Made Focaccia bread this weekend with a friend.
Messed up the first batch because we got the proportions wrong on the Semolina flour and had to toss out the dough ball.
Second batch went pretty well. I can't claim times were uh, completely accurately followed.
But it came out pretty decent. She seemed to really like it, I was a bit more critical. But I think that had a lot to do with the sea salt the recipe called for sprinkled over the top. I dunno what it is, maybe I'm just sensitive to salt, but once I crunched into one of those flakes, I couldn't taste anything else.
If I had to do it over I'd:
a) not knead the shit out of it so much. I think the texture was fine but I expected it to be, I dunno, softer.
b) Would spread it more evenly across the pan. In an effort to get it square the edges got kinda thin, and therefore crispy. I'd try to keep a consistent depth across the whole thing next time.
c) Definitely would not use Sea Salt flakes next time. I would much rather just go with table salt so it's not a minefield of saltiness.
d) I'd probably play with more ingredients. Rather than Rosemany we used garlic, oregano, basil. (You know, classic Italian shit.) Also sliced black olives on top. I may just have been too drunk, but I don't know if the flavors came across. Did I not use enough? Was it all drowned in the olive oil? I dunno. Recipes seem kinda restrained for what they put in focaccia, but I think if I were to try again, I might be more adventurous. Grated asiago cheese over the top to finish, maybe some actual garlic thrown in the dough rather than garlic powder. All sorts of stuff you could load it up with, although after you've poked holes in it, I don't know how much weight or grease or w/e the dough would actually support.
Anyways, stupidly easy to make, took about 3 hours which is almost all proofing and rising time, lots of stuff you can do with it. Would recommend. Have at least half a bottle of olive oil on hand, it compromises like 70% of the calories in the thing. I got my recipes from the Food Wishes channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AmALM0liI0