Foccacia
Like most people, I love the smell of bread baking (gluten be damned!), but quite honestly sometimes I'm just too lazy/busy to make that happen. But this simple focaccia recipe comes together super fast and can easily be made the night before you want to eat it -- just let rise one time and then put the dough in the fridge overnight. When you get home from work, take it out of the fridge and let it rise in the pan for another hour and then bake for about 20-30 minutes.
I make it with a cup of whole wheat flour to feel kinda virtuous (sometimes I even add ground flax seed if I want to feel even better about myself), but if you don't want to, just use all white flour. Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.
| Cook Time | 20-30 minutes |
| Servings |
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Ingredients
- 1 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 2 cups white, unbleached flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups water, lukewarm
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped Optional
Ingredients
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Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine yeast, flour/s, salt. Mix. Slowly add water and olive oil (and rosemary if using) until thoroughly incorporated. I use a rubber spatula instead of a wooden spoon because I like the way I can get in and under the dough and it incorporates all the loose bits. At this point, I usually wash my hands, put a little olive oil on them and knead the dough in the bowl until really soft and pliable -- about 5 minutes. If you need to add more flour so it's not so sticky, that's totally fine.
- Put a plate on top of your bowl and set aside in a warm place in your kitchen to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour.
- After the first rise, pour about 2 teaspoons of olive oil in an 8x8 (think brownie-sized pan) pan or an 8 in. cast iron skillet. Push down and stretch if necessary to fit. Let rise again for about another hour (if you forget and go longer or you don't have an hour it's not a huge deal).
- Once it's all lovely and poofy, take your fingers and make little dimples on the top of the dough. Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt.
- Cook in a 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
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