Focaccia Tasting and History - Term Paper Example

 Focaccia: Tasting and History Amy’s Bread Amy’s bread is a bakery located in New York providing a number of baked goods. Villabate-Alba Pasticceria & Bakery is an Italian bakery located in Brooklyn NY. Focaccia Preparing Focaccia Focaccia is usually prepared by first making the dough. The dough should get enough leavening which helps in absorption of enough of the olive oil and also gives the bread a crusty texture. The dough is shaped on top of a table. The shape can be round or squire depending on one’s like. After shaping the dough, it is sprinkled with olive oil, salt and vegetables (optional). It is then placed on the oven for baking. Tasting Because there is no standard procedure for preparing and baking Focaccia, each and every baker is likely to produce a different taste. A common thing to expect however is a crusty texture and the availability of vegetable toppings. Amy’s bakery Amy’s bakery has some of the best Focaccia breads. The bread is topped with various vegetables to give it the taste. One thing to note about Amy is the fact that they try to produce the most personalize tastes ever. Unlike in many mass production bakeries, Amy’s Bakery strives to produce goods that provide a home baked goods feeling. The taste of their Focaccia is commendable in many ways. The texture and feel of the bread was good and appetizing. The Focaccia I tasted in Amy’s also had the best toppings. What I did not like about Focaccia in this place was the texture especially the fact that it was too crunchy leavening too many crumbs. The bread was alas a title too hard and this interfered with the experience of enjoying it altogether. Villabate-Alba Pasticceria & Bakery Villabate-alba Pasticceria & Bakery is an Italian bakery located at the Brooklyn area in New York. The bakery provides various Italian such as Focaccia. Their Focaccia is very similar to the one I ate in Amy’s in so many ways. However, there were some variations in the way the bread was prepared. Villabate-Alba Pasticceria & Bakery seemed to use a different technique in producing the bread. Their toppings were also quite different. Although the Focaccia in Villabate-alba Pasticceria & Bakery was also crunchy, it was less crunchy than the one at Amy’s and this improved the experience. The two bakeries seemed to use different types of toppings thus making the taste of the bread to be a little different. In this regard, the Focaccia was much trustier than the one I ate in Villabate-alba Pasticceria & Bakery. After eating I think this is one of the best baked items that I can enjoy the most. Even though I have not been eating it much, I suppose it is a very good product and I may even want to eat it even more. The other fact I liked about the food is the fact that its preparation technique leaves one with many ways to enjoy the food because one can choose to make any variation of the Focaccia bread. For instance, by changing the thickness and the shape of the Focaccia bread, which is easy due the process of making it, one is able to have a different tastes and texture. Eating this bread gave the impression of eating pizza and bread at the same time. It was definitely harder and crunchier than pizza and therefore easier to handle and had a much better texture than the common bread. Preparing Focaccia Bread Focaccia is Italian bread that is related to Pizza. The bread is usually flatter than the average bread and crustier than pizza (Poran, 2005). To achieve this quality, the dough used to make bread is usually prepared with more baker’s yeast than the dough for pizza. Focaccia can also be made in two different tastes which include the salty Focaccia and the sugary Focaccia. The salty Focaccia is the more common one while the sugary one is a less common spinoff the traditional Focaccia. Focaccia has a long history as a food item. It was one of the major foods in Italy and the Greek region in the early items. According to Krondl (2011) this part of the European continent was one of the areas which discovered heart of pastry and bakery long times ago due to their use of wheat as a stable food item. History also shows that Focaccia was commonly used in ancient Egypt. A necessary thing to remember according to Rustico Cooking (2012) says is to preheat the oven about 30 minutes before placing the dough. History of Focaccia Bread The origin of Focaccia is not exactly clear but it is definite that this wonderful bread ordinates in Europe (McClellan, 2004). There are those who believe that the bread originated with Romans where it was referred to as Panis Focacius referring to the method of preparing it. Others believe the food was first prepared by the Etruscans who were a group of people living in Europe. Others at the same time believe that the food was invented by the Greeks. However, as (Smith, 2007) says, more common sources on the other hand believe that the food was a staple for Ligurain people who lived in the North West Italy costal region. As a result, the food has been referred to as Italian cuisine (Andrews, 2012). Focaccia bread is one of the oldest foods and needless to say, its recipe and methods of preparations has changed over time. Changing availability of ingredients and technology has changed the way the food is prepared. For instance as time has gone by, the availability of modern baking equipment has changed the way the product is prepared. Ancient bakers had a hard time accessing yeast and they had to depend on leaving the prepared dough in the open to let it collect natural yeast. “This was, no doubt, the beginning of leavened (or raised) bread, although for most of human history the presence of yeast was mostly accidental” (Gisslen, 1946, P. 2). Availability of baker’s yeast in the modern times also mean that the current Focaccia bread is different from the original one since the earlier people may have had a more primitive kind of yeast, or none at all. References: Andrews, C. (2012). Country Cooking of Italy. New York, NY: Chronicle Books. Gisslen, W. (1946). Professional Baking. Hoboken, NJ: John Willey & Sons. Krondl, M. (2011). Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert, . Chicago, MI: Chicago Review Press. McClellan, R. (2004). The Cooking Book: A Dance in the Kitchen. London, UK: Spirit Movers Enterprises. Poran, D. (2005). Everything Cooking for Two Cookbook: 300 Creative Ideas for Making Relaxing Meals at Home. New York, NY: Everything Books. Rustico Cooking. (2012, March NA). Secrets of Italian Bread. Retrieved February 26, 2012, from Rustico Cooking : http://www.rusticocooking.com/bread.htm Smith, A. (2007). The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Read More