Focaccia

This focaccia looks lovely, but it's actually hard as a rock. As I type, my teeth are sore from trying valiantly to eat a cheese sandwich on it!

A few weeks ago, I bought the River Cottage Bread Handbook. It is a lovely book, full of beautiful pictures, delicious sounding recipes, and technical descriptions. Unfortunately, it doesn't translate perfectly from a professional kitchen in the English countryside to my somewhat inadequate Portland, OR, kitchen. I think that I'm going to have to experiment with the temperature settings given with these recipes until I get them just right.

In the past, one of my downfalls has been my love of experimentation. Before I've really mastered a recipe, I'll start messing with it, subbing ingredients or changing volumes, which makes it hard to figure out what's working and what isn't. Since I've had the River Cottage book, I've tried to follow the recipes scrupulously, but I find it hard to resist the urge to add more liquid to almost every recipe. This may be a difference in the types of flour available in the States, or in the tools I'm using in my kitchen, which "might not" be top of the line. I think that this focaccia is suffering from being too dry before cooking and from being cooked too long or at too high a temperature. As my roommate mentioned, it's also suffering from "not enough rosemary." I'll try it again this weekend.