Focaccia = 0, Flatbread = 1

I'm a little behind on posting my July's ABC baking challenge results because I was away on vacation. But here it is, a roasted vegetable focaccia bread that truly was a challenge for me. Yeast-based foods tend to scare me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat them but making a homemade loaf of bread is a whole other matter. I've also been hit or miss with focaccia bread... a few times it came out perfectly and then other times it came out crispy... like this time.

This recipe came from the King Arthur Flour site, as are all the ABC recipes this year. Previously I've made focaccia bread using this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens so I was a little surprised by The King Arthur Flour recipe because it seemed so much more complicated. It also involved powdered milk, which is not a pantry staple for me and was something I had to seek out. And as many of you know, I keep my pantry well stocked so this was a bit frustrating to buy a whole bag of powdered milk for only 2 tablespoons!

The other issue I have with yeast is it takes hours to develop, whereas baking soda can give you a quick-bread in minutes. Patience and time are a struggle for me and this recipe required me to give a lot of my time. If I had been home all day it would've been fine for me to punch down the bread, let it rise, punch it down again, let it rise again, and then spread it out and let it rise yet again. But I wasn't. In fact, I was at the beach and I had a lovely time. And I don't regret one minute that this "focaccia" bread turned into more of a flatbread and we didn't eat it until 8pm! See? No patience. No regrets. It still tasted lovely.

I really followed the King Arthur Flour recipe, so I won't post the entire recipe here. Although I did do a slightly different topping with caramelized onions, roasted zucchini and parmesan cheese. Before I went to the beach, I caramelized 3 medium-sized onions with a dash of seasoned olive oil (similar to these). When I came back from the beach, I roasted 3 smallish zucchini's with more of the seasoned olive oil, salt and pepper. Immediately after the bread came out of the oven, I generously covered the top with shredded parmesan cheese. The combination of caramelized onions, roasted zucchini and parmesan cheese worked so well together that it turned this failed focaccia into a flatbread win.

Are there any recipes or food groups that are a challenge for you to cook/bake?