I’m not much of a yeast-bread baker, but I’ve been curious about this Italian bread for years. We use it often for sandwiches; it’s filled with the flavor of olive oil, soft and sturdy at the same time, and dimpled all over. Well, if you too have been curious about making focaccia, I’m here to strongly suggest that you try it! Hank taught me how to make it and believe me, this bread is seriously good.
The Best Focaccia Takes Time
Yes, it takes the good part of the day to make (but most of that time goes to just waiting for the dough to rise, thrice). And if you’re lazy like me, or with embarrassingly out-of-shape biceps (also like me), you can easily mix and knead the whole thing in an electric mixer. So it’s easy. No excuses, kimosabe.
Make Focaccia Your Way
This recipe makes enough dough for 2 good-sized loaves. Or you can do what we’ve done, which is take 2/3 of the dough and bake it in a 9x15-inch baking pan, and the remaining third of the dough free-form on a baking sheet. You can make it all in free-form loaves that look like puffy pizzas, or shape them into casseroles or cake pans – there are no absolutes on the shape of this bread.
This Focaccia Will Feed a Crowd
This rosemary focaccia bread is so good that even though the recipe makes enough for a platoon, I’m pretty sure I could eat the whole thing. I literally had to force myself to give much of the last batch away, to parents, neighbors, anyone within reach with an appetite. Purely selfish motives that was, to save myself from an embarrassing chat with the scale.
Storing and Freezing Focaccia
Like most breads, this focaccia freezes well. You can also slice several day old focaccia bread and toast it, serving it with butter and/or honey.
Try Your Hand at These Homemade Breads
Garlic Knots Whole Wheat Bread Homemade Rye Bread Irish Soda Bread Homemade Indian Naan
Recipe adapted from The Italian Baker by Carol Field. Cup by cup, whisk in the rest of the flour (both the bread flour and all-purpose). As the mixture goes from a batter to a thick dough, you’ll want to switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon. Once the bowl is pretty clean, turn the dough out onto a board and knead it well for 8 minutes. You might need some extra flour if the dough is sticky. Note that a KitchenAid mixer (or some other brand of upright electric mixer) works well for the mixing and kneading of the bread dough. About the time you add the last cup of flour you’ll want to switch from the standard mixer attachment to the dough hook attachment. Just knead the dough using the dough hook on low speed for 8 minutes. If after a few minutes the dough is still a little sticky, add a little sprinkling of flour to it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise (in a relatively warm spot or at room temp) for an hour and a half. It should just about double in size. This recipe will make two nice-sized loaves or one big one and a little one. Cover the breads and set aside for another 30 minutes. Then sprinkle the coarse salt on top from about a foot over the bread; this lets the salt spread out better on its way down and helps reduce clumps of salt. If you have a water spritzer bottle, spritz a little water in the oven right before you put the bread in to create steam, and then a couple of times while the bread is baking.
