Focaccia

From the book Cooking for the Week by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart

Introduction

Focaccia dough is pliable, easy, and fun to work with. It’s a grown-up’s Play-Doh. This recipe produces 2 soft, delicious focaccias luxuriantly drizzled with olive oil. We serve one with our grilled chicken dinner, and freeze the other for a luscious vegetarian sandwich later in the week. Fresh sage is used in this version, but almost any fresh herb is wonderful—try basil, oregano, or rosemary. We encourage the use of coarse salt for the topping; if available, coarse sea salt is especially aromatic.

Ingredients

Focaccia

Topping

Steps

Focaccia

1. Combine the yeast and warm water in a large bowl. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes or until foamy. Stir in the lukewarm water, salt, and olive oil. Add 4 cups of the flour and stir well with a wooden spoon. Stir in enough of the additional flour to make a lightly sticky dough and turn the dough out on a floured work surface. Knead the dough, adding sprinkles of flour as needed to prevent sticking, until smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky, about 5 minutes. Put the dough in a large oiled bowl, turn the dough to coat it with oil, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
2. Oil two 10-inch cake pans with olive oil. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Divide the dough in half and knead each half briefly. Place each half in an oiled pan. Press the dough down to cover the bottom of the pans. Let the dough relax for several minutes if it resists being spread. Cover each pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise again until soft and fluffy but not quite doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. The dough can also be refrigerated at this time for several hours or overnight before proceeding. Remove from the refrigerator 1½ to 2 hours before baking to let rise.

Topping

1. About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 400°F. Make random light indentations in each piece of dough with your fingertips. Sprinkle each with the sage, drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Place the pans in the oven and spray the walls of the oven with water from a spray bottle (see Cook’s Note). Spray again after 4 minutes, then again after 8 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and bake until golden brown, another 20 to 25 minutes.

Notes

• Makes 1 10-inch round loaf to serve, and 1 to freeze for Focaccia Sandwich with Grilled Squash, Goat Cheese, and Basil
• Baking yeast breads while there is steam in the oven allows them to rise higher before a crust forms and helps create a chewier crust. An easy way to produce steam in an oven is to mist it with a few sprays of tap water from a clean spray bottle during the first few minutes of baking.

This content is from the book Cooking for the Week by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart.