100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil; Aloo Paratha; and Southwestern Focaccia with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese (4 of 42)

On this episode of The Dough Also Rises we are baking variations using the 100% Whole Wheat Dough with Olive Oil.  Because this dough will only keep for 7 days I made two separate half batches.  The combination of 100% whole wheat and the olive oil made for a bread that did not rise as much or get as much “oven spring” as most of the AB/HB in 5 breads, at least for me, and yielded a loaf that was more dense and heavy than some of the others.  In my opinion this dough worked better for flatbreads than as a loaf. 
First, I made the Southwestern Focaccia with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese.  I employed the services of Becca, my Commis, who was home from school for the weekend.

  (Don’t you love her dimple?)

Becca formed the dough.

Who says she doesn’t have skills?

While the dough was resting I browned some frozen corn in a frying pan, to get the “roasted” effect,  it being too brisk here on the North Coast, and I being too wimpy, to fire up the grill.  We made the sauce as directed, but it seems to me that a good salsa of your choice would offer a quick version that would work just as well. 

When  the dough had rested, we put on the toppings. 


When I had made focaccia in the past from doughs in AB in 5 they had a lot of “oven spring” and often domed up a lot in the middle.  I was a little worried about losing my toppings, but as noted above, this dough just did not give me that spring, which in this case was a good thing.

  The loaf ended up like a thick pizza, and was enjoyed by all. 

From the Southwestern Focaccia with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese, which was kind of a Tex-Mex-Franco-Italian-Fusion thing, the assignment proceeded to the subcontinent for Aloo Paratha, a stuffed Indian bread.  We made ours folded, like a calzone, but one of our members, Aparna, in Goa, India, has offered a post on her My Diverse Kitchen blog discussing the origins of parathas, along with her recipe, and a video demonstrating the traditional method of forming them, in which they are rolled out.  It is well worth the visit. 
Although the recipe calls for making mashed potatoes for the filling, I had some leftover potatoes from Julia Childs’s Pommes de Terre Dauphinoise (scalloped potatoes) which I ran through my potato ricer.

I mixed the spuds with curry powder and peas, rolled out the dough, formed the paratha 

and baked it.

It turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself.

I also made a loaf, but given the type of dough it was pretty heavy, as mentioned above, and not my favorite use for this dough.   So, I made another focaccia, this one without any topping but salt and pepper.

Then, I split it horizontally, and made a panino (note the singular form, Ellen).  I put the cut sides up and down, with the top and bottom  crust to the middle, since the cut sides would brown better.  This was one of the 8 Tips for Making Great Panini from Kathy at Panini Happy.  In her recipe for a Bacon Tuna Melt Panini Kathy gives a shout out to AB in 5!

I filled mine with a tuna salad with home-made sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red and yellow peppers, and fresh mozzarella, and cooked it in my panini press.

 

Since I had some extra dough, I made some pesto knots, rolling out the dough, spreading pesto (frozen from last Summer’s garden) on it, folding it in half, rolling it again, cutting it into strips and tying them into knots (or twists).  They were quite tasty.  

I still had enough dough for something else, so I made a Chicago-style deep dish pizza, using a cast iron skillet.

I rolled the dough out larger than the skillet, which I oiled well,

and put the crust in, running it  up the sides.

Then, borrowing a trick from Broa in a Cast Iron Skillet, I put the skillet over high heat on the stove while I filled it, to give the crust a head start.  

Then I baked it in the oven at 450 degrees, and 30 minutes later, Voila!

 

I used the scraps from the crust to make some very good breadsticks, which served admirably to hold us over for the 30 minutes the pizza was baking.


All in all, I think this dough worked best for flatbreads.  But I also  I think that many of the other doughs work as well for flatbreads, and are more versatile.