ABC - Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

With the abundance of fresh vegetables this month, I figured that this month's ABC challenge from King Arthur Flour, Roasted Vegetable Focaccia, would be a great way to use of those yummy veggies. I made this bread over a period of three days (by choice) which worked out great. Most of that time is inactive time anyway. I let the starter go for about 24 hours. Then made the dough and let it retard in the fridge for about 16 hours. Then shaped the dough and topped it with veggies and let it rise at room temp for about 3 hours before baking. Very simple, and very delicious.

Yummy zucchini focaccia bread sticks!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

Some changes I made to the recipe:

• Substituted about a third of the AP flour in the dough (not starter) with KAF White Whole Wheat flour.
• Reduced the amount of instant yeast by half (used 1 tsp instead of 2 tsp).

My starter after 24 hours at room temp.

Rolled it out smaller than the recipe called for so it wouldn't be super thin.

The recipe wasn't hard to make at all. If you're looking for instant gratification, this isn't it. If you want delicious, then this is worth the wait.

Roasted zucchini. Yum! I made sandwiches with the leftovers.

I added some cayenne to the roasted zucchini which made them spicy.

When we had an impromptu dinner party at our house, I omitted the zucchini on one half of the focaccia, thinking it would be too spicy for some of the guests. Well, something unexpected (read "bad") happened to that side.

Yep, it puffed up like a giant pita bread.

 I ended up eating the "other half" with dip like a cracker so it wouldn't go to waste :o)

At least the other half is still good!

Yummy slice!

Look that open crumb. Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• This was a big hit with hubby and our guests. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The zucchini worked really well. Hubby gave it an 9 out of 10 rating!!
• I too loved this bread and would definitely love to make it again. Thanks to the reduced yeast amount, it had a wonderful smell rather than overly yeasty smell.
• You can find the original recipe HERE.
• Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers.

I'm submitting this blog post to Yeast Spotting, a weekly showcase of all things Yeasty :o)