Sourdough Focaccia bread - anytime is a good time · Monday October 5, 2026 by colin newell
Bread making. I grew up with it and it is an activity that has been in my DNA forever. Not only that, bread was something that sustained me through some lean times.
My mom made 4 to 6 loaves a week of yeast based breads and would occasionally dabble in sourdough.
In this recipe, I extol the virtues and joy of making focaccia because it’s easy.
It’s a great utility bread for a lot of meals and it’s virtually impossible to screw up.
Required Babish viewing tutorial below!
I like introducing people to bread making for a variety of reasons. One of which, it’s not rocket science. With a natural yeast starter, bread is no more than flour, water and salt. That’s it. It has been done this way for thousands of years.
As noted above, I think focaccia is a perfect sourdough-bread-baking starting point. It will teach you the fundamentals of working with sourdough without the potentially troublesome steps of shaping, scoring, and baking with Dutch ovens, bread pans and other vessels.
I have completed this recipe around 40 times now so I can attest to the fact that it could be a reliable launch point for your sourdough experience. Or in other words, a way to accumulate bread skills!
The recipe below also can be baked in a loaf pan or a cookie sheet. Over time your skills will improve.
Picture below – what your dough looks like after proofing overnight!
Let’s go! I assume that you have an activated, fed and feisty sourdough starter.
Disclaimer The creation and care of the sourdough starter is beyond the scope of this recipe.
Not sure about your starter? Off to the internets you go!
Sourdough tip – Your sourdough starter is good to go/ready to use if you take a tablespoon of it and drop it in a few inches of water and it floats!
Instructions
1.) Grab a bowl that will hold at least 1/2 kg of dough – that is 500G – so something medium sized.
2.) Add 100g of your ready sourdough starter to the bowl.
3.) Add 8-10g of kosher salt – Using table salt with iodine is not the best. Premium salt equals better results.
4.) Add 360g of warm water (not hot water!) 35 to 45 degrees © or 110 degrees (F) is probably OK but definitely not hotter than that.
5.) Mix the water, salt and starter well.
6.) Gradually add 512g of bread flour. You can use a mixer. I do this by hand or with a bread mixing hook.
Work/knead the dough to form a sticky ball.
Stretch and fold – To develop the gluten in the dough, it is important to stretch and fold the dough twice an hour for the first 2 hours and then once more before putting in the fridge to develop/ferment overnight. There are many awesome YouTube tutorials on the “Stretch and Fold” so find one you like and develop your technique.
7.) You can let this all rise overnight (6 to 12 hours) or slow it down by putting it in the fridge. Fermentation keeps moving along even when your dough is tucked away in a cool area – it changes the flavour some. For keeping the focaccia dough “feisty” I tend to keep it out in the kitchen and work around its schedule.
Rule: Higher room temperature, faster “development” and fermentation of the dough.
8.) Assuming you are doing this overnight, in the morning pull out the dough and give it a few pulls and folds – consult the YouTube video below for some technique-tips (way easier than me trying to explain it!)
Picture above After raising overnight – should look like the above picture.
9.) Get the slightly deflated dough into a bowl with some olive oil (on top and on the bottom…) – it inhibits sticking.
10.) Let rise for 4 – 6 hours. Get out a cookie sheet or deep dish pizza pan (the square of rectangular type…)
11.) Olive Oil the pan “generously” – you need a good continuous coating on the bottom of the pan.
12. ) Transfer the dough into the pan. Cover and “2nd rise” for 4 to 6 hours.
Picture Below – What your 2nd-Raised dough should look like before tossing into the oven. There is some “technique” here but basically, you want to use your fingertip to “Pilsbury Doughboy” (poke) the proofed dough in 12 to 16 spots (the divets) that end up as a place for olive oil drizzle to settle – as well as giving it that signature Italian bread look.
Tip You know the dough has been proofed enough when you press it with your finger and it kind of bounces back by about 75%.
13.) Prior to putting the proofed bread into the oven, garnish with fresh rosemary and a good drizzle of olive oil and artisanal salt – even coarse kosher salt is fine.
14.) Bake for 24 minutes at 450 degrees (F) or until delightfully brown on top. Turn onto drying rack for, at least, 30 minutes or more before cutting — I know, it is tempting to try cutting it when it is right out of the oven. Don’t do it!
Reveal!
- This bread is perfect with any meal – it does not need butter as it is infused with olive oil. It reheats well in the microwave prior to serving. It can also be served with a balsamic vinegar dip or any imaginable spread you can concoct.
Remember: It is perfect all by itself.
