When the weather's cold, it's time to get toasty
Following our summer travels to Italy and France this past summer, the husband and I were anxious to eat more of the amazing bread we had nearly every day of our vacation. This focaccia really fits the bill! I quickly got to scouring the internet for a focaccia recipe that I felt I’d be able to master… bread baking has never been something that I’ve done a lot of. At least not unless you consider banana bread or poppy seed bread or any other type of dessert bread real bread baking and I don’t.
After a bunch of testing I think I’ve come to a very happy place! This recipe is quick to pull together and quick to bake… the time consuming part of it involves the dough resting and rising and you don’t even have to be in the house when it happens. Easy-peasy!
Time: 10 minutes to make dough, 8 hours to rest, 40 minutes to bake
Servings: 6+
Ingredients
500 g bread flour (if you don’t have a scale to measure out flour, get one!… it’s so much more accurate than measuring cups)
10 g instant yeast
10 g salt
1 Tbs olive oil
1 and 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water (not warm water)
4 Tbs (or more) olive oil for drizzling on top prior to baking
Directions
Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together; be sure to use a bowl large enough to allow for a lot of expansion. Add the 1 Tbs of olive oil and water and mix together well—the dough will be sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, lay a kitchen towel over the top, and allow the bowl to sit in a room temperature spot for about 8 hours.
Once the dough has risen for 8 hours you can put it into an 8”x8” baking pan lined with parchment paper. While you’re doing this, get your oven set to 450 degrees and warmed up. Even out the dough across the pan, use your finger to put several dimples into the top of the dough, and drizzle the 4 Tbs (or more) olive oil across the top. At this point I like to sprinkle on either rosemary or mixed seasoning herbs to the top of the dough along with another good grind of salt.
When the oven is hot, pop that pan into the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. As ovens vary, please keep an eye on your bread… if it’s not all cracked and crusty on the top you can always keep it in the oven for a few more minutes.
When your bread cooked to your liking pull the pan out and use the parchment paper to pop the bread out fo the pan and onto a cooling rack. Don’t try to cut your masterpiece right away. I understand that this will be extremely difficult but I have confidence that you can resist for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
Once the bread loaf has cooled a bit you can cut it into glorious pieces, slather it with butter or any other type of spread you desire and get to munching!
