Focaccia is my favorite bread. With that generous dip into the olive oil is sure an indulgence for me. Every time we are at an Italian restaurant this is something I look forward to start off with and lucky some of the restaurant that we are regular at kind of know this is my weakness and they never fail to give a few slices more 🙂
This is one of the easiest bread I have made, yes of course make sure your yeast is active else it can be a complete disaster and be prepared to knead the dough for almost 10 minutes. Ah! I have toned hands!
You need –
- White bread flour – 500 grams
- Salt – 1 1/2 teaspoons
- Instant yeast – 2 1/2 teaspoons
- Olive oil – 2 tablespoons plus extra for drizzling
- Lukewarm water – 300 mls
- Rosemary – 2 tablespoons
- Fine sea salt
How to –
In a large bowl, put the flour, yeast and salt. Mix well. Now stir in the oil, water and knead to form a soft dough.
Turn the dough to a slightly oiled surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Put the dough back into the same bowl (lightly oiled), cover with a tea towel and let it sit to rise double in size in a warm place. Approximately about an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 200 C. Line two large baking sheets with grease proof paper. Turn the dough to a flour surface and cut into half. Flatten each portion on the baking sheet. cover and leave to rise again for an hour.
Gently press your finger into the dough to make deep holes all over and leave for a further 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle each loaves with rosemary and sea salt. Drizzle some olive oil and bake for 25 minutes or till pale golden. Remove from the oven and drizzle some more olive oil.
Serve hot or warm.
Note –
- If you are not sure if your yeast is still active, them prefer you do a proof test. Take half of the lukewarm water ( please make sure the water is not hot. Otherwise your yeast will die). Stir in the yeast along with a pinch of sugar and set aside for 10 minutes. If the form and bubbles foam on top in 10 minutes then your yeast is still active. Add this to the dough with remaining water as per the recipe.
- The above recipe makes 2 loaves. If you do not want to use both loaves then freeze the other for later. Warm in the microwave before serving.
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Easy??? Not for me. I remember making it many moons ago and now don't know if I can match your level. The bread is so spongy and I adore the fragrant of rosemary. Have the herb growing in my garden and let me see if I can get my gear up and follow your recipe.
i just love this as snack dear.. liked all ur clicks..
i love focaccia too, esp with lots of olives tomatoes and herbs. Yours turned out so beautiful!
Perfectly baked rosemary focaccia .. Nice clicks
Rekha, love this. Being a sucker for bread, this is one of my favorite kind. Yours looks every bit fluff, airy and full of goodness.
Aaaa knead for 8-10 minutes ..toned handss now I know ur secret of exercise 🙂
Focaccia looks beautiful.
Bread looks awesome…so spongy and I can feel the smell of freshly baked bread 🙂
i can literally smell the bread over here, rekha… wow… and the thought of kneading 10 minutes is OK for me, that's the best thing you can do to push our frustrations!!! 😉
Ahh, u make it sound easy mam.. I kind of am scared to work with.. This one looks super soft & tempting with that rosemary flavor 🙂
Perfectly baked Rekha…10 minutes kneading is fine if my bread bakes out as beautiful as yours:)