It is crunchy, chewy, nutritious and tasty… and guess what, it’s going to get eaten fast.
One thing to remember
All breads need time to cool – I cannot repeat this enough! So…
Let it cool before cutting!
Listen to me talk about this subject for 4 minutes if that helps!
Talking Sourdough with your host Colin Newell
SourDoughBreadmaking-Audio-MP3.mp3
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and long time coffee expert – writing on the subject of coffee for over 20 years! His dissertation on this subject can be found over on www.coffeecrew.com – Have any questions on bread-making, coffee, life, the Universe, and everything? Send me an e-mail for goodness sakes!
Fall gourmet series - I've got great buns · Tuesday September 22, 2026 by colin newell
Once the sun starts slipping below the horizon a bit more every day, our palates start thinking about the cozier food of the fall.
These sourdough butter buns tick all the boxes for fluffiness, great taste and texture and an easy bake.
While no sourdough bread project can be considered “beginner level” (I’d say that title belongs to my focaccia bread…), this one is not complex. It does have a few extra ingredients and if I were to hand out some initial advice, it would be “measure everything!”
On your first attempts, keep your digital scale handy! Measure twice!
Uses for sourdough butter buns…
Serve warm from the oven and slathered with butter. Use as mini hamburger buns for sliders. These buns can be the foundation for small sandwiches. You’re only limited by your imagination.Stuff you need…
- 9” × 13” glass baking dish
- accurate digital scale
- bench scraper
- mixing bowls
Ready your starter…
Sourdough starter is a living and breathing entity – and in order for it to be “ready to work…” it needs to be fed and “prepped” with time to ready it to “do the work…”This blog is not meant as a Sourdough instructional – you are going to find a myriad of tips on the YouTubes, Internets and Chat-AI critters.
In my case, I often take my sourdough starter out of refrigerator “in stasis”, then I “feed it…” and let it sit out on the kitchen counter for 6 to 12 hours to build a head of steam. Any sourdough bread is a work and exercise of “slow motion…” You can shape it to work around your life schedule in a variety of ways – that is up to you.
Dough ingredients…
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- 1 cup (240 g) milk (options include any and all nut milks and oat milk)
- 3 tablespoons (44 g) sugar (or 2 tablespoons of honey)
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) salt
- ½ cup (100 g) active sourdough starter
- 3 cups + 2 tablespoons (375 g) bread flour
Let’s go!
- Melt 28g of salted or unsalted butter in a small pan… gently… do not boil or brown the butter.
- Let cool until around 100 to 110 (F) or anything less.
- Add milk or nut-milk, sugar (or honey) and salt. Stir to combine.
- Temperature should be cool to warm — but not hot.
- Add in the 100G of fed and feisty sourdough starter.
In a larger bowl add your flour – no need to sift it. Bread flour, standard white flour or a combination of brown and white can work well.
Gradually add your liquid stuff (butter, salt, milk and starter…) to the dry (flour) mix.
You can use a stand mixer with the hook attachment and mix for 5 or 10 minutes but I like doing this part by hand – it is mindful and restful and you get a better sense of the texture and direction the dough is going in.
I aim for a shaggy ball of “dough” where the bulk of the wet mix has been absorbed by the dry.
Once you achieve this, cover the bowl with a warm towel and let the dough ball rest for 30 to 40 minutes.
After that first rest, I do my first of 3 to 4 pull and folds – each spaced around 30 to 40 minutes each. With each pull and fold, gluten strands are developing giving the dough ball strength and integrity…
There is a fair bit of technique used here to do the pull and folds and develop a good ball of dough – it is up to you to know where you are at with this or ask the AI or YouTube gods to assist your knowledge base. When you are happy with your dough ball it is time to commence the first cold ferment and proof. This entails throwing a moist towel over your bowl and putting it in the fridge overnight. With a long ferment, you will be rewarded with better taste and texture.
Your alarm clock has awoken you!
By morning your first peek into the fridge will likely be an exciting one.Your dough has risen by upwards of 50% or more – ideally double in size.
Either way, turn it out onto a floured bread board.
With a “bench scraper”, cut the dough ball into 2 pieces… and cut these two pieces into two pieces… and again until you have 12 “lumps” of dough each weighing in at around 65 to 75g. This is good. You now need to form each of the 12 pieces of dough into balls – this is a technique I have yet to master – and once again, your YouTube Jedi will be very helpful.
Set your dough balls into 3 rows of 4 in a lightly greased (buttered) glass baking pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven or until they are golden brown. If you can measure them internally, a goal of 190 degrees (F) Is ideal.
