This is what I’m talking about - sweet corn, tomatoes and a delectable focaccia for summer perfection on a sheet pan. Yes!

Even though it’s officially autumn on the calendar, there’s still time to reap summer’s bounty. As a matter of fact, Steve and I have amassed a wonderful stash of sweet corn in the freezer for fall and winter soups, chowders, frittatas, baked corn pudding, cheesy corn muffins and more.

I simply had to give this one a go. Based on the recipe from Melissa Weller’s “A Good Bake”, it’s focaccia with an interesting twist. Whipped cream! Can you believe it??

I’ll go through the steps with you so as to share my experience with the process. If you’re a fan of very detail oriented recipes/instructions, you should put Melissa’s book on your list.

You’ve got the basics of bread making here - flour, water, yeast, salt - put together using my favorite poolish approach.

Make the poolish (blend 120 g bread flour, 1/2 cup room temp water, 1/16 teaspoon instant yeast in a bowl and cover) the evening before so it sits at room temperature overnight for about 12 hours as it “pre”-ferments. You see it below in its bubbly goodness. Let’s hear it for planning ahead, eh?

To make the final dough place 313 g room temperature (70-75ºF) water in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the poolish and 450 g all purpose flour. Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 2-3 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer, place a teaspoon/3 g instant yeast and 12 g fine sea salt separately on top of the dough and let sit uncovered for 30 minutes. This allows the dough to autolyse (flour and water have a chance to start developing gluten before introducing the salt and yeast to the mix).

Return to the stand mixer with the dough hook, mix on low speed for a couple of minutes then increase to medium speed for three minutes. Remove the dough hook and bowl from the stand, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let ferment for 2 hours. Turn once half way through.

The following images give you a sense of what’s happening.

Focaccia tends to be what I call a rough and tumble sort of dough - I think you can appreciate that in the photos above.

Now it’s time to pan it up! Have a half sheet pan on hand, pour 75 g (5-6 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil into it and spread it around evenly with your hands. Another thing about focaccia - LOTS of olive oil!!

Using a bowl scraper, scrape the dough onto the sheet pan in a pile and coat it with oil. Let it rest 20 minutes then proceed with stretching and dimpling it with your fingertips to work it into the corners and edges. It’s fun!

It will start to spring back so give it another 20 minute rest.

Finish stretching and dimpling to get the dough into the corners of the pan. Now set it aside to proof about 45 minutes.

Heat the oven to 425ºF. Meanwhile whip 3/4 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks, dollop it onto the dough and gently spread it with an offset spatula.

Let’s assume that any health benefits from the olive oil are pretty much erased by the whipped cream. You gotta live, right?

To top - a pint of small, sweet variety tomatoes, halved and placed over the cream . . . . . .

then sprinkle on the kernels cut off of one ear of corn . . . . . .

then sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, chopped fresh or dried herbs of choice (we use a salt free pizza seasoning mix) and 1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano.

Bake 30-35 minutes until golden brown, rotating the sheet pan 1/2 way through. Remove the focaccia with a large spatula onto a cooling rack.

I’m here to tell you that even with all of that olive oil, there can be some sticking so use some elbow grease and determination if needed to do the deed. I ended up cutting it in the pan and getting the pieces out without too much trouble with the help of my trusty spatula.

We were so eager to try it that I forgot to snap a picture just out of the oven. Oh well.

This is good stuff! Just the right thickness, chewy and superb with the fresh veggies. We enjoyed it with a simple green salad and cut the rest (save for two pieces) to freeze for later.

The next day for lunch we warmed those two pieces up with an egg on top - about 20-25 minutes in a 350 oven to set the egg then a short broil to lend just the right crunch. Delicious!

Enjoy autumn everyone. It’s my favorite time of year, and I hope you love it too!

It’s time for more Danish dough fun!

After I posted on Danish Kringle last spring, I knew I would return to this laminated dough and the wonderful things that can be made with it. I’ve been spending more time with Beatrice Ojakangas’ book “The Great Scandinavian Baking Book” (let’s call it TGSBB) and continue to be amazed at the array of dough and almond filling recipes she presents. Whoa.

I made two versions for this project so as to compare recipes from Ojakangas (BO) and one from Melissa Weller’s (MW) recently published book “A Good Bake”. She refers to it as her “laminated babka dough”. Their recipes are similar to mine although with variations in the amounts of sugar, egg and butter as well as how much butter is used in both the dough and the butter block. So many options in the baking world!

Here’s one of my favorite ways to compare recipes - hand written columns to show you just a few of the differences one might discover when researching different Danish (or any!) recipes. You see my recipe vs. the other two as well as the adjustments I made to those two noted in (parentheses). You can use the same mixing/kneading approach for all three - just look here. Each recipe is enough for two braids.

