Sunday afternoon Schiacciata

One of my enjoyable Sunday afternoon pastimes is baking yeast bread. That and the crossword puzzle. With luck the yeast bread is a type of sweet bread that makes a good Sunday evening supper with scrambled eggs and bacon. This week I should have quit the crossword earlier! As I bake through the Kansas Wheat Commission's 2011 Recipe Book, the recipe for "Tart Cherry Schiacciata" caught my eye, "a schiacciata (pronounced skee-ah-tah) is an Italian flat bread or focaccia which can be sweet or savory. The winning baker was from Troy, Ohio, and developed this recipe after a trip to Italy. The recipe was one of the winners of the National Festival of Breads so it had to be good! And it is good, just time consuming. We ended up with different supper and some schiacciata for a bedtime snack.

This recipe is worth the time however. I didn't have brandy as called for but did have brandy extract. To make the 'fake brandy', put 4 teaspoons of extract in a measuring cup, add water to make 1/3 cup and then add 2 more teaspoons water. Also, the almond paste wasn't at our local grocery store or even the city's Target store - just keep looking, I found it at a larger Dillon's store. The cherries I used were the frozen fruit the church sells (again, love that fruit order). 3 1/2 cups is 1 pound, just how I'd packaged them for the freezer. I thawed them slightly in a colander under running warm water and sliced them while partly frozen. Then let them set, they will thaw by time to add them to the bread.

Tart Cherry Schiacciata
3 1/2 cups unsweetened frozen tart cherries, thawed
2 teaspoons brandy (or 'fake brandy')
1 cup warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 (1/4 oz) package active dry yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar for sponge
2 large eggs, room temperature, beaten
4 -4 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose flour, divided (the National Festival of Breads is partly sponsored by King Arthur flour, so of course all recipes call for King A. But I do think it makes a better product. Not available at my local store either, keep shopping!)
3/4 cup sugar for almond sugar
4 ounces almond paste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1 teaspoon almond extract, divided
1/3 cup brandy (or 'fake brandy')
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened, divided
4 tablespoons sliced almonds, divided

1. Cut cherries into halves. Marinate cherries in 2 teaspoons brandy.
2. In mixer bowl, add water, yeast, and 1/3 cup sugar; let stand 10 minutes. Add eggs and 2 cups flour; beat 2 minutes on low speed. Scrape down sides of bowl. Cover; let rise 30 - 45 minutes; until bubbly.
3. In food processor bowl with knife blade, add 3/4 cup sugar, almond paste, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Pulse the mixture until the almond paste is cut finely into the sugar. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
4. To prepare dough, blend into flour mixture 1/3 cup brandy, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Gradually add the remaining 2 cups flour and salt until thoroughly blended.
5. Add the butter, cut into small pieces. Once the butter is incorporated, switch to the kneading hook. Knead on medium low speed 5 minutes. If needed gradually add enough of the remaining 1/4 cup flour to make a moderately soft dough. (this dough is really soft, forget about kneading by hand - perhaps you could do it with a big wooden spoon if you don't have a dough hook)
6. Place in greased bowl. Lightly spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (a good rising place is the microwave oven after you've heated 1 cup of water for a couple of minutes. Remove the water and set the dough bowl in the mw and close the door. If you will want to use the mw in this 2 hours, another place is the oven - preheat to 200 degrees and turn it off! When it cools some, place the dough bowl in the oven. If it seems too warm leave the door open a bit for a little while. Dough needs a warm place to rise and in the winter or summer with air conditioning, our kitchens are often too cool for dough - but comfortable for us)
7. Drain cherries thoroughly. Grease two 17 x 11-inch sheet pans.
8. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, but do not punch down. Divide dough into four equal pieces. Stretch one-fourth into a 10 x 7-inch rectangle. Move to pan, forming a rectangle. (I found it easies to tape a flexible plastic cutting sheet to the counter, stretch the dough out on that, then untape and invert it over the pan to peel the dough sheet off with a dough scraper) Stretch the second 1/4 portion and put into the second pan.Sprinkle each with 1/4 of the almond sugar mixture and 1/4 of the drained cherries.
9. Shape/stretch the other 2 portions of dough. Cut 6 half-inch slits to release steam. Lay these on top of the first layers and pinch edges. Top each evenly with the remaining half of the cherries. Cover; let rise until puffy, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
10. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir the sliced almonds into the remaining almond sugar. Sprinkle half over top of each bread. Bake 20 to 24 minutes until golden. Place pans on a rack and cool 10 minutes in the pan. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool slightly.

Each loaf makes 16-24 slices. With the 16-servings, each slice = 163 calories; 3 g protein; 23 g carbohydrate; 1 g dietary fiber; 6 g fat; 22 mg cholesterol; 36 mcg folate; 1 mg iron and 44 mg sodium.

As I said, it took all afternoon/evening, but was well worth it. Very tasty. And with all that waiting & rising time, there was time to go back to the Sunday crossword!