Sourdough foccacia

I was one of the participants at Dan Lepard's demo and I was glad to have had the opportunity to learn from him. He demonstrated a foccacia served at Locatelli in London. It included malt and a levain.  The flavor took me by surprise after I took bite of it. 

I would never have imagined a bread made within that short period of time can have such a deep penetrating aroma. Needless to say, I left the demonstration very inspired. I was sure that the flavor did not come from the levain brought by me. It was a source of embarrassment for me as it was not its usual self. I thought that if the bread had turned out bad, I would have done Dan a great disservice. Surprisingly, the bread made by Dan had such a superb aroma that everybody who sampled it expressed their approval with uums, and other expressions of delight. 

For the demonstration, Dan used a Type 00 flour, malt and my levain. However, for this bake, I omitted the yeast just to see the difference the yeast made. It was made using my usual sourdough process.

The outcome: The bread was flavorful but the texture was pathetic. Unfortunately, I promised a friend that I would bring him a loaf of bread for our meeting. After seeing the way the bread turned out, I hesitated in bringing it. However, as I have already given my word, I had to bring it for him.