Focaccia

Focaccia is probably the simplest and easiest bread recipes to make.As long as you follow the instructions carefully it can hardly go wrong.You also need a leisurely afternoon to make this like any kind of bread considering the amount of time you need to let the yeast do it's magic.

I am just adding the basic Focaccia recipe here but you can go wild with your creation and add as many toppings as you like. You can also put different toppings on different parts of focaccia to suit various paletes.For example Jamie Oliver made this 3 flavour focaccia ,the three flavours being 1 caramelised onions.2.basil and Cherry tomato 3.Three cheese flavours and rosemary.

It can be eaten on its own as it has enough salt and oil or can be made into a sandwich or Panini.

Ingredients:

1. 500 grams strong white bread flour- It is better to use strong white flour as it has more gluten content than the ordinary /plain flour.
2. 1 sachet dried yeast  or 7 grams
3.1/2 tablespoon golden caster sugar
4. 400 ml  Luke warm water
5.olive oil.
6.1 teaspoon salt
7.sea salt
8.Rosemary springs

Method

Put the sugar and yeast in a small bowl and stir in 60ml of water.Leave in a dry place to activate.If the yeast does not bubble and foam in 5 minutes throw it away and start again.It is Important that water is luke warm and not hot as hot water can kill the yeast.

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl or in a food processor fitted with plastic blade.Add the olive oil(1 table spoon),the yeast mixture and 3/4th of water.Mix and then add the rest of the water ,a little at a time ,until the dough loosely clumps together.

The dough looks very wet at this stage and the first time I made this I thought the proportion of water to dough is wrong and kept adding flour while kneading .It resulted in a very hard focaccia.So Trust me this is how it is supposed to look like.

 Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes until smooth,or until the impression made by a finger springs back immediately.there are lot of techniques for kneading the dough but it doesn't really matter as long as you are stretching the dough and bringing it back in some fashion.You can oil hands/use flour.You can also use dough scraper to bring the back together .

Rub the inside of a large bowl with olive oil.Roll the ball of the dough around in the bowl to coat it with oil,then cut a shallow cross on the top of the ball with a sharp knife.Leave the dough in the bowl,cover with a cling film/tea towel and leave in dry warm spot for 1- 11/2 hours until doubles in size.

Punch down the dough to its original size .Roll or stretch the dough out to a rectangle of roughly about38x28cm.what I did was put the dough ball in the centre of an oiled rectangular tray and  stretch it out to fill the tray.Cover it with cling film again  and leave for 2 hours in the same place.

Pre heat the oven to 220c/425 F/Gas 7.
make dimples in the dough with your fingers and spread with olive oil,sea salt,black pepper if you want and rosemary springs.
Bake for about 20 minutes.

I made a sandwich for myself with left overs the next day with some prosciutto ham,salami and mozzarella with red pesto as the base.Yummy!!