Cobb Cooker: Cheese and ham focaccia

When we last stayed in Louie's shack, he had a gas oven in the kitchen.  Nick used it to cook a very fine Christmas lunch and it was again put into action by Nissa and Vaughan when making the bore's birthday cake!

Louie has made some changes since our last visit.  The gas oven has been removed and the kitchen now has electric hotplates. The only oven is an outside fuel stove. I'm working up to using that. When when my family had a shack at Yowah, all cooking was done on a fuel stove - and a similar one was purchased for our early days in Dooralong, before the power was connected. Of course, it would be more comfortable to use the fuel stove in cooler weather but all the wood is wet!

I decided to make focaccia for our lunch today. I often make it at home. It goes together quickly because the dough is proved in the microwave while the oven heats.

The process was slower today but a fairly successful experiment - after Nick and I exchanged a few terse words, before swapping Cobb cooking trays!  Consequently the ham and cheese was cooked into the focaccia, rather than remaining a top layer (as is my usual method).  After about 20 minutes the bread was flipped over, pancake-style, so as to brown both sides.  The baking time was around 40 minutes in total, a little longer than when using the electric oven at home.

It wasn't my best-looking focaccia but tasted fine and I'm sure the method can be fine-tuned with practice.