Focaccia is a very popular and flavorful Italian Bread. Perfectly crisp on the outsides and soft inside. It is topped with rosemary and black olives.
What is Focaccia Bread?
Are you consistently looking for the exquisite alternative to Pizza doughs or garlic bread? Like lately, your taste for these pieces of bread is rapidly fading, and need a quick replacement? The focaccia bread, thereby, should be at the top of your bucket list. It is an ancient bread (emergent in the 16th and 17th Century) baked by the Recco people. It was widely associated with the great Ligurian cuisine and was only available around Bologna and Milan, Italy. However, ever since, its popularity of yumminess and lots of flavor for a loaf of bread spreads to the rest of the world.
From its ancient originality, it might be difficult to access its core ingredients and flavors, you think? However, this should not be a worry or get in your way of enjoying it. Since then, a variety of this bread’s version is constantly invented to suit the current time. It is now easy to make the Focaccia bread at home without much hassle, and here is how to go about it.
The Best Focaccia Bread
For your yummy and the tastiest piece of focaccia, make sure to use mozzarella cheese, basil as well as oregano. With these flavoring and seasoning ingredients, you should have enough flour, dry yeast, sugar, garlic powder, olive oil, and vegetable oil. More interesting, you are free to add your spices like black pepper, Parmesan cheese, and dried and crushed rosemary. To this list, an egg can be a great addition to the flavor.
How to make Focaccia bread
To begin with, heat water with some vegetable oil until it is warm, and that the oil and water mix uniformly. With the other ingredients, mix flour, yeast, basil, oregano, sugar, and the egg (optional) in a container. Beat this mixture together, and thereafter add it to the withstanding warm water with oil. Thoroughly stir this mixture till it is a smooth dough. From here, you can transfer this elastic mixture on a floured surface and further knead for uniformity. Now, take a bowl and oil its sides while placing the dough carefully inside.
Coat the rest of the dough with oil, and cover with a clean wrap (aluminum foil preferred). Wait for 20-25 minutes. After this while, transfer it to a baking sheet, smear it with the olive oil and sprinkle your preferred cheese on top. Put it in the oven at 230 C/ 445 F for 20 minutes. It will turn golden brown, and you can serve it warm at this point. Enjoy with friends and family!
Easy Focaccia Bread
As seen, regardless of its ancient originality, it is now easier to enjoy focaccia bread without struggling. It is a natural delicacy to make and can suit all occasions. Its flavors, seasonings, and the wonderful taste are incomparable to any other bread. Wondering if you will ruin its texture and flavor if you cook it differently? Well, that’s the interesting part. You are not limited to how you can prepare it or which flavors to add. You can have your way with it: change its toppings, serving techniques to your liking. Additionally, to the sandwich lovers, it makