Focaccia
This has to be one of my all time favourite things to eat. When I was younger I had the opportunity to go to Tuscany, specifically Lucca where my father was born. My father and I walked around everywhere and then we had focaccia; this focaccia was the same size as a baking sheet and had coarse salt on it only. It was without a doubt the best bread I have ever had in my life. The following recipe comes close but as my father explains, the flour in Italy is better then we have here and that is why North American bread will never be as good as Italian. I’m pretty sure he’s just biased!
Serves up to 16
4 Cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp quick rising yeast
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp, plus 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 ½ Cup warm water
1 tsp coarse salt, divided
16 Pitted kalamata olives
2 Sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves only
– Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl.
– Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture big enough to hold the liquid. Add the olive oil and water into the well.
– With a wooden spoon slowly pull the flour mixture into the liquid. Mixing constantly until the mixture is thick enough to begin mixing by hand. Note you may need to add some of the remaining flour into the mixture; add the extra flour as you knead the dough. As you knead you will feel spots of the dough that are sticky which is when you should add extra flour to the counter and then knead over it.
– When the dough is firm and not gooey put it on a lightly floured kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes.
(to Knead; push down on the dough with the heal of your hand, then turn the dough sideways, fold the dough in half and again push down with the heal of your hand, and repeat. Oh and now you can feel less guilty eating pizza because you are getting a little cardio as you knead the dough!).
– After kneading the dough for 10 minutes place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a (clean) tea towel/dish rag for one hour to let the dough rise; let the dough rise on the counter top, not in the fridge.
– After an hour preheat your oven to 400.
– You’ll need a 9 x 9 inch baking pan here; grease it well with 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Spread a ½ tsp of the coarse salt onto the oiled bottom of the pan.
– Remove the dough from the bowl it was resting in and place it directly in the pan (on top of the coarse salt).
– Slowly and carefully flatten and spread the dough across the pan so that it is an even thickness and no space left uncovered by the dough in the pan (a cool trick is to have wet fingers to do this).
– Using your index and middle fingers, poke indentations down and across the dough, in an even pattern so that there are 16 indentations.
– Evenly cost the dough with the remaining 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
– Sprinkle the remaining ½ tsp of coarse salt evenly across the dough.
– Place an olive in each indentation.
– Top the dough and olives evenly with the rosemary leaves.
– Bake the focaccia for 30 – 40 minutes, until it is baked through and golden brown.
Notes:
- Feel free to omit the olives and just top the dough with the rosemary only.
- I totally learned this recipe from Gordon Ramsay, he also added sundried tomatoes; feel free!
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