Claire Saffitz Makes Soft & Crispy Focaccia | Dessert Person — Transcript

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1. 0:00you know one thing i learned during
2. 0:02covet is like a lot of people have
3. 0:04cowbells at home
4. 0:05i was like where'd everyone get the
5. 0:06cowbell you can hear them all right
6. 0:08ready
7. 0:09can i say it action wait do i say action
8. 0:13i forgot hey everyone i'm claire saffits
9. 0:16welcome to my home kitchen today i'm
10. 0:17going to show you a recipe out of my new
11. 0:19cookbook dessert person
12. 0:20it is soft and crispy focaccia and it is
13. 0:22one of my favorites in the book
14. 0:23this focaccia is not only easy but it's
15. 0:26so impressive you have this incredibly
16. 0:28crispy delicious like olive oily bottom
17. 0:31this crunchy top with flaky salt and
18. 0:32this super soft
19. 0:34holy interior and i think will make you
20. 0:36feel like you're this incredible bread
21. 0:37baker when maybe you're still a novice
22. 0:39because it really over delivers with the
23. 0:41end result
24. 0:45[Music]
25. 0:59so this is this is my book dessert
26. 1:01person and
27. 1:03you might be wondering as my editor and
28. 1:05many other people were when i told them
29. 1:07i wanted to call the book dessert person
30. 1:09why do you have savory recipes in the
31. 1:10book to me dessert person is a
32. 1:12state of mind and it's an attitude there
33. 1:14are savory recipes in it because i
34. 1:16really want people to know that baking
35. 1:17isn't just about dessert or sweets it
36. 1:19can be dinner it can be lots of
37. 1:20different things so i have a whole
38. 1:22chapter on savory baking and one of my
39. 1:24favorite
40. 1:25recipes is this focaccia there's
41. 1:28basically like no
42. 1:29meal for which focaccia is not a welcome
43. 1:32accompaniment
44. 1:32especially now that we're getting into
45. 1:34colder weather like soups and stew
46. 1:36weather
47. 1:36it's just so delicious and it keeps
48. 1:38forever it's
49. 1:39the perfect bread there was one time i
50. 1:42made like the entire sheet tree over the
51. 1:43course of five days and wrapped it in
52. 1:45like finally i was like i'm done with it
53. 1:46i threw it in the trash and then i
54. 1:47fished it out of the trash to finish
55. 1:48eating it because it was so good
56. 1:52i was like it's wrapped in plastic it
57. 1:54didn't touch any of the other garbage
58. 1:56it's fine and i was with my mom and then
59. 1:58we toasted it and ate it
60. 1:59[Music]
61. 2:01this recipe is very straightforward you
62. 2:03do need a couple pieces of special
63. 2:05equipment so i'm using a stand mixer
64. 2:07a scale a thermometer this is kind of
65. 2:09optional
66. 2:10but very importantly a half sheet tray
67. 2:13with specific dimensions and then
68. 2:15ingredients also very straightforward we
69. 2:17got flour
70. 2:18water salt yeast and olive oil and
71. 2:21that's it
72. 2:22because there's so few ingredients use a
73. 2:24good quality flour and this is bread
74. 2:26flour
75. 2:26it's kind of a funny thing to be cooking
76. 2:28from the book
77. 2:30so i might be making slight changes
78. 2:33because i'm thinking like
79. 2:35why did i do it that way sorry
80. 2:39active dry use is the most common kind
81. 2:41of yeast you'll find at the grocery
82. 2:42store
83. 2:42it's like little yeast granules that are
84. 2:44covered in a dehydrated coating
85. 2:46so most recipes that use active dry
86. 2:48yeast will tell you to do something
87. 2:49called
88. 2:50proof the yeast and that is just to
89. 2:51guarantee that the yeast is alive
90. 2:53and it will raise your bread and i'm
91. 2:55going to dissolve the yeast in a half a
92. 2:57cup of warm water
93. 2:58just make sure that the water is not
