Focaccia for Dessert with Craig Kominiak

Boom!

Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have

What fun we're going to have

baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads

right here in my own kitchen.

Craig Kominiak, executive chef

at New York City's renowned Ecce Panis Bakery

never got to make focaccia like these

when he was a Navy cook.

Today, Chef Craig will teach us his secrets.

Join us, on...

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Behold the bread!

Or, I should say, behold the focaccia.

And these all are focaccia of one type or another

and they're going to be made for us

by Craig Kominiak

of the Ecce Panis, or "Behold the Bread," Company

in New York.

Right, exactly.

And are we going to start the dough?

Let's start it.

We want to take

a half cup of water--

which you already have measured out there--

and put it in here.

And then we're going to take

two tablespoons of yeast.

Dry, active yeast.

Dry, active yeast.

You can use fresh yeast also.

Do you ever use that instant yeast?

I haven't, no.

Probably not at the bakery.

No, we use a lot of fresh yeast

when we're making our large batches.

And what you want to do here

is just whisk it in a little bit

to activate it.

It just kind of helps it out a little bit

just to get the yeast going.

Let it sit there and bubble on the side a little bit.

We're going to take our water--

and we need a cup and three-quarters of water--

and what we're going to do to it

is add some oil.

That'll add some elasticity to the dough.

We're going to fill that up about a quarter of a cup.

What kind of oil?

We use olive oil.

Now, what we're going to do

is take some of the flour.

And, uh, right here we have some flour

already measured out

and it's two pounds-- so there are seven cups.

What... what kind of flour?

This is all-purpose.

It's a very nice, soft...

Is it bleached, unbleached?

It's unbleached.

Unbleached, all-purpose.

So we'll just take some of the liquid and put it in here.

And we're going to take a little bit of the flour.

We'll put that in here.

And I like putting some of it

in a small bowl like this.

And then we'll put it on the dough hook

and on the machine and just combine it a little bit.

So, what we're going to do

is just put it in here a little bit--

get it activated, start mixing it around.

So, we have it going there a little bit...

coming together.

And then we'll just drop it down

and, on side here

we can add the rest of the flour.

And that's just sort of started to mix

Right.

And then what we'll do is add the rest of the water.

And I always like

to hold back a little bit on that.

How much water in all, about?

With the oil and all, you have two full cups.

We'll bring this up here.

Okay...

You can see by the way it's mixing

we're going to probably to need it all.

It's coming together nicely.

What you're looking for

is the dough to come away from the sides--

to come into a ball.

And that's coming together very good.

There's a nice ball now.

Okay, when the dough comes

to a ball like this around the hook

a lot of times it just stays

to the middle of the hook on there.

So what we want to do

is just... you might have to do this

one or two, three times possibly

and you're just moving it down.

I like using the food processor.

That's another way of doing it, sure.

You don't have all this trouble with it.

Right, it's just a nice, straight mix there.

Bring this back up.

Okay, when it comes to this point

we're going to be testing the dough

and... it seems like it's really nice.

And basically what we want to look for

is a window in the dough--

it's just what they call...

and that will actually show you

the elasticity of the dough.

So, basically what you have to do

is take it out.

And you want to bring it out a little bit

so you can almost... see right through the dough.

Huh...

If it wasn't ready, it would just rip on you.

I see, so it's really fully elastic.

...create your nice elasticity

so you can see through the window.

And that looks really nice.

It isn't too sticky.

No, not at all--

it's not a very sticky dough at all.

Yes, I see, you can pull it way out.

Right, almost like a strudel dough--

you can really put it out.

And then what you might want to do

is just finish it on the table a little bit

just to bring it to a nice ball.

The more time you can let it rest and relax...

The first time, we'll let it rise in a bowl--

in an oiled bowl--

for maybe about an hour and a half to two hours

to come and double in size.

And then, what we can do

is we'll just take a little oil here, oil the bowl...

so it doesn't stick.

Put that right there.

Well, it certainly looks... it has a nice look.

A nice shine, right, exactly.

Put a little plastic wrap on there

and that'll kind of keep it from holding a crust

and still keep it nice and moist.

Now what we have it in a bowl

covered with plastic here

we're going to let it rise twice.

The first rise will be about an hour and a half

or until double in size.

And just keep it right at room temperature?

Right at room temperature, exactly.

Then we're going to punch it down again

and let it rise a little bit more.

Um, it's going to take another hour or two

or till it comes up a little bit more.

And then what will happen

it will actually come up...

Well, that's the second rise, though.

This is after the second rise, exactly.

And that looks...

that really has doubled, hasn't it?

Yes, it has.

And it's nice and airy.

And you can see that this is the second rise

so, it's still come up really nice

and it's really nice and airy and fluffy.

It is, yes.

