longer; if they are very ripe, check at 30-60 seconds. Working quickly, use a slot­ted spoon to transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of ice water.

-3- Drain the shocked tomatoes. Working with one tomato at a time, peel the skin off, hold it over the sauce­pan containing the garlic and peppers, then shred it with your fingers so the pieces drop into the pan. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes.