flatbread baybee

a show stopper, a snack, a piece of art, dinner, whatever u want it to be

I love bread.

While I did work out how to make a normal crusty sourdough loaf to my own satisfaction, flat breads and focaccia take less baking time and are great for the summer when I don’t want the oven to be on as hot and as long.

I’m pretty sure this journey began with seeing a picture on social media and being inspired. Some friends and I got together the first year of grad school and made this first picture of focaccia. We actually submitted that picture to the campus arts and humanities publication and it was published which is cool.

So that was an example of bread as artistic expression. When I revisited foccacia wanting to make a fluffy lovely sourdough one, it took some trial and error. I was inspired by pictures of donut focaccia and creators asking questions like “will it focaccia” (I should write up the story of my 2021 passion project titled “will it gnocchi.” Anyway, the images below were extremely mediocre and in my opinion not the most edible results.

Some where in there I decided to revisit the artistic expression and made the below pumpkin focaccia. It was okay. I liked the onions.

I think then I gave up on sourdough for a while but returned to it in the summer of 2024 just for the vibe. I had recently fallen in love with the NOW DISCONTINUED (REST IN PEACE) trader joes vegan feta cheese by making a whipped feta dip that was so stinking good. Anyway, I made the most delicious little pizza-y focaccia with the king author sourdough focaccia recipe and it was deliciousssssss. Got great reviews from the pals too.

Anyway, my sourdough and my baking heart have been dormant this year due to my lack of a kitchen. However, I had the chance to complete an elective near Santa Cruz, CA and was living and learning with a lovely group of students. We had an industrial kitchen which made me realize that I need an industrial kitchen in my home.

On my night to make dinner I made two massive loaded flat breads—one was roasted tomato onion and vegan parmesan and the other one was fig, artichoke heart, vegan feta and balsamic vinegar. They were a hit.

That’s all. TL;DR the King Arthur sourdough focaccia recipe is really good. Add toppings in an artisanal and/or delicious way. Your friends will probably be pretty excited. And hot take, but I think these are better than most of the at-home pizzas ive made—although I do prefer a more bread-forward pizza.