Focaccia Bread

Recipe courtesy of Anne Burrell at The Food Network

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
10 cups all-purpose flour (or bread flour) plus extra for kneading
2 tablespoons himalayan salt, plus some course salt for sprinkling
2 cups extra-virgin olive oil, divided

Directions:

Combine the warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Put the bowl in a warm spot until the yeast is bubbling and aromatic for about 15 minutes.In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour, salt, 1 cup of olive oil and the yeast mixture on low speed. (This is a doubled recipe, because I used a 15”x21” jelly roll pan).

Once the dough has come together, transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface, then knead by hand for 6 minutes until dough becomes smooth and soft. Sprinkle with extra flour if dough is too sticky.

Coat the inside of the mixer bowl lightly with olive oil and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until dough is doubled in size, at least 1 hour.

Coat a 15”x21” jelly roll pan with the remaining olive oil. Put the dough into the jelly roll pan and begin pressing it out to fit the size. Turn the dough over to coat the other side with the olive oil. Continue to stretch the dough to fit the pan. As you are doing that, spread your fingers out and make finger holes all the way through the dough. This may look strange, but as the dough rises again it will create craggy looking focaccia. Don’t do this if you want a smooth look.

Drizzle extra olive oil over the top and sprinkle course salt over the top. Put the dough in a warm place to raise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Place in 424º preheated oven until top of bread is golden brown, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the focaccia from the oven and let cool before cutting & serving.

Photo is from the 2nd rise. We cut into it right from the oven. It was so good! Cut recipe in half if you use a smaller jelly roll pan.