I Heart Mini Pineapple Focaccia Taste of Yellow 2010

LiveSTRONG Day, October 2, 2010

This is my entry for the annual Taste of Yellow LiveSTRONG Event that is hosted by Barbara over at Winos and Foodies (I just love the name of that blog!!!). You should take a moment to visit. Her story is incredible!

This is the second time I've participated in Taste of Yellow but Winos and Foodies have been doing this since 2007. The purpose is to raise awareness. This year we are required to add a heart in some way. It'll be fun to see everyones creativity. It's not too late if you'd like to join in alos. She'll be excepting entries all this week.

We've all been touched in some shape or form by cancer, either personally or through a family member or friend...or all of the above. There are a lot of incredible survival stories out there. And a lot of stories with very sad endings. I've experienced them both.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children or grandchildren could live in a cancer-free world.

Hopefully through organizations like The Lance Armstrong Foundation, that day will come. Until then, we keep supporting, searching and Living Strong.

For my show of support this year, I have once again chosen pineapple as my yellow food. I didn't mean to. I could've gone with eggs, yellow squash, lemons....etc. But pineapple seems to jump out at me. Until this morning I had planned on making an Upside Down Pineapple Cake with the little maraschino cherries cut into the shape of a heart. Then I remembered the L.A. Times Food Section had an article this week about sweet focaccia, which reminded me about the Apple Streusel Focaccia that I made not that long ago (and the grape focaccia that I still need to share with you all). Well, the newspaper article had little mini personal sized focaccias  and well...one thing led to another in my head....and here we are with little Mini Pineapple Focaccia breads.

For my dough, I used the master recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I did alter it slightly, and since they published their recipe on their blog, I will share my version with you.

Please refer to the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day link above for techniques on working with this dough.

6 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (bleached flour doesn't rise as well)
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast (1/2 a tablespoon = 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 cups lukewarm whey (the original recipe calls for water)
3 teaspoons barley malt syrup (not called for in the original recipe)

In a large container, whisk together the flour, yeast and salt. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the whey and barley malt syrup. Add the whey mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spoon but do not knead. Cover loosely and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Transfer to your fridge where you can store it for up to a week. (if you use water instead of whey, you can store it for up to 2 weeks). I let this stay in the fridge over night....it's easier to work with and not so "wet".

Dust the surface of the dough in the container with some flour and remove a good handful size (about the size of a grapefruit). Quickly shape it into a ball by pulling the sides down and under, until you have a smooth ball. This should only take a few seconds. For the full description of this technique, please refer to the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day website link above.

Divide the dough into 4 equal sections and form them into balls. Place them on a grease baking sheet

With greased fingers, flatten each ball into a round, a bit larger than a pineapple ring, and with your fingers, poke dimples into the dough

Allow to rest for about 20 - 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Mini Pineapple Focaccia

12 oz dough (about the size of a grapefruit)
4 pineapple rings
4 maraschino cherries
Olive Oil
4 teaspoons sugar

Pineapple Brown Sugar Glaze

1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice

While the mini focaccias were resting, I searched for marachini cherries in the jar that were not squished and torn and stuff. Man, those things get all messed up in that jar....I had to really search. But I finally did find a few that would suffice. I cut the cherries in half and started slicing and snipping away

Once the dough was done resting (it had risen a bit but with this dough, often the rise comes in the oven while baking, which is called an oven spring) I dimpled the dough again (cuz they didn't all stay dimpled), drizzled them with a small amount of olive oil and then centered a pineapple ring and cherry on each focaccia

Then I sprinkled white sugar on them, about 1 teaspoon per focaccia, being careful not to get too much on the pan. That would make the focaccia really stick to the pan

Bake in a preheated 450'F oven for about 20  minutes or until the edges are nice and golden brown

Now...while the focaccia was in the oven, I melted the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. I stirred in the brown sugar and pineapple juice and heated until the sugar had dissolved, stirring frequently. The resulting glaze (or maybe you can call it a syrup?) is then drizzled over the top of the little mini, personal sized focaccia once they're removed from the oven.

If you like pineapple...you will love this! You can control how sweet it is by how much glaze you pour over yours....as you can see...I really like it sweet.

My heart goes out to all who have been affected by cancer.