Homemade Focaccia Bread

I had a few friends over for another birthday dinner last night – hey it’s only your birthday once a year so why not stretch the celebration a bit.

I served a bunch of small dishes, kind of like a tapas table. I’ll put all the recipes up the coming days. Today I’ll show you the largest dish; homemade focaccia bread. I’ve made it a few times now and it still surprises me just how much it rises and large it turns out. I love the texture and taste of this bread, it’s a little like a deep pan pizza. And fresh herbs always makes food better and tastier.

Here’s what you need;

Ingredients;

3.5 dl of lukewarm water

2 tbsp of olive oil

20 g of  fresh yeast

500 g of plain wheat flour

500 g of durum flour

10 g sea salt

Ekstra

Sea salt

olive oil

Fresh herbs, thyme or rosemary

 

Start by mixing water and olive oil in a bowl and then stir the yeast in. Add flour and salt and knead the dough well. If you knead by hand, you should do so for about 10-15 minutes until the dough is very elastic. If you use a mixer (which I did), it should run for approx. 3 min. at low speed and 6-10 minutes. at high speed.

When you have kneaded the dough, set aside in a bowl covered with a moist towel  and let it rise for 3 hours.

When the dough has risen for 3 hours, grease a roasting pan with olive oil (or just add grease proof paper) pour the batter onto the pan, add some good olive oil and gently push it out with your fingers so that it fills the pan. Sprinkle with plenty of sea salt, and if you want to add herbs, sprinkle them on now. I used rosemary .Then let the dough rise for approx. 1 hour in pan.

Bake the focaccia for 20-30 min. at 220 ° C. Take the bread out and let it cool on a rack.