94. 3:02scalding you do not want it to be hot
95. 3:04because that can kill the yeast
96. 3:05now the reason i say to use the
97. 3:06thermometer is just so you can be
98. 3:07certain all right so we're at 100
99. 3:09fahrenheit that's close enough
100. 3:10so i'm whisking the yeast into some warm
101. 3:13water
102. 3:14to get it to dissolve so i'm going to
103. 3:16let that sit for
104. 3:18five minutes or so
105. 3:22so in order to see to really tell if
106. 3:24your yeast is alive
107. 3:26you'll see some kind of like swelling
108. 3:29but just not a lot of really active
109. 3:30bubbling so i know that this yeast is
110. 3:32alive i'm going to proceed
111. 3:33i have room temp water i'm going to add
112. 3:35two and a half more cups
113. 3:36this is six cups of bread flour i went
114. 3:39ahead and weighed it
115. 3:40and my kosher salt and
116. 3:43turn on the mixer i'm going to start on
117. 3:44low all i want to do initially is
118. 3:46incorporate the flour in the water
119. 3:48so i'm going to turn up the speed a
120. 3:50little bit now that all the flour is
121. 3:52hydrated that's when you can increase
122. 3:53the speed
123. 3:54okay so i want to mix this for about
124. 3:56five minutes until the dough is smooth
125. 3:58and starting to wrap around the hook
126. 4:00these are cheap and i like to use them
127. 4:01instead of plastic wrap for covering
128. 4:03stuff so i just
129. 4:04dampened it i don't want anything in the
130. 4:05bowl to dry out so i'm just covering the
131. 4:07bowl
132. 4:09like so and i'm going to let this rest
133. 4:11for about 10 minutes
134. 4:12then when i mix it again it's going to
135. 4:14be much easier kind of to develop the
136. 4:15gluten
137. 4:16and get to that end point so now after
138. 4:1910 minutes
139. 4:20i'm going to turn the mixer back on
140. 4:21everything just stays inside
141. 4:24and i'm going to keep mixing on medium
142. 4:25high
143. 4:27until i start to see the dough pull away
144. 4:30from the sides
145. 4:32so i'm going to let this go i'm looking
146. 4:34for the dough to be extremely smooth and
147. 4:36extremely elastic and to have a little
148. 4:38bit more of its own
149. 4:39shape this will take like 10 to 15
150. 4:41minutes i mean you're at a much greater
151. 4:43risk of
152. 4:44underworking it versus overworking it so
153. 4:46it's very unlikely that you're going to
154. 4:47work this too much
155. 4:48it's not really sticking to the side so
156. 4:50we are ready to go
157. 4:52so you can see this is like so elastic
158. 4:57anything that you're making with active
159. 4:59dry yeast will almost always
160. 5:01tell you to do two rises a quarter cup
161. 5:04of olive oil goes in i am swirling it to
162. 5:07coat the sides
163. 5:08there's a lot of olive oil in this
164. 5:10recipe and it's like it's really what's
165. 5:12giving
166. 5:12the focaccia its flavor so try to use a
167. 5:15good olive oil
168. 5:17definitely something extra virgin you
169. 5:20know
170. 5:20first cold press look for all those
171. 5:21words that kind of thing now one
172. 5:24quick thing i want this to rise and i
173. 5:27want to make sure that the dough isn't
174. 5:28stuck
175. 5:29to the sides of the bowl in any place so
176. 5:30i just take my scraper or my spatula or
177. 5:33even just your hands
178. 5:34and i'm just kind of working around the
179. 5:36dough to make sure that it's loose and
180. 5:37then with your hand
181. 5:39dab a little bit of oil around the
182. 5:40surface and then with that same towel
183. 5:43just throw a cover on it it will
184. 5:45basically double in size
185. 5:47and become super bubbly and airy and
186. 5:49that depending on the temperature of
187. 5:50your kitchen