Before we delve into the braid steps let’s talk briefly about almond paste. In my recent post on Bakewell tart, I mentioned frangipane and almond cream as commonly used fillings for baked fruit/jam/almond tarts. But almond paste is a biggie when it comes to making fillings for many pastries, particularly in Scandinavia and The Netherlands.

You may see the terms almond paste and marzipan mentioned in various recipes, some of which use the terms interchangeably. Technically they aren’t the same. Typically paste is at least equal parts ground almonds and sugar, with higher quality pastes (my preference) having an even higher percentage of almonds (e.g 66% almonds to 34% sugar). Marzipan is more often used for modeling and molding, available in an array of colors (or create your own), and is generally higher in sugar (e.g. 33% almonds to 67% sugar).

I’ve been using Mandelin premium almond paste for a while now (they have several “levels” of paste which are well described on their site). I’ve also been buying my blanched almond flour and sliced almonds from them too. Great stuff.

For the almond filling (enough for two braids) cream 56 g soft unsalted butter with 100 g confectioners sugar; blend in 1 teaspoon almond extract (I reduce that to 1/4 teaspoon since my premium almond paste has some bitter almond extract in it already), 100 g almond flour (or finely ground almonds), 85 g almond paste and 1 large egg white until smooth.

The process of forming this braid (not a real braid, truth be told) is what I find so pleasing - it speaks to my simple artistic bent and is so satisfying once completed. The braid in the following images is with MW’s dough.

Start with about 600 g of your finished laminated Danish dough and roll it out to a rectangle of about 9”x 15”. Have your filling ready to go.

As seen in the image above, make light marks (don’t cut!) along the length to create three sections then cut the two outer sections at 45º angles about every inch or so. I find using 2 bench scrapers works well so you can match the cuts up as you work your way down. Cool!

The almond filling goes right down the center. Remember you’re using a half recipe per braid. Here’s a tip - place the filling in a rough log shape in plastic wrap, use a rolling pin to lightly compress and shape it to the size of the dough center, keeping it in the plastic. Then gently turn it out of the wrap right onto the dough center. That way you don’t have to spread the filling directly on the dough and risk some smooshing of the laminated layers beneath. Call me crazy!

Now start folding the strips across the center, alternating sides, to create a faux braid until you reach the bottom. Tuck the ends under.

Place the shaped pastry on a parchment lined sheet pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let proof about 60 minutes until puffy. It won’t double but you should appreciate more prominence of the layers.

Just for comparison here’s an image of my first go at this with my version of BO’s recipe. I used a fluted pastry wheel to cut the sides to give it that certain je ne sais quoi, but my fold over pieces weren’t all quite long enough as I reached the end. That experience helped me pay closer attention to my cuts/strip lengths for the MW version.

While proofing, heat the oven to 350ºF (Weller’s version). I generally leave my baking stone on the bottom rack of my oven. Even if I’m not baking directly on it, I feel it helps keep the oven temp more even.

Egg wash, sprinkle sliced almonds and raw sugar or crushed raw sugar cubes on top, place on a second sheet pan (helps to protect the bottom from burning) then onto the center rack and bake about 30-40 minutes until nicely browned.

For BO’s version heat the oven to 400ºF and bake about 15-20 minutes. Below is the baked version of BO’s - you can see how the fold over pieces pulled away, particularly at one end, exposing the filling. Still tasted good!

Let’s taste! Slicing into BO’s version, there’s a hint of doughiness to the bottom layers. The almond filling is deelish, although, in spite of the lovely flaky, golden and crisp exterior, Steve and I thought the pastry seemed a bit on the dry side and needed a touch more salt to punch up the flavor. The laminated layers are clearly seen (this one went through two 4-folds).

For MW’s version there was no doughiness at all to the bottom, and the top laminated layers look pretty good (this one went through only two 3-folds). The flavor of the pastry married with the almond-y filling is wonderful!! A big thumbs up.

Based on this project, I’ll tweak my recipe a bit: hike up the sugar to 90 g, increase the butter in the dough to 113 g and make my butter block 227 g for a total butter of 340 g all told. I’ll stick with two 4-folds for my laminating for now but will most likely play with that too from batch to batch. The almond filling is a keeper for sure!

In the meantime stay healthy, remain prudent and enjoy spring! Aaahh, so beautiful.

Baking with the French Tarte

Baking with the French Tarte

What's new in the French Tarte's kitchen

Baking with the French Tarte

Late summer veggie focaccia

Danish almond braids

Baking with the French Tarte