Sweet Focaccia with Oranges

Maybe you'll recall back to my ideas post in December, when I mentioned picking up Divine Food at Omnivore Books in San Francisco? It was the stunning, mouth-watering photography of food that drew me in, like the one for this sweet focaccia with oranges. The thoughtful essays on food as it relates to Israeli and Palestinian culture made me choose Divine Food over several other books I was considering. Maybe I should have paid some attention to the recipes themselves.

The bookseller told me Gestalten is a highly respected publisher and everything they produce is very well done, but a Google search indicates Gestalten doesn't publish many English-language cookbooks, so maybe I should have done a little homework instead of trusting. I think some things have been lost in translation or poor editing. Important things, like amounts and methods and critical steps. The mistakes contained in this one recipe for sweet focaccia with oranges seem primarily attributable to someone's laziness. There are two focaccia recipes in this cookbook, a focaccia with mixed seeds and a sweet focaccia with oranges. The savory focaccia header states it produces 2 loaves. The sweet focaccia header states it produces 1 loaf. However, halfway through the recipe for sweet focaccia with oranges, the directions for what to do with the topping have been copy-pasted from the savory loaves. All of sudden, there are two loaves to work with instead of one. What? No way my dough wanted to roll out to two loaves of 12-by-16-inches each. Plus, for a liquid-y list of topping ingredients, the book's directions didn't make much sense. "Mix ingredients together, place topping on dough." The whole cupful of sugar-water? I think not.

So, I had to do some additional "recipe development" before this recipe was ready for posting. Should all the liquid really be added? Only the orange? How long should the oranges soak in the liquid? Should the liquid be cooked first? Should the liquid and oranges be cooked together? If so, how much should I reduce the liquid? So many questions about the topping to test. In the end, I settled on soaking the oranges in the liquid while the dough undergoes the first rise, then adding only the oranges, not the ⅓-1/2 cup of liquid that remained unabsorbed. Cooking the oranges wasn't the answer, it made the final orange slices stickier and tougher to chew. As instructed below, the orange rind is beautifully soft, not bitter or sour, and the focaccia works just as easily served with dinner, for dessert with cheese, or for breakfast.

Mixed feelings about the editing aside, I liked this sweet focaccia with oranges. The whole wheat flour is a beautiful addition, adding a subtle flavor and texture relative to an all white flour focaccia. Depending on the honey you use, you can influence the flavor of the rest of the loaf. Try it with a chestnut or buckwheat honey for something rich and earthy, or try an orange blossom or lime honey to play up the citrus notes. It's so easy to make and it doesn't require much forethought, so it's hard to be too upset about the editing.

Bloom your yeast with part of the water, add it to a bowl along with your honey, all-purpose and whole wheat flour, plus salt. Knead the dough in whatever manner suits your kitchen best (hands, dough hook, bread machine). Stream in the olive oil slowly as you knead, continuing until you have a bouncy elastic-looking dough. Add the water, knead a little more until it comes together and forms a supple dough ball. Cover and set aside. Slice your oranges (it's completely fine to be sloppy about this), whisk your topping liquids together, add the orange and set it aside. Come back an hour or two later, lazily roll out your dough, scatter it with your soaked oranges (rinds and all), leaving the liquid behind. Sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. Oooo, pretty. Let the dough rise while you preheat the oven, then bake.

Disclaimer: I feel compelled to point out that this bread was very divisive when I served it to a crowd. Some people really liked it. Some people thought it was bizarre. Some people really were not fans of the unpeeled orange slices. However, on a different occasion when I served a loaf of this focaccia bread with three toppings: half orange slices, one-quarter plain, and one-quarter savory (with olive oil and za'atar), the orange half was decimated first.

Original source: Divine Food

Sweet Focaccia with Oranges

Aside from rise time for the dough, required effort for this focaccia is very minimal.

Print Pin Rate

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Rising time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 3 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 1 sheet focaccia

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 tablespoon (10 g / 0.35 oz) fresh yeast instant or active yeast (same quantity) also works equally well; no need to bloom instant yeast.
• 4 tablespoon (84 g) honey reduce to 1 tablespoon if making "savory" batch
• 1 ½ cups (350 ml) cold water
• 2.9 cups (400 g / 14 oz) white flour
• 0.7 cups (100 g / 3.65 oz) whole-wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon fine salt
• 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Topping

• ½ cup (120 ml) water
• ½ cup (100 g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur e.g. Triple Sec or Grand Marnier
• 2 oranges finely cut into ⅓-inch thick slices

Assembly

• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves for garnish

Instructions

Dough

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the dough hook attachment*, bloom the yeast with ¾ of the total water amount, about 5 minutes. Add the honey, both flours, and the salt. Knead at a low speed for 3 minutes until a ball of dough forms.
• Stream in the olive oil, continue kneading at medium speed for 7 minutes. Continuing to knead, gradually add the rest of the water until fully absorbed.
• Grease a bowl with olive oil, add the dough ball, cover loosely with oiled cling film and side aside to rest until the dough doubles in size (about 1 - 1 ½ hours).

Topping

• While the dough is rising, whisk together the water, sugar, and orange liqueur. Add the orange slices and let soak.

Assembly

• Lightly grease your work surface (a large board or counter), roll/pat the dough ball out on the surface into a 15-by-21-inch rectangle.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place half the soaked orange slices on the parchment paper, staying within a 15-by-21-inch rectangle. Lift the dough and place so it covers the orange slices. Cover the top of the dough with the remaining half of the orange slices. Sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Let rise for 1 hour.
• While the focaccia rises, preheat the oven to 410 F. It needs to be at 410 F for at least 20 minutes before you bake the focaccia.
  
• Bake the focaccia for 20 minutes, until golden brown along the edges.
• Serve immediately.

Notes

*Don't have a mixer with the dough hook attachment? Never fear. This dough is quite easy to work with by hand. Just follow the instructions, doing the kneading on a clean counter instead of mechanically.
Alternatively, toss all the ingredients in a bread machine at once, set it to dough, and walk away until the cycle completes.