Whole Wheat Parmesan Pepper Focaccia
When I was in 7th grade we had to complete an assignment where we found out the names of various local and world leaders. It’s why I still think that Maryland’s senators are Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski (Mikulski is still in office) and why I can tell you that in 2001 Gerhard Schröder was Germany’s Chancellor. I remember my dad explaining that in his day he would have called local embassies and political offices to find out those answers, whereas I just plugged my questions in online (regretfully it was probably to Ask Jeeves in full question form).
Flash forward to today, a child of the internet fully grown, the wealth of knowledge available online about training and taking care of a dog astounds me. Any question I seem to search, no matter how hyper specific, I can find exactly what I’m looking for. I know this isn’t anything groundbreaking and that we aren’t the first people to ever have a dog, but at 1:30 AM when you’re standing outside waiting for your puppy to go to the bathroom it’s nice to have instant answers.
Maple has made great progress in the 9 days since we brought her home and readily responds to her name, sit, down, shake, and is learning to stay and ‘leave it’. However we were still having trouble with crating her for longer periods of time (1-2 hours) and at night. It seemed like she hadn’t made much progress on that front despite all we had done to make her crate seem fun, inviting, and comfy. It’s been warmer the last few days and Maple has taken from napping on our boot mat to the kitchen floor, presumably because it is cooler.
So it hit me in the middle of the night that maybe everything we had been doing to comfort her in her crate was actually making it unbearably hot. While Maple cooled off in the grass at 1:30 AM I was able to confirm my suspicions online. When we came back in I took a few blankets out of her crate and she happily plopped onto the plastic bottom. She slept for the next 5 hours and her temperament today has been markedly different. Hooray!
Oh right, this focaccia. I can tell you that a slice of this is the perfect snack while you take a break from playing with your dog. Though it has a higher percentage of whole wheat flour than some of my other one day whole wheat recipes it isn’t chalky or overly dry. You could mix the water and whole wheat flour the night before and get an even smoother final product. Enjoy!
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 2 cups AP or bread flour
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon salt, divided
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup olive oil, divided
- Cornmeal for sprinkling
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
- In the bowl of a stand mixer combine water, yeast, flour, 2 teaspoons of the salt, ¾ cup of olive oil, and all the sugar. Knead on low speed for 4-5 minutes, or until smooth. The dough should be sticky but able to stretch without breaking.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled about 2 hours.
- Once risen turn out dough onto a cornmeal dusted baking sheet. Stretch the dough into a rectangle roughly the size of the baking sheet, at least 10x15 inches. Cover again with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- After 1 hour of rising remove the plastic wrap and use your fingers to create dimples in the dough. Poke the dough firmly and press down to the bottom to do this. Once done, drizzle the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil over the dough. Add the parmesan and pepper over top.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the bread is golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing.
