I’m on a bit of a bread making spree, mainly because Chap bought some live yeast for me the other day for the Sturminster Newton Mill flour and I need to use it all up as it has a limited fridge life.
I decided to make some focaccia, using a BBC recipe by Lesley Waters, the first one I came to on a google search. This recipe makes two large focaccias.
Ingredients
30 g/1 oz fresh yeast
½ tsp sugar
600 ml/1 pint 2 fl oz warm water
4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling
680 g/1½ lb strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1½ tsp coarse salt
leaves from 3-4 rosemary sprigs
Preparation method
Mix the yeast with the sugar in a small bowl for about 30 seconds, until the yeast becomes liquid.
Live yeast and sugar when I’ve just started to mix them.
Thirty seconds of stirring and it magically becomes liquid!
Stir in two-thirds of the water and the olive oil.
In a large bowl stir together the flour and the salt. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and salt along with some of the remaining water, if needed. Mix with a wooden spoon and bring together to form a soft dough.
Flour, salt, oil, yeast and water mix.
Ready to turn out and knead.
Add more water if the dough is a bit dry. (I found I didn’t need to add any extra – the original 400 ml is plenty).
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.
After kneading, ready for proving.
Place the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with cling film or a damp cloth and leave in a warm place to prove (rise) for about 1½ hours until doubled in size.
After proving.
Preheat the oven to 220C/400F/Gas 7.
When the dough has risen, knead it again for about five minutes on a clean floured work surface to ‘knock it back’.
Shape the dough into two rough circles (I did rounded rectangular shapes because that’s what fitted my baking sheets). Place the circles (shaped dough) onto two baking sheets, cover with a clean, damp cloth and allow to prove (rise) until double their original size (about 10-15 minutes).
When the dough has risen, use your fingertips to form dimples in the dough. Brush with the olive oil and sprinkle with the salt and rosemary leaves. (I used dried ones I collected and chopped last year; fresh are even better!)
Transfer the baking sheets to the oven and bake for ten minutes.
Reduce the heat to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the loaves are golden and cooked through. If you like, you can spray the bread with water (using a mister) once or twice during baking so that it ‘steams’ in the oven.
When baked, turn out onto a wire rack to cool slightly. The focaccia is best eaten on the day it is made.
Cooling and ready to eat, with dried rosemary sprigs and sea salt.
In the version above I have reduced the cooking time given in the original recipe as my focaccia were done after 30 mins total cooking, and I didn’t bother with the misting. They freeze really well.
Yum!