It's just a great dough.

Okay, and then what we would do from here

to give it more time and to create more character

what we'll do is just put a little flour on the table here.

This is beautiful, isn't it?

Very nice.

It's sort of billowy and lovely.

And what we're going to do here--

you can do it to any desired shapes or sizes

creating whatever you would like.

Basically what we're going to do here

is evenly distribute it into three even pieces.

Well, this is how you punch it down.

Right, just turning it over and in

and making a round and then you're just...

I'm just going to tighten it underneath.

With your...

Because a lot of times you see "punch it down"

they just go plunk, like that.

Right, and they just let it go.

But that isn't redistributing the yeast.

No, not at all.

You're doing it the right way.

Right.

Good.

You can hear...

you can hear those bubbles deflating.

Oh, exactly, exactly.

You can even see the little bubbles on top of the dough.

That's what creates the whole focaccia

and that's what you're trying to get.

You're just turning it...

I'm just turning it to the middle.

Yeah, pressing it.

Put a little flour on there--

you don't need much flour-- and just press down.

But you're really fully deflating it.

Yes, pretty much on this one.

You can hear that little bubble go...

( imitates popping )

Yes, you can.

So, basically, what we're trying to do

is seal the bottom off and cover it in.

This is really the way you form a boule.

That's way you form a ball, there.

And then, what we're going to do here

is we're going to take the doughs

and let them relax again.

And this is going to be done overnight.

And what we do is just take some plastic bags here

and we're just going to take a little oil.

That's so it won't stick to the bag.

Right, and we just mush it around a little bit.

And here, what we'll do is we'll...

we'll stick it in the refrigerator

and let it come to a very slow rise.

It could be 24 hours, 36 hours.

It's a very durable dough.

That looks so nice...

It is, it's a...

A neat, little ball.

Yeah, I like that.

And this will last...

You can make the dough and let it sit

for a couple days.

You don't have to worry about rushing it.

You can make it one day, use it the next

or whatever you have with that.

And then from there

we'll let it sit in the refrigerator

for 36 hours until it rises and you're ready to work it.

Good.

Well, this is that dough that has rested.

Yes, it is.

And it's at room temperature now.

Right, we had it in the refrigerator

for about 36 hours and then we brought it out

and we let it come to room temperature

for about an hour or so.

So now it's ready to roll.

It's ready to roll.

We have fresh thyme and rosemary.

And the great part about focaccia

is there is no one way of doing something.

You can use any herb you want, any toppings

and we're just going to do a few today--

different shapes and sizes.

But there's so much you can do with focaccia.

What you want to do is, like cooking anything

you want to get the most flavor

you can actually get into anything.

So, what we did with the oil here

is we infused it a little yesterday there

with some virgin olive oils and some herbs.

Yeah.

It looks like we're ready here.

This is just great.

So, we'll start with the first...

the first dough.

We use a little flour here.

Put some on your hands.

Now, this dough is just... very nice.

It looked lovely.

It's a little...

Oh, it isn't damp, it's the oil.

It's the oil that was put on there, right.

So what we're going to do here

is... pat it down a little bit.

And we'll take just a regular razor blade.

And then we... we just let a little of the gas out

to flatten it down a little.

And this is just going to be

a basic item that you can use

for anything you like-- sandwiches...

You can just cut it up and have it...

It's a nice ripping bread.

What we'll do

is we'll just brush it with a little oil.

That's your herbal oil.

That's it.

And we'll take some of the herbs and just...

put them down and around.

You press it in a little bit.

Right, just to make sure it sticks.

So what we'll do is we'll just get the peel.

Okay.

A good old pizza peel.

You know what we'll do here

is just put a little cornmeal on.

Oh...

This will keep it just from sticking

when we slide it in the oven.

This is just plain, ordinary cornmeal.

Right, a little coarse cornmeal.

We want to direct the flow of the dough

so what we're going to do

is we're going to cut it a little bit

so that when it bakes what would happen is...

What would happen if we didn't do that

it would grow up into a big pita

and it would just make it a hole in the middle.

But you want to have the bread in there

so we're going to cut it this way to direct it.

And that keeps it from puffing up.

Right, you do that with most bread doughs

to direct the flow of the dough

the way you want to do it.

We'll just put this behind us.

We're going to let it rest for about ten minutes.

Mm-hmm.

And the next item we're going to make is...

We're going to make a traditional fougasse.

That's this thing here.

Exactly.

A big, sort of like a big paw.

Right.

I'm going to do the same thing--

add a little flour to it, press it down.

And we're going to just let out

some of the initial gases here.

That's very interesting...

You can hear it swish out, too.

And what we're going to do

is just try to get it a little...

pulled out a little bit.

That's interesting, on your hand.

