As COVID is back let’s start baking again…

Not a Cake, but a Soft Focaccia

Soft focaccia with carrots: easy and light recipe with no eggs, no butter, just a little flour, yeast, a couple of grated carrots and a few leaves of thyme to bring to the table a soft orange-colored focaccia, just in tune with 🍂🍁 autumn colors.

I bought a nice bunch of carrots, the “tufted” 🥕 ones that Bugs Bunny likes so much there in Cartoonlandia, and thought about how to cook them. I wanted to avoid the very American carrot cake in favor of something savory.

So, browsing through some old recipe books, I found this idea: Carrot Focaccia!

The amount of carrots is modest (just a couple of them are needed) but the flavor is very good and the consistency is soft.

You only need a small mold (30 x 22 cm, or double the doses to spread the focaccia on the standard baking pan), coarse salt to taste and a few sprigs of thyme (or rosemary, if you prefer). 

Beta-carotene has never tasted so good! 

Ingredients:

• 280 gr of “0” flour (or bread flour)
• Half a sachet of dehydrated yeast — but I used my Sourdough, just 20% of the amount of flour
• 2 grated medium carrots
• 100 ml of warm water
• 4 or 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 pinches of salt
• coarse salt to taste
• a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary

Method:

Dissolve the yeast in a cup with lukewarm water and add a teaspoon of sugar: mix and let it rest for 10 minutes.

In a bowl sift the flour, add the salt and grated carrots, mixing everything.

Add the water with the yeast and the tablespoons of oil to the bowl, mixing.

Roll out the dough on a baking sheet (covered with parchment paper) and let it rest for two hours covered with a damp cloth.

Here though, I didn’t let it rest, but I performed many sets of stretch and folds, about every 20 minutes or so. I also kept it in my oven because my kitchen is kind of drafty.

After the rising time, sprinkle the dough with olive oil, salt, sprigs of thyme (I prefer thyme over rosemary), and bake at 200 °C for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

It was soft and delicious, and it keeps well for a couple of days too.