Focaccia Bread

1 1/3 cup warm water (just turn your tap to hot and use that)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 package active-dry yeast (.25 oz)

3 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (more for drizzling–you can use flavored olive oil for the drizzling too)

2 teaspoons sea salt (more for sprinkling)

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1. Mix your warm water and sugar in your stand mixer (again you can do it by hand but stand mixers make everything easier). Once that’s dissolved, add in the yeast and mix quickly. Let this sit for 5-10 minutes until it looks foamy. This will activate your yeast and make the bread rise faster.
2. Turn your mixer back on and gradually add your flour, olive oil, and sea salt. Mix for 5 minutes–until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If it’s too sticky add more flour (I haven’t had to do this yet, but this tip works for the basic bread recipe I posted earlier too).
3. Take the dough out and shape it into a ball. Grease the sides of your mixing bowl (or a new one if your mixing bowl is a mess) with olive oil so your bread can rise. Put your dough ball into the bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour. (I usually start preheating my oven at this stage and put the dough on top of the stove so the warm oven helps it rise.)
4. Preheat your oven to 400.
5. Flour your counter and roll your dough out into a large rectangle. I make focaccia on a regular cookie sheet so I use that as an indicator of how big to roll out the dough. Spray some saran wrap with cooking spray, cover the dough, and let it rise for 20 minutes.
6. Take off the saran wrap and move your dough onto your cookie sheet. Use your first three fingers to make dents all over your bread (see: the Fat episode of Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix). Drizzle generously with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary (remember to only use the leaves of the rosemary and not the branch).
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until it’s golden (mine doesn’t get as brown as I thought it would originally so don’t be worried if yours looks pale).

Like I said, I made this for the first time for wine club and it was such a hit that I barely got to eat any of it! So I made it again the next day to have throughout the week. As great as focaccia bread is with cheese and meat and olive oil, it’s also amazing to have for breakfast with eggs! This is definitely a recipe that will be in heavy rotation moving forward.

xoxo,

J