After you taken them out, give them 15 minutes or so in the pan before turning them all out (in a block) onto a cooling rack. Yes, they will have expanded in the glass baking pan and will have become cozy. Not to worry as they pull apart easily.
Within another half an hour or so, they are ready to pull apart and serve with your best three veg and a meat dinner, or as the foundation for sliders or a charcuterie plate – the sky is the limit – these are delicious buns — and if you don’t need them all at once, they freeze happily for months. Enjoy!
Colin Newell is a Victoria B.C. resident and avid writer. His nattering on about the subject of coffee culture has reached far and wide… and maybe still does…
Key Lime Pie - anytime is a good time for a classic · Saturday August 8, 2026 by colin newell
Back in the 1980’s, Victoria B.C. had a restaurant called “The Herald Street Cafe…”
For many people, it opened the door to a level of cuisine exploration for locals that simply did not exist before.
Victoria residents were more likely to dine at Denny’s, White Spot and a handful of small mom & pop diners that plated hamburgers on the flat top with fries.
Things changed in the 80’s with the likes of Pagliacci’s, Goodies on Broad Street, The South Side Diner (however short lived…) and, heck, even John’s Place.
The Herald Street Cafe introduced us to hip dining, dishes like pasta vongole (pasta with clams…) and desserts like Shaker Lemon Pie… and while they never served Key Lime Pie, to the best of my knowledge, it would have fit in.
For whatever reason, I have been dreaming of Key Lime pie for months and I found Chef Brian Lagerstrom’s interpretation of this classic.
I have modified a few of the ingredients more suited to Canadian or European taste buds.
Sure, you could go to his website and check out his recipe – but like anything remotely like stuff you’d see on Pinterest, there are crap loads of ads that you have to sift through — and there are few things that offend me more: a gauntlet of ads you have to run through to see the flipping recipe! Yea, I’m talking to you internet! My food blog features no ads, no shills, no product placement and no BS! Enjoy your visit.
Let’s get into it! The pie is actually 3 things in one: A pie crust (suitable for a myriad of adaptation…) – the custard filling (again, adaptations are only limited by your imagination… and a whipped topping.
GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
230g (2½ cups) graham crackers
25 g (3 tbsp) nonfat milk powder
30 g (2½ tbsp) sugar
4 g (¾ tsp) salt
65 g (4½ tbsp) butter, unsalted
65 g (4½ tbsp) heavy cream
Supplies – 9.5” Glass pie pan, neutral oil spray for pie pan.
Step 1 – preheat oven to 375 degrees (F)
Step 2 – gently melt the 65g of butter in a small pan – you do not want to boil or simmer the butter – just warm until liquid. Set aside to cool.
Step 3 – pulse/blitz the graham crackers, milk powder, salt and sugar in a food processor until they are the consistency of coarse sand – you are not looking for powder and you don’t want lumpy consistency either. Depending on your food processor, this could take 30s to a minute and a 1/2. Results vary depending on the gear you are using.
Step 4 – add the butter and cream to your food processor. Pulse for 15 to 40 seconds (results vary) – you want something that holds together when pressed (kind of like medium dry (or medium moist) cookie dough. [Consult the attached video for a better idea…]
Step 5 – prepare your crust in a 9.5” glass pie pan – this blog entry does not seek to identify the best method for making a graham wafer crust – consult the attached video for a very good view and approach to making a graham wafer crust. This was my first attempt at making a hybrid graham wafer crust and I was delighted with the results — and I am not a chef!
Step 6 – bake the crust for 12 minutes in a 375 degree oven – you are looking for a golden brown finish for the entire crust. Set aside to cool for 10 – 15 minutes.
Step 7 – Reset oven to 325 degrees (F)
KEY LIME CUSTARD FILLING
7 egg yolks
75 g (⅓ cup) sour cream, full fat
396 g / 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
120 g (½ cup) key lime juice, Nellie & Joes
2 g (¼ tsp) salt
Supplies – a medium sized bowl – steel or glass –
Step 1 – whisk all the wet ingredients in a bowl until smooth and well combined. Let the mixture rest in the bowl for 15 to 20 minutes (while the crust cools a bit is a good amount of time!)
Step 2 – Pour the custard into the pan on top of the graham wafer crust (as if there was any other way…)
Step 3 – You can “rest” the custard in the pan for a minute or two – or jiggle it gently to dislodge any bubbles, but bubbles are unlikely.
