Focaccia or Fork At Ya?

While in the cafeteria this week I picked up a loaf focaccia bread made by the VIU bakery, as I thought that it would be lovely to have some with dinner.  Normally if I am craving some focaccia bread I will either just buy some at a local bakery, or if I am in the mood for a personalized recipe I will make a loaf at home and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the top instead of coarse salt.  Needless to say, I have tried a few different types of focaccia over the years and was open to finding out how VIU interprets this recipe. 

While the focaccia initially appeared to not have a lot of rosemary on it, I found that there was actually just the right amount of the herb hiding in the dimples.  Additionally, there was just the right amount of coarse salt sprinkled on the top.  The texture of the bread was soft on the inside, yet slightly chewy, and reminded me of my own recipe.  It tasted wonderful after I had slid it through the olive oil and balsamic vinegar on my plate.  I certainly approved of it that night, as did my volunteer taste testers at home.  The true test of focaccia bread, however, is the “day-old test.”  I find that Focaccia from bakeries has a tendency to go stale and rubbery very quickly, almost like sourdough bread, whereas my personal recipe tends to not do that.  I wanted to do a thorough comparison with this focaccia, so I made sure to leave some of the loaf for the “day-old test.”  For breakfast the next morning I sliced some of the focaccia in half horizontally and applied butter and a hot skillet to the sliced side to create a crispy layer of flavor.  I then placed a fried egg on the bottom half of the focaccia and topped it with the other slice to create a focaccia and fried egg sandwich.  I am pleased to report that the day-old focaccia was not too stale and was not at all rubbery. 

This bread exceeded my expectations and I hope to buy some more of it in the future.  Mostly because I wonder how it would taste if I used it to make a chicken salad sandwich…