Right, actually, what I'm doing

I'm just, just pulling it and guiding it.

I'm pinching the edges here because what I want to try to do

is pull the dough out evenly.

Basically what we're doing

is just trying to come out to a bit of a teardrop--

a little wider in the bottom.

And we're just going to take our little razor blade

and just cut it up.

Just push straight down, divide it a little bit.

And you can put as many cuts in there as you want.

A little wider, depending on what you... so desire.

You just push that straight down.

That's nice, kind of a leaf shape.

Exactly.

And what we're going to do here is...

And this just opens it up?

Yes, you want to keep those gaps in there.

And then what we're going to do

is put it on a sheet pan.

And that's with that plastic paper on.

Right, a little parchment paper.

Parchment paper.

And the reason why we do bake it on a sheet pan

is so that... it'd be very hard

to slide this off a peel and keep its shape.

It certainly would.

So, just pick it up gently and lay it down.

It certainly would.

Oh, isn't that beautiful?

Okay, and then

one of the traditional parts about it

is the oil and the herbs.

And you're...

I see you're pressing them in

as you put them in.

What I do is I just grab a bunch in my hand

and I just put it on there and it actually sticks to it.

And then what we'll do there

we'll add some of the coarse sea salt

and that's the...

Is that the same as kosher salt?

No, I think this is just actually sea salt

that's in the rough.

It will hold and it won't dissolve once it's baked.

You want to see that, like a nice, large-sized pretzel.

We'll do the same thing with this.

We'll just put it on the side and let it rise up...

That's fascinating to see that.

Right, and what we're going to do from here

is we're going to take our last dough...

The dough's very good

for a dessert or a sweet item, too.

So, what we do here is we just take it

pat it out the same exact way

little bit more flour

take out some of the gases.

Be gentle with it.

You don't need too much pushing.

What we're going to do here

is we're going to actually...

I'm going to cut it into four pieces, okay?

Just put it right on here.

Now, what we're going to do with these are...

we're going to make fresh fruit focaccias

and then we're just going to make

just a little baked sweet item.

Good.

We'll just brush them again with a little oil

because we're just dampening it.

The flavor's not going to really have an effect on it.

Some people would rather not have

the herb in there, but...

I think a lot of people

are using herbs with sweet things.

Sure, it's one of the new things people are doing.

Have to keep up to date.

Today's times.

Yes, sir.

What we're going to do

is just take some turbinado sugar, which is...

What's that?

It's basically sugar in the raw.

It hasn't been processed...

It's not... it's not brown sugar.

Right.

I guess you get that at a health food store.

Health food store, exactly.

We're just going to take some fresh berries.

Mmm.

These look really, really nice, look great.

And with this, what we're going to have to do a little bit

is cut the inside

and that's so it doesn't blow the fruit exactly off

because the dough is so strong.

So, we're going to just push that down

a little bit, cut it up.

Now, it looks awful, doesn't it?

It's just very simple from there.

Just any kind of berries.

I'll make one of them on blueberries

and make one raspberries.

Now, you can use any fruit you desire.

Strawberries.

Strawberries, peaches are very nice--

whatever's in season.

In the wintertime, apples--

Granny Smith apples are really, really nice.

That would be nice.

Yes, and now what we like to do here is just add

a little streusel topping on it.

And what's that?

This is just a little brown sugar mixture

with some butter, some cinnamon

some regular sugar.

We'll just put it on top there.

And this is also going to be very nice.

And the real nice thing about making this

we're not going to fry it.

So, it's just baked

and it's going to be low-cholesterol

and people are worried about fats today

so we have a little sweet with not having to fry it.

You're not going to put whipped cream on it?

Well, maybe afterwards, we can serve it with something else...

People can do what they want.

Exactly-- once it comes out

you can... ice cream or whipped cream

or whatever...

It really looks

as though it were starting to rise right now.

It is, it is.

And I think maybe we can put it in the oven.

You think right now?

We could start with our other ones

because they've rested a little bit.

Okay.

And we'll let these rest for awhile...

Fine.

while we put those in.

The plain focaccia right here

is actually going to be right on the stone.

There-- you have a hot stone there.

What we want to do is just easily slide that off.

And that cornmeal really does it.

Right, and then what we'll do

is put the other one underneath.

So, what we want to do is put it in a 450-degree oven

for about 20 minutes or so.

And then we'll be seeing what we have after we come out.

Ooh, that looks... that's good.

Now, how do you know it's done?

By the color and the time it's in there.

But also, you want to be able to just flip it over

and nice brown and hear that nice solid...

If it ain't brown on the bottom, it ain't done.

Right.

It needs a little bit more firmness.

What we'll do now is, I guess we'll just put in

the dessert and the sweet focaccias that we did.

We'll put those in for about 20 minutes or thereof.