Step 4 – Bake for 17 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven. The edges, in to around the center 2-3 inches should have set like jello – and there can be a bit of a jiggle on the outer edges. Note: The pie will continue to set while it cools and chills but do try and get the outer realm to “appear” set. It is better to put it back into the oven for another few minutes and recheck the pie. It is actually challenging to “over-bake” a key lime pie. Use your best judgement and the accompanying video.
Step 5 – Critical! Chilling is extremely important with this pie! While you could refrigerate it for 2-4 hours and serve, it is significantly better if the pie is covered with stretch wrap and chilled overnight in the fridge. If there was one key element in the key lime pie, this is it. Chilling is imperative!
WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING
250 g (1 cup) heavy cream, cold
50 g (½ cup) powdered sugar
5 g (¾ tsp) vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Extras: lime zest, for topping
Step 1 – prepare your whipping cream – I use a KitchenAid mixer but you could do this by hand, with a hand mixer or a whisk (which would be hardcore!) We tend to shoot for “stiff peaks” and that is a pretty subjective term.
Brian’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. That is way too much for my Canadian taste buds – I’d start at around 1/4 cup of powdered sugar (which you add after you get your desired peaks…) and don’t forget your vanilla.
Step 2 – chill the topping overnight! (yes, you can sub in cool whip or tinned-compressed whip topping. You do you – there is no right answer.
Comments, Serving and Supply notes…
You can get the juice direct from Nellie & Joes – via Amazon in Canada or Walmart in the USA. The crust, once mastered, can be the base for any cheesecake or custard based pie – you’re only limited by your imagination. The whipped topping is total open to your interpretation and preferences. Go crazy.
Colin Newell in a resident of Victoria B.C. Canada and has been running this “ad-free” blog since 2007. If you enjoy these entries and recipes, please keep the love flowing with a comment or an e-mail… which I will respond to instantly!
Please leave some feedback - it strokes my ego!
Brown Butter Peanut Butter Cookies Re-Boot · Monday April 13, 2026 by colin newell
When I make cookies, I do not mess around. As someone who has company over — coffee guests… music students… my music teachers… there has to be something to put out that is going to satisfy and delight.
I’ll admit – I make good coffee. And there is nothing that pairs up with a big ole’ mug of black java than a cookie treat.
And I am torn between two worlds – peanut butter or chocolate chip. Sometimes I do both in the same cookie — there are recipes here for that – go look. Use the search button. It is your friend.
One of the key secret ingredients here is brown butter – brown butter is the charm. Making brown butter is outside of the realm of this blog entry – but suffice it to say, you need 115g of it — so you start with around 145g of cold or room temperature butter in a sauce pan… why this amount you ask? Because the butter is going to lose moisture as it browns. Google this subject for a tutorial.
Brown butter brings an entirely new dimension to any cookie. But oh no, we are not stopping there – our other secret ingredient is miso paste. Yes. Miso paste. Trust me.
Ok – once you have created your 115G (give or take) of the browned butter, let it cool a bit then put it in the fridge for a minimum of one half hour — it has to solidify again before the next step.
Dry Mix
What you could do while you wait for the butter to cool and solidify is prepare your dry ingredients.
That would be: 330g all purpose flour or gluten free flour. Up to you.
Add the baking powder and baking soda.
This recipe asks for 12g of salt (any artisanal salt will do…) – but I would back off on the salt a bit because there is salt in miso paste… so try 7G of salt, OK?
Don’t risk it — whisk it! Whisk your dry mix for several minutes – there is nothing worse than a batch of cookie dough that does not have the leavening and/or salt properly distributed.
Creaming the wet ingredients…
Pull your cooled brown butter from the fridge. Scrape it all into your mixing bowl (I use a kitchen-aid mix-master…)
Don’t forget the deep brown bits of the browned butter – this is where the magic is.
Add the 115g of the room temperature butter on top of this.
Add your peanut butter. Whether you use creamy or crunchy… that is a secret between you and your jar.
You could bend the rules here and mix in a blend of tahini or cashew butter… the sky is the limit. You do you.
Put in your sugars. It may seem like there’s a lot of sugar in these cookies. You’re not hallucinating. Apologize to your pancreas later.
Add the honey or maple syrup… then the white miso paste…
Cream on low speed for 5 to 7 minutes.
Do not add the eggs and the vanilla until after this initial creaming phaseOK – breathe. Add your egg(s) and vanilla to the mix and blend on low for 2 minutes or so.
Dry into Wet…
Add your flour mixture into your creamed concoction and blend on LOW until everything is just mixed.
