Focaccia

Welcome back! 

Today, we have a very essential Italian recipe: Focaccia! This is a bread that is very similar to pizza dough, except that you eat it just as bread, whether plain or as a sandwich. It's very nice because you can add a variety of interesting ingredients on top (some people make some really beautiful focaccia art), or you can just make it the classic way, like we do here.

Focaccia

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 package (1/4 ounce or 2 teaspoons) instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cup water
• More olive oil for the pan and on top
• Various toppings: rosemary, coarse salt (like fleur de sel), olives, etc.

Directions:

1. In a stand mixer (using the dough hook), add the flour, yeast, honey, olive oil, and salt. Slowly add the water in and mix it on low speed until it has become smooth. You can also knead it with your hands if you're feeling daring.
   
2. Once it's good, set it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let it rest for 1-2 hours depending on the temperature outside. If it's cold where you are, you may need to let it rest for 2 hours. A trick would be to also take a cup of hot water and put it in the oven with the dough.

   

   So much bigger now!

   
   
3. Take it out and punch it a little to get the bubbles out of the dough. Fold it back into a ball and cover it up. Let it rest for 10-20 minutes.
4. Take your pan and pour 3-4 tablespoons olive oil on the bottom.
5. Roll it flat and put it into the pan. Stretch it out enough so that it has some room to shrink back.
6. Drizzle some olive oil on the dough and add your toppings.
   
   
   
7. Let it rise for 20-30 minutes.
8. Bake in the oven at 400°F for 20 minutes.
   

Of course, you can also use active yeast for this recipe, you'll just put the yeast into warm water (110°F) and after letting it proof, add it in where you add the water in step 1. Another thing to note is that the one we made is quite thick, you could obviously just use a larger pan to make it thinner. Also, this is not exactly like normal bread, so when you knead the dough, it is not necessary to make the dough super-duper smooth. That way, it's a little less work! For a really quick focaccia, you can use pre-prepared pizza dough - they're pretty similar, and you'll get a similar taste, just not as fresh as dough made from scratch!

-Chefpo