188. 5:51will take like one to one and a half
189. 5:53maybe even two hours on a cold day
190. 5:56oh bad kitty bad kitty bad kitty felix
191. 6:00get down
192. 6:01get down get down
193. 6:06[Music]
194. 6:10so i did this one in a glass bowl and
195. 6:13you can really see
196. 6:14there's all this bubbling around the
197. 6:16sides this is the poke test this is a
198. 6:17test you can use basically
199. 6:19when you're doing anything with yeast
200. 6:21when i poke
201. 6:23the dough springs back and that's an
202. 6:25indication of how much gas is in it
203. 6:27but leaves a very slight indentation so
204. 6:29now i'm going to generously oil
205. 6:30the hashi tray just as i did the bowl
206. 6:33with the remaining quarter cup
207. 6:34of olive oil now before i transfer the
208. 6:36dough i do a series of
209. 6:39folds or stretches to the dough and this
210. 6:41is a technique that you see a lot like
211. 6:43in sourdough or artisan bread making
212. 6:45i'm gonna go down around the sides and
213. 6:48lift it up
214. 6:49give it a little wiggle and give the
215. 6:51bowl a 90 degree turn
216. 6:53hands go down and around so that you're
217. 6:55really getting underneath the dough and
218. 6:56lifting it up
219. 6:59and then do a couple more of those so
220. 7:02you're really going
221. 7:04around the bolts four times and just
222. 7:05turning 90 degrees each time also just
223. 7:07like look at the surface like you get
224. 7:09all you can see all the gases and all
225. 7:11the bubbles underneath
226. 7:12always go to the indicator and not the
227. 7:14time like the time is a suggestion the
228. 7:16time reflects
229. 7:17how long it took me in my kitchen when i
230. 7:19was making the recipe but it could be so
231. 7:20different for people at home
232. 7:22so always go to the indicator meaning
233. 7:24like the doubled in size part the poke
234. 7:26test rather than
235. 7:27the time so i'm going to stretch the
236. 7:29dough as much as i can to fill up the
237. 7:31sheet tray
238. 7:31but it's going to be a little stubborn
239. 7:33and springy uh which is okay so stretch
240. 7:35it as much as you can
241. 7:37and then when it starts to really spring
242. 7:40back
243. 7:41that's when you need to let it rest so
244. 7:42that the gluten can relax
245. 7:44and we can finish stretching it so i
246. 7:45think this is like all it's going to
247. 7:46really do before it
248. 7:48just contracts if you see any really big
249. 7:51bubbles like that you can go ahead and
250. 7:52pop them
251. 7:52so this is has to get covered and this
252. 7:54time i'm going to use plastic because
253. 7:56the dough is so sticky at this stage and
254. 7:58anything that's on the surface is going
255. 7:59to touch it so i just don't want it to
256. 8:01stick
257. 8:02and to that end i'm going to oil it so i
258. 8:04have like oil left in this bowl
259. 8:06so the gluten needs about 10 minutes to
260. 8:08relax so i'll come back and finish
261. 8:09stretching it
262. 8:10and it's looking great
263. 8:14this photo in the book shows
264. 8:18all of the options that i give you could
265. 8:20put anything you want on top of this
266. 8:21focaccia
267. 8:22the one i'm going to be making is very
268. 8:25simple it's just garlic
269. 8:26and rosemary very classic so i dedicated
270. 8:29the book to my mom because
271. 8:31well for a lot of reasons and one of
272. 8:33them is that
273. 8:34i took a sabbatical which was the word
274. 8:38that i used but really i moved in with
275. 8:39my parents for a month
276. 8:42and my mom helped me work on the book i
277. 8:44i was like behind on my deadlines and
278. 8:46just really needed to focus so my mom
279. 8:49and i
280. 8:49just like cooked every day and we had
281. 8:52all these ants