Prolonged mixing will develop gluten and make for a less desirable cookie.
Jump down for baking instructions.
The Wet Stuff…
* 115g (1 stick) butter, softened
* 115g (1/2 cup) brown butter, cooled and semi-solid (start with ~145g to account for water loss)
* 350g (1 1/3 cups) peanut butter
* 185g (scant 1 cup) granulated sugar
* 185g (1 cup packed) brown sugar
* 25g (1 1/4 Tbsp) honey or Maple Syrup
* 65g (1/4 cup) white miso
* 90g (6 Tbsp) whole egg, beaten (about 1½ large eggs)
* 20g (4 tsp) vanilla extract
The Dry Stuff…
* 330g (2 2/3 cups) all-purpose flour or gluten free flour
* 7g (1 1/2 tsp) baking powder
* 7g (1 1/4 tsp) baking soda
* 12g (2 tsp) salt read extra notes above!
Baking!
Ok – here is where I go off script a bit. I chill my dough! I chill my dough for as little as 4 hours and as long as 24-48 hours.
After I mix the dough, I turn it out of the mixing bowl onto a sheet of (plastic wrap) saran wrap and fashion it into a “log”. The objective is to create a sausage-like wrapped log of cookie dough that is air tight. This batch makes enough dough for upwards of 30 cookies and I strongly advise against baking all of this dough at once unless you are feeding a small army. In my case, I have created enough dough for three baking sessions or more (small house here…)
I’ll reiterate: I like to chill my dough overnight. Whether or not you do this is up to you. I find chilled dough, say 24 hours worth, has a better flavor profile. I may be out of my mind – that is entirely possible.
For those of you who need immediate gratification, you can spoon out “balls” of dough onto a parchment covered cookie sheet.
The size of the individual dough balls is entirely arbitrary – some folks use an ice cream scoop. I use a tablespoon for a smaller cookie. This is entirely subjective.
I do not press the cookie dough down with a fork… that is old school. The dough settles and spreads quite nicely by itself.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes – or until a hint of golden browning appears at the base of the cookie.
Note - Cookies continue to bake while they cool – do not bake until they start browning at the top of the cookie!
Cool on the stove counter top for a minimum of 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack – and then let the cookies cool further for an additional 10 minutes. Trust me: They need time to set up. Failure to acknowledge this patience-testing exercise will be rewarded with fall apart cookies… or cookies that seem to be under-cooked… they are not.
Enjoy!
Enjoy with black coffee or tea or even a glass of milk.
Colin Newell is a Victoria B.C. resident and long time coffee expert... his rambling has appeared everywhere from the New York times to the Wall Street journal, CTV Newsworld and in-flight magazines from carriers like Air Canada to Air Transat... he has been doing this blog thing since the dawn of internet time...
Best condiment ever - pickled red onions · Monday April 6, 2026 by colin newell
We have been embracing the Mediterranean diet lately… what is that you say?
The Mediterranean diet is a heart-healthy eating pattern modeled on the traditional cuisines of Greece, Spain, and Italy. It emphasizes plant-based foods (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, legumes), healthy fats like olive oil, and regular consumption of fish. It limits red meat, added sugars, and processed foods, reducing risks of cardiovascular disease and supporting overall health.
So – who wouldn’t want that? So far we have found most of the dishes that we have cooked up to be mega-yummy…
… And that is yummy to the power of 6… for your math types.
This Spring and Summer we will be featuring lots of recipes and combos with this dietary approach.
Let’s start with one of our favorite condiments… Pickled Red Onions.
Make thy brine
- 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns or…
Mix this slurry together – you can sub in a wide variety of spices in lieu of pepper, pepper flakes, peppercorns…
consider rosemary, thyme, oregano… Better yet, make multiple batches and experiment to your hearts content.
Grab a red onion…
There are a variety of ways to slice up an onion — and I am not going to tell you that there is a right way or wrong way…
Suffice to say: Slice it up into 1/8” slices. And be careful!
Stuff as much of these onion slices into a 1 pint mason jar.
Pour as much of your brine as you need to just cover the onions — hopefully the onion slices top out at around 1/2” below the top of the mason jar. Ideally, the brine covers the onion slices.
Cover or cap the mason jar – stick it in the fridge for a minimum of 24 Hours – it will last for over 6 months… but trust me, you’ll use this condiment up quickly — and make more! You can put pickled onions on hot dogs, salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, in salads… and yes, as part of the sensible Mediterranean diet!Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and subject expert within the realm of coffee culture… his website is Canada’s original tome on the resource of home and office coffee…
