I always have a fondness for breads, be it lavash, pita, baguette, naan, phulkas, kulchas, whatever! I thought, time to make Focaccia bread. As it turned out, I had all the necessary ingredients ready in my fridge and pantry, everything came together pretty quickly. The only part of the bread making I don't like is to wait for the dough to rise. With cooler temperatures, it is difficult sometimes to get the results I want with this kind of dough. But I gave it some more extra time to it was perfectly risen.
I so love the cake-y texture of the focaccia bread with that little salty crunch on the top. Absolutely the food of life! Yes, I can live on bread and milk!
Here's how to make it:
Rosemary Olive Focaccia
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup pitted, chopped green olives
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp coarse salt
In warm water, put sugar and yeast. Stir and cover the bowl for 5 minutes or so, till it froths on the top. I put all the ingredients in the food processor bowl (except the coarse salt and save some rosemary to put on the top of the bread) and let the food processor knead the dough for me. Place the dough ball in the oiled bowl, cover it up with the plastic wrap and keep it in warm place to rise till it doubles the size, for about 3-4 hours.
After 4 hours or so, punch the dough down, place it in a deep 13X9 baking dish and let it rise again for an hour. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F. In the mean time, take the twice risen dough, make indentations with your fingers all over the dough. Spread the rosemary and coarse salt on the top, bake for about 30 minutes till the top becomes nice and golden brown.
This bread tastes good on its own, even better when dipped in that nice green colored extra virgin olive oil! mmm, yummy! This bread complements poulty very well. It is so good for panini sandwiches. But that's another post!