Here's our square focaccia as we had made prior to that

and today we have

a nice grilled vegetables that we had done...

We certainly do.

Nice marinade, whatever you like as far as dressings--

a nice balsamic vinegar and oil.

What we're going to do here

is just going to cut it in half.

Very nice holes and pockety...

Smells good.

Right, and that's what we've been trying to do

as far as create all this.

What we can do here is put a little olive oil

that we were using with the thyme for...

or you can use a pesto or anything you'd like.

And then we'll take some zucchini.

These are all sort of grilled or broiled vegetables?

Right, exactly.

Zucchini, and then we'll go to a different color here.

Maybe we'll try some red tomatoes in here.

So then we can just maybe grab some eggplant here.

Aren't those wonderful?

Roasted peppers, very nice.

Mmm, love them.

And maybe a little basil here.

Basil certainly smells so good.

It's nice and green.

How about some yellow?

Yellow tomatoes on there.

Those are lovely, aren't they?

We can put some goat cheese on there, that's always nice.

Break that up and just crumble it on top.

From here, it's either finished

or what we can do is just put it right in the oven

and it's great to just... melt it all

and bring it all up to a nice warm temperature.

Just leave it on open-faced?

You can use it for open-faced like that

or actually put the top on there.

or actually put the top on there.

Maybe put it in there and let it melt a little bit

and then you want to put this in there to crisp back up.

But one of the ways we can do it

since we're just going to warm it up a little bit

is put the top back on

and we have a baking sheet over here... put it in there.

Is that a no-stick?

That's a no-stick, that's fine.

We have a nice crust on the bottom

and we can go from there.

Put it right in here to warm.

These are coming up nicely.

These are coming up very nice.

We just have to wait for all those to go.

Look what we've done in not very long

with these fruit tarts

and these, I don't know

what you're going to do with.

And this wonderful big sandwich.

And that...

This is a fougasse.

That fougasse.

I think this is very impressive, Craig.

How do we eat them now?

Well, you just cut into them.

Let's just start with the sandwich first.

Okay.

What we'll do is we'll just push it down.

And that you heated up in a 400-degree oven?

Right, just for a couple of minutes.

It sounds good.

Just to... nice and crisp it up.

When you serve it

do you have it cut up and then people...?

No, I think... you can, if you'd like

if you're serving.

I believe one of the nicest things about this

is just putting it on

and it's very festive, just putting it on the table.

And then letting people eat it themselves.

Let people eat it themselves, exactly.

That warming it up made the cheese melt.

That looks lovely.

Right, and it also crisps up the bread nicely.

Yeah, then you just take a big bite.

That's it, and I think you just grab it

with your hands there.

Mmm.

Nice, very nice, crispy.

And the vegetables were carefully made.

Exactly.

That's delicious.

Now we can take the sweet items.

This is the focaccia

that we had just brushed with a little oil

and put on the turbinado sugar

that caramelizes really, really nicely.

It's sweet.

Exactly, and there's a lot of things

you can do with this.

Just put it here.

You can take a plate like that...

you can put fresh berries.

These make great ice cream sandwiches.

Well, then you'd put ice cream on the top?

Sure, but what we're going to do here today

is we're going to put

some nice mascarpone cheese on there.

This makes a nice, simple dessert.

Put this on here, and then maybe

just take a little powdered sugar.

Just finish it like that.

That looks very nice.

Then you pick it up and eat it.

Right, or you can use a knife and fork

and the other ones we made here

are just the regular, simple ones

where we just put the fruit right in there.

You can do the same thing here

by warming them up

and putting ice cream on them...

Little bit of ice cream

would be good there.

Sure, and this also is

a nice breakfast item in the morning, too.

Yes, that would be.

Other than a fried doughnut or a Danish.

And that's what we have here.

What about your fougasse?

Fougasse-- this is the fougasse here

and it just came out of the oven

and it's still a little warm.

So what we're going to do

is brush it with a little oil.

And that just takes off the excess flour

and gives it a nice little shine.

And then it's going to be ready for serving.

It's really not a soaking.

It's just a little...

Exactly, you don't want

to dampen the nice crust that you just built.

Cosmetic.

Right, that's all it is.

It looks lovely.

That's it.

And then how do you eat it?

I find the best way to do it

is just ripping it apart.

Well, let's see you do that.

Okay, let's break this in half and rip it.

I think people love doing that, don't they?

Look at that.

That's beautiful.

Nice texture and little bit of airy bubbles

that we've worked so hard, in the time, to do it.

Look at all this!

This really is just a wonderful illustration

and this is only about half

of what you can do, isn't it?

Exactly.

Thank you very much, Craig.

Thank you so much.

I enjoyed myself tremendously

being here with you.

I loved being with you.

Bon appétit!