Grapes Focassia

When I first saw this picture I wanted to make the bread straight away. Of course I didn't until today. The dough was mixed when I was listening 'the bottomline' on Radio 4 yesterday. I used 75% wholemeal bread flour with 25% White, yeast, salt, sugar and warm water. Since I discovered no kneed bread recipe and video on youtube, making bread has been casual and fun. (highly recommended!)

Of course the essence is time, this type of bread needs at least 15 hours to reach the satisfactory stage of well risen elasticity. Instead of Concord grapes from the original recipe, I used the black grapes in the garden. In the morning light of half dreaminess, it seemed to work out reasonably well, taking into account of the fact that it was nearly a fortnight ago when I first read the blog and I made the bread according to memory. (I didn't bother to switch on computer to check the recipe)

When the bread came out of the oven, I was a bit disappointed to see the colour of grapes faded a little, not the intense dark blue but more a pinkish fushia. All the disappointment went away when I smelled the perfume of grapes tinged with fragance of rosemary. The first bite is magical, perfect just as focaccia should be, soft, elastic and wholesome! My photos are a bit shaky, perhaps the steam from the bread was to blame. It's a bit late to take another photographs since it was consumed within half an hour!

What a wonderful way to enjoy what we grow, without depending on supermarket to provide airmiles loaded products...