282. 8:53in the house so my mom called an
283. 8:55exterminator and the exterminator
284. 8:57came by and i was working on the cookies
285. 9:00chapter
286. 9:01and we had like 10 different kinds of
287. 9:03cookies all out
288. 9:04in the kitchen and the exterminator like
289. 9:07took a look at the ants and then took a
290. 9:08look at the cookies and was like
291. 9:10well you have a problem and the kind of
292. 9:13ants that you have
293. 9:14are attracted to sweets so basically i
294. 9:18gave my parents an infestation because
295. 9:20of all the baking that i was doing
296. 9:22and then we gave him so many cookies and
297. 9:23he took them all home
298. 9:26what i love about using rosemary on
299. 9:29the top is that it kind of like fries in
300. 9:32the olive oil
301. 9:33and i just love the flavor of fried
302. 9:35rosemary
303. 9:39quarter cup of olive oil let it sit kind
304. 9:41of infuse
305. 9:43and just because i have them right here
306. 9:45and i feel like it'll add some
307. 9:46red pepper flakes i'm going to carefully
308. 9:48peel back
309. 9:49the plastic because i'm going to reuse
310. 9:51it and just
311. 9:53finish stretching it into all the
312. 9:55corners and you can see that
313. 9:57in a half sheet tray with one inch sides
314. 9:59it comes up about halfway
315. 10:02we are going to cover this again and let
316. 10:04it rise until
317. 10:06the focaccia is basically flush with the
318. 10:08very top of the pan
319. 10:12all right so this one
320. 10:16was chilled and then i took it out of
321. 10:17the fridge
322. 10:19to let it finish its rye so you can see
323. 10:21it's right up to the top
324. 10:23of the pan if you have the time let it
325. 10:26sit overnight
326. 10:27like good things happen it like ferments
327. 10:30slowly it develops better flavor
328. 10:32and you'll have i think a better whole
329. 10:34structure okay this step is called
330. 10:35dimpling the dough
331. 10:37i love this part because it is like the
332. 10:39inner child and he comes out and i'm
333. 10:41like playing in play-doh it's just so
334. 10:43satisfying and tactile and you can like
335. 10:45really get your hands in there
336. 10:46so i'm actually just dipping my hands in
337. 10:49the little pools of oil around
338. 10:51the sides so get your hands all oiled
339. 10:55and now i'm going to use my fingertips
340. 10:57and like
341. 10:58hold my hands like little claw or like
342. 11:00i'm playing the piano
343. 11:02and basically just go push all the way
344. 11:05down to the bottom of the pan and make
345. 11:06these big dimples
346. 11:08so this is kind of like strategically
347. 11:10deflating some of the air bubbles so
348. 11:12that you get
349. 11:12this flat focaccia rather than kind of a
350. 11:15big domed like loafy kind of thing
351. 11:17even if i didn't like eating focaccia i
352. 11:19would probably still make it just so i
353. 11:20could do this part
354. 11:21and like get in there so now i'm gonna
355. 11:24use
356. 11:26my spoon to just drizzle this topping
357. 11:27over it so my oven is preheating
358. 11:29to 450 we bake this really really hot
359. 11:33and i have a rack on the very bottom and
360. 11:36then a rack on the very top and i'm
361. 11:37going to talk about why
362. 11:38but that basically will help me to
363. 11:40achieve a crispy
364. 11:42bottom and also a really brown golden
365. 11:45beautiful crispy top and now the last
366. 11:48thing is
367. 11:49a little flaky salt on top this is
368. 11:51really just
369. 11:52to give it a little crunch and bring out
370. 11:55the flavor of the garlic and rosemary
371. 11:56and all that
372. 11:57so this is going on the bottom rack
373. 11:58first
374. 12:04it is it is hot in this kitchen with
375. 12:06this oven on 450.
376. 12:08how many how hot do you think it is in
377. 12:10here do you think it's 85 degrees in
378. 12:13here
379. 12:14let's wait i have an idea
380. 12:20holy [ __ ] it says 87 fahrenheit
381. 12:24so the bread is starting to pull away
382. 12:27from the corners of the pan
383. 12:28and i can tell it's nicely brown and i
384. 12:30just want to get more browning on this
385. 12:32surface
386. 12:33rather than the bottom so now it's going
387. 12:34to go onto the upper rack
388. 12:42all right and then all that heat from
389. 12:44the top of the oven will
390. 12:46focus on the surface and that will make
391. 12:48this beautiful crispy
392. 12:50top layer uh all right so i think maybe
393. 12:52another five to ten minutes
394. 12:53and then we'll take it out unmold it
395. 12:56don't look at that one
396. 12:58don't look at that one that one over
397. 13:00proofed
398. 13:02that was gonna only look there it's
399. 13:03gonna be right there okay
400. 13:06look at that one i don't have enough
401. 13:07places to hide stuff in this kitchen
402. 13:11what's that cat doing right there um
403. 13:14look at his whiskers isn't he handsome
404. 13:17hey you can cut now
405. 13:20i think you're good so it's done
406. 13:23i know it's done because i looked but i
407. 13:25also know because i smelled it
408. 13:26i am just going to loosen the focaccia
409. 13:30with the this is a really good tool for
410. 13:32this it's a fish spatula
411. 13:33you could use any flexible spatula this
412. 13:36is just to make sure
413. 13:37it didn't get sticky anywhere
414. 13:41so i devised that kind of system of
415. 13:44baking on the very bottom
416. 13:45and then moving to the top because when
417. 13:47i was testing this recipe
418. 13:49at the beginning i was just baking in
419. 13:50the center of the oven and depending on
420. 13:54you know like the recipe or whatever
421. 13:55like sometimes i just wouldn't get
422. 13:56enough browning on the bottom
423. 13:58but like i just wanted it to be crispy i
424. 14:00like to cut focaccia with scissors
425. 14:02because
426. 14:04it's so big and like this is just a
427. 14:06super easy way to get my
428. 14:08little bite size piece i titled the
429. 14:10recipe
430. 14:11soft and crispy focaccia because you got
431. 14:13this super crispy bottom
432. 14:15and then this soft interior crispy on
433. 14:18the top
434. 14:18i think it really lives up to its recipe
435. 14:20name
436. 14:23this recipe stays good for a remarkably
437. 14:26long time
438. 14:27it's so much fun to make you just get to
439. 14:29like play with really fun dough
440. 14:31and i think that it is a great recipe
441. 14:33for people who want to get more familiar
442. 14:34with bread making
443. 14:35working with yeast and all that and then
444. 14:37you have this just incredibly
445. 14:38impressive delicious product at the end
446. 14:41and also you have a lot of it so
447. 14:43great thing to share freeze eat all week
448. 14:46um
449. 14:46and thank you so much for watching our
450. 14:49first video from
451. 14:50my book dessert person there's so much
452. 14:52more to come the book is just filled
453. 14:54with recipes that i can't wait to show
454. 14:55you
455. 14:56uh so yeah i'm i'm so excited that we're
456. 14:58all here together
457. 15:03come here kitty come here what do you
458. 15:06think
459. 15:07what do you think of the focaccia hey
460. 15:09everyone i'm claire thank you so much
461. 15:10for watching i really love being able to
462. 15:12reach everyone at home again
463. 15:13and show you recipes from dessert person
464. 15:15i want to take a moment to highlight
465. 15:17the work of another penguin random house
466. 15:19author and a book that i love
467. 15:21it is this one by hawa hassan called in
468. 15:23bibi's kitchen
469. 15:25and hawa's book highlights the recipes
470. 15:28stories and histories of grandmothers
471. 15:30from eight east african countries
472. 15:32all around the indian ocean and it is a
473. 15:34gorgeous book
474. 15:35filled with history and narrative and of
475. 15:37course delicious recipes
476. 15:38many of them vegan and vegetarian i've
477. 15:40really enjoyed reading it i like to read
478. 15:42it like a novel
479. 15:43but it has some wonderful recipes that
480. 15:45you will love and i think will be a
481. 15:47great introduction for many
482. 15:49into the food of east africa so check it
483. 15:51out it's called in bibi's kitchen
484. 15:53thanks for watching you know where to
485. 15:55buy it you know where to buy books
486. 15:56books are easy to find