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So here is the sponge for our focaccia.  (I feel like I'm appearing on Baker's Dozen on Food Network.)  The sponge has been fermenting for two hours; it is nice and bubbly, and much less stiff, much more batter-like.  This would be okay to use as is, but I think I'll let it ripen for about another 1/2 hour.  The optimum point of use is when the surface just starts to pucker in on itself, looking like it will collapse any minute.  Eventually, of course, it *will* collapse, and then it will be useless for raising your dough or giving it a nice flavor, but don't worry, dear friends, we're nowhere close to that point.

I have scaled the rest of the ingredients, so that once the sponge is ready, I can mix it up fast, put it up to ferment, and then post all the pictures what will be taken.  (We'll be right back.

Frelling goddamned port.  I curse you and everything you believe in.  I lost 10 minutes of time, 10 minutes in which I could have posted a picture of the bright red DON'T FUCK WITH THE COOK apron that the wonderful e brought me back from New Orleans, 10 minutes of unplugging and replugging  the goddamned cable, 10 minutes of visions of having to call all of my sponsors and tell them not to bother sending the checks because I got thrown out of the ring after only three goddamned hours.

The good news is that FreezePeach opens in ten minutes and is open from noon till midnight, so if need be, I can go mobile, go wireless, delay the inevitable fighting with my hardware until the middle of the night -- you know, when I am *really* philosophical. 

Now for the good news:  Thanks to some more extraordinarily kind and generous people, I have raised $505.00 for Windows of Hope.  I could almost cry, I'm so happy.

Because I am shameless, I am going to glom onto an idea started by the lovely Bunni, namely to identify whatever may be on the stereo or the telly while I pound away on yonder keyboard. (If you haven't been to Bunni's yet today, why are you here and not there? Go there! Now, now, now! You go there now!)

Without further ado:

Blogathon stats as of 11:15 a.m. (edt):

Currently listening to: John Zorn, One of the zillions of Masada albums whose titles I never get straight

This is a good moment for those of you who don't know Lloyd to be introduced. Lloyd is Mr. Bakerina, also known as Tech Support, Reason for Living, Keeper of All Media and That Guy Who I Keep Finding In My Bathroom. Since I'm ten minutes away from putting this up, I will not enumerate his charms right now -- that will be better kept for when it's the middle of the night, and I'm either coked out on Red Bull or weepy on the little bottles of vodka in the freezer -- but no less an expert than Bunni has described him as "professionally wonderful." (A clerk at the Upper West Side Lush store once asked me what my husband did for a living, and Bunni piped up, "He is professionally wonderful." Amen, sister.)

Anyway, after our Saturday morning cartoon viewing -- yes, really -- was over, Lloyd asked me if I wanted to listen to music. "Oh, yes!", I said. "Put on something raucous." I'm thinking Too Much Joy, the Ramones, KMFDM, even. I forget that Lloyd's criterion for raucous outstrips mine by a mile. But that's just fine with me. John Zorn once played a gig at which Madeleine Albright was in the audience, and he yelled at her and her companions for carrying on a conversation while the band played. That's my kind of raucous.

Currently eating:  Robert's American Gourmet's Chaos Chips & Pretzels combo, a/k/a "All the broken crap we couldn't include on our regular production runs."  Yes, it's junk food.  But it's yuppie junk food. 

Pictures are downloaded.  Leave us commence with the baking of an easy and fabulous bread.

As I mentioned in the previous post, this is a Foccacia alla Genoa, flavored with olive oil and white wine.  It is made with what breadheads call a sponge, i.e. a portion of the flour and water are taking from the overall dough formula, combined with yeast, and left to ferment.  It is this bubbly mixture that raises the final dough and contributes to that round, gorgeous mouth-filling taste that comes from a really good loaf of bread.

For the sponge, you will need 140 grams (which I've just discovered is exactly 1 cup, measured by the dip and sweep method!), all-purpose flour (i.e. protein content around 11%), 3/4 cup lukewarm water (you may not need it all), and 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast.  You can use active dry yeast instead, but you'll have to dissolve it in a little water first.

Put your flour in a bowl.  Stir in yeast.  Add water until a thick dough is formed.  The bottom picture shows it pulling on the whisk a bit -- this is the texture you want.  It should be more like wet stiff dough than like pancake batter; it will soften up during the fermentation.  Cover and let it sit for at least two hours, maybe more.  We'll see what kind of mood the yeast is in.

One note:  the original recipe called for 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.  This will give you a very aggressive rise to your sponge; it will be fluffy, puffy and ready in half an hour.  I happen to like the flavor that comes from the slower rise, and think that it's worth the slight loss of control that comes from using a larger quantity of yeast, but that's not to say that if you use the full amount your bread will not be wonderful.  It will be.  It'll just be a little different.  We have a world of options here. 

I can't believe I didn't have this idea an hour ago.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had made a focaccia for dinner.  This focaccia comes from a book by Carole Field called, uh, Focaccia, which contains dozens of beautiful and imaginative focaccia recipes, including a sweet focaccia for breaking the Lenten fast that contains orange flower water and three sticks of butter.  But the prizewinner among them is a focaccia from Genoa, where grapes are plentiful, as is wine, and the Genoese turn their wine into this amazing focaccia.  I've been making it for ten years, ever since one of my culinary school teachers shared it with me.  I could make it while in a coma.

"Will you give me the recipe?" says the brilliant and beautiful Philadelphia (never Philly, not ever!) resident HG.  Sure, baby!, sez I, and then I promptly forget it.  HG, we're having focaccia today, and not only are you getting the recipe, you're getting pictures, too (which will follow as soon as I download them from the camera).

First, though, a warning:  I bake bread by weight, not by volume (although I do use a measuring cup for liquids sometimes), and on this recipe I bake by metric weight, as it's just easier to remember the numbers.  Because conversions are a little time-consuming, and I'm on speedarrific post speeds today, I promise to convert to volume and imperial weights for anyone who wants them.  Drop me an e, and we'll chat.