July Goal: Focaccia Bread | Baked

I did it! I baked Focaccia Bread! I quite literally just took it out of the oven. I used a recipe I found on Mindy Coleman's blog. The Colemans are the most adorable little family! (no, I'm not talking about myself :) But back to the bread. It's fabulous. I know for a fact that we'll be eating ours with some extra virgin olive oil and basil with some salt and pepper. YUM! I encourage you to try this bread. It's really simple and absolutely delicious!

you will need:

4-4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of warm water {105-115 degees}

1 teaspoon of active dry yeast

& then

1 cup of warm water

2 teaspoons of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of olive oil

more coarse salt for sprinkling

the process starts the night before when you mix together 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of warm water & yeast. mix until smooth & cover overnight. It will look spongy.

no.2

if you have a kitchen aid. mix your sponge in that so that you can then easily add your 1 more cup of warm water & salt. mix. then gradually add flour. you want just enough so that your dough begins to pull away from the sides of your mixing bowl. knead 8-10 minutes.

no.3

place your dough onto a lightly oiled bowl. turn over once so your whole ball of dough is covered.

let rise 'about an hour' or until doubled. which for me actually was about an hour.

miracle of miracles.

no.4

now the kind of weird part. 

take a baking sheet. flour it & turn your dough directly onto it. 

now…take a large bowl & turn it upside down so it covers the dough & let rest for 30 minutes.

no.5

if you have a baking stone. use it at this point & preheat in your oven.

i do not. so after about 15 minutes i preheat our {empty} oven to 475.

no.6

remove bowl after 30 mintues and very gently roll your dough out until it has a diameter of about 11". don't overwork it, here. you don't want all of that rising you did to deflate now, do you?

so now look back up at the picture. see the pretty dots all over the bread?

now you're going to do that. so poke at your bread. just for fun. 

making about 1/2 inch dents every 2 or so inches.

then brush lightly with olive oil, top with sea salt & bake for 15-20 minutes. 

you'll know when your bread is done when you tap on it & it makes a nice hollow sound :)