I used to be OCD about cooking contests. In 2008, I entered 178 recipes. In 2009, at the height of my mania, I entered 313. In 2010, I entered 147. That is about the time I started this blog. In 2011, I entered only twenty-eight.
Now I am OCD about blogging.
I guess it is a mania trade-off. Who knows, but I am still cooking.
Last year, it was the Great Clean-out (regarding the pantry). It was somewhat successful.
So this year, I am going to go through my HUGE stockpile of contest winners, hopefuls, and failures. (Don’t worry, I will revisit the failures and make them perfect before I post!) Ha!
Herbed Olives
To start this theme out, which I will call my OCD Revisited Recipes, I found a Parmesan-Rosemary Focaccia Bread recipe in my archives. I wanted to use the Herbed Olives from my last post so I came up with the following:
Herbed Olive Spelt Focaccia
1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 1/3 c. warm water
3 c. spelt flour
1 t. Kosher salt
1/2 t. course ground pepper
4 T. extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 T. fresh rosemary, chopped
¼ c. chopped Herbed Olives
In the bowl of a heavy stand mixer (equipped with a dough hook) dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Mix in flour, salt, pepper, and 3 T. olive oil. (I used some of the herbed olive oil from my olive mix.)
Mix dough until pliable. Add rosemary and olives; knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes. Remove dough from mixing bowl and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise until doubled (about 30-45 minutes).
After the first rising.
After dough has risen, punch it down and place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon baking pad. Press dough out to about ½ inch thick. Prick dough with a fork.
Ready for the second rising.
Let rise again until doubled (about 20 minutes.) Brush with remaining 1 T. olive oil.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25 minutes.
Nice and glossy from the oven.Yes, that is a bite.
As we have both eaten our weight in fudge, dipped pretzels, chocolate coated Oreos, cheese balls, brownies, and other holiday fare, I am serving this tonight with a simple green salad (from the hoop house).
This recipe was not a winner, but I think I have improved on it. In fact, I am not sure which contest it was even entered in. But, I do have my slick liner notes with the following description to wow the judges:
Great for a chicken-goat cheese pizza topping or thin sliced sandwich with sliced roma tomatoes and basil.
Wow, this all actually sounds pretty good. I wonder if there is a recipe contest currently open for breads?
Postscript: A few other things I have become competitive (and OCD) about are Secret Recipe Club and Cook the Books Club. I had been so busy that I hadn’t dropped by CTB in forever!!!!!! When I did earlier this week, I found out I had won the last round! 🙂
I’m always so curious about cooking contests – that’s a real skill! Did you win anything good? Glad your focus has switched to blogging where I get personal benefit. 😉
I’m loving spelt flour!! I’ve been using it in almost all my baking, but I’ve not used it in focaccia yet. I’ll bet it was fabulous!!! Funny about the contests… I’ve only entered one in my whole life and never heard a thing from it. I never see them to enter, but I bet a little searching would turn a few fun ones up!
I’m with Angie on using this bread for soup or stew. That’s the mode I’m in right now and we’re plowing though breads with every bowl I put on the table. Foccacia is a great idea and I love the thought of herbed olives in there.
That was a lot of contests you were entering. I’d have a permanent twitch if I tried to do that. I couldn’t even keep up with SRC when I was in it, so I quit. I guess I have control issues, not OCD. 🙂
As I said, I was OCD about them. I have to clarify that for some of those entries all I did was change an ingredient or two from an existing recipe that I had created. And, some, I have to say, I just made up in my head and never actually tried. But, that is an entirely different OCD Blog Theme! 🙂
“At the height of my mania” LOL. That does sound a little OCD 😉 but fun too! Your focaccia looks and sounds gorgeous – I love the silky baking properties of spelt flour.
I love it that you do a theme each year for your blog! This year’s look fun! 313 entries – You are OCD! 🙂 Glad to see you spending more time blogging because I love your recipes and this foccacia is no exception. Here I thought it couldn’t get any better than the herbed olives, but you fooled me!
You are always a winner in my book! I bet the olives added a nice touch to your bread, it would make a great bread for a muffaletta. Looking forward to another year following you (I should do what you did last year and do the great pantry/freezer clean-out).
Comments & Replies
24 responses to “Herbed Olive Spelt Foccacia”
I am making some soup for the dinner today….this is a perfect bread to go with the soup.
I was inspired by you to use the spelt! Happy eating.
I could imagine downing this without sharing my friend 🙂
Happy New Year
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks, CCU. Hope your holiday trip was awesome!
What a great way to use your olives – which looked so tasty!
It is great with soups”. Thanks, Kelli.
I’m always so curious about cooking contests – that’s a real skill! Did you win anything good? Glad your focus has switched to blogging where I get personal benefit. 😉
Thanks for the compliment, Jess.
I’m loving spelt flour!! I’ve been using it in almost all my baking, but I’ve not used it in focaccia yet. I’ll bet it was fabulous!!! Funny about the contests… I’ve only entered one in my whole life and never heard a thing from it. I never see them to enter, but I bet a little searching would turn a few fun ones up!
There was a cool website that listed all the contests: http://www.contestcook.com/recipecontests.htm
I’m with Angie on using this bread for soup or stew. That’s the mode I’m in right now and we’re plowing though breads with every bowl I put on the table. Foccacia is a great idea and I love the thought of herbed olives in there.
That was a lot of contests you were entering. I’d have a permanent twitch if I tried to do that. I couldn’t even keep up with SRC when I was in it, so I quit. I guess I have control issues, not OCD. 🙂
As I said, I was OCD about them. I have to clarify that for some of those entries all I did was change an ingredient or two from an existing recipe that I had created. And, some, I have to say, I just made up in my head and never actually tried. But, that is an entirely different OCD Blog Theme! 🙂
Now I have a permanent twitch regarding blogging! 🙂
“At the height of my mania” LOL. That does sound a little OCD 😉 but fun too! Your focaccia looks and sounds gorgeous – I love the silky baking properties of spelt flour.
This was the first time I had used it. In the original recipe, I used all-purpose. This did have a silky quality.
What a great sandwich this would make – I’m thinking turkey with Havarti, avocado and some pepper jelly mayo, YUM!
Yes, Ma’am! That sounds delicious. Pepper Jelly Mayo sounds genius!
I love it that you do a theme each year for your blog! This year’s look fun! 313 entries – You are OCD! 🙂 Glad to see you spending more time blogging because I love your recipes and this foccacia is no exception. Here I thought it couldn’t get any better than the herbed olives, but you fooled me!
I am officially OCD! Thanks for all the compliments, M.J.
You are always a winner in my book! I bet the olives added a nice touch to your bread, it would make a great bread for a muffaletta. Looking forward to another year following you (I should do what you did last year and do the great pantry/freezer clean-out).
I need to do that again myself!
This sounds so good. I love the herbed olives but, with the bread I am sure it is over the top!!
I would love to have a piece or two warm just out of the oven!
What a fun little obsession! 🙂 And I love spelt in breads.