SC - OOP - Sucess!!

[Marian Deborah Rosenberg]

Hi,

  Being the sort of person who is experimental - on my last trip to the grocery
store, rather than get cornbread mix, I got a bag of white corn flour and a bag
of yellow corn flour as well as some yeast.  And last night/this morning I made
Focaccia Versiliese.

http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/baked-goods/breads/recipe1060.rec

  It would seem I don't have very good luck with yeast.  I was very patient. 
But, when it hadn't risen even the slightest bit in 6 hours, I proofed another
packet and added it, then went back to sleep.  The dry/liquid ratio doesn't
seem quite right, I followed the recipe to the letter (except for the olives)
and had a very dry crumbly dough the first time around.  After adding the fresh
yeast, I added 3 handfuls of flour and it worked fine.  When I woke up again 3
hours later it had doubled into a nice stretchy dough.

  My landlord and maintenance man showed up to look at the stuff needing
repairs just in time for me to pull a fresh loaf out of the oven.  I had
sprinkled chopped onion over it liberally and then sliced tomato poppers which
I put in a criss cross pattern.  Unfortunately, from the asthetic viewpoint,
the bread stuck to the very center of the pan and I had to break it up to get
it off.  They were both surprised to discover this was only my second attempt
at a yeasted dough and liked it quite a lot.  Since I'm only one person, I gave
about 1/4 loaf to my downstairs neighbor when I stopped by to use the phone
(mine isn't working yet).

  Rather than butter I mixed up ricotta cheese, dry parmesan, black pepper, and
olive oil.

  Anyone know any really good period bread recipies?

- -M