Focaccia

Focaccia

Hands up who has tried to make bread since lockdown started?
I have gone from being a dough-phobic to a dough-lover, but the best thing about this focaccia is that you can make it all without getting your hands dirty at all, a no touch bread.
This is really simple to make, does not require any over night planning or fancy gadgets, you just need a bowl, spoon, baking tray and a tea towel. I topped mine with simple rosemary and salt this time around, but have also added olives and sun dried tomatoes in the past. It turns out crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and is best eaten whilst warm. Which is not really an issue as everytime I make it, it disappears before it has a chance to cool down. Delicious dipped into more oil olive and balsamic vinegar or covered in salted butter.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of Bread Flour
7g Dried Yeast
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups of warm Water
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
Toppings of your choice - sea salt, rosemary, garlic, olives, sundried tomatoes.

Method:

1. In a bowl add the flour, salt and yeast and combine together.

2. Make a well in the center and pour in the warm water.

3. Mix together using a spoon until all the flour is fully combined

4. Now time for the magic to happen, leave this alone, covered with a damp tea-towel, for at least an hour, preferably two.
5. You will see it has double in size and filled with lots of little air bubbles after this time.
6. Take a rectangle dish (10x 8 inch) and cover with half of the olive oil on the bottom.

7. Tip the dough out on to this, and using the back of the spoon spread it out until it reaches the edges, cover again for 1 hour for the second rise.
8. Preheat the oven to 210C /420F/ Gas Mark 7 and prepare your toppings, I used fresh rosemary and sea salt in this case. 

9. Dip the end of a wooden spoon into some flour and then use this to poke holes all across the dough to form ridges

10. Fill these with your toppings and pour over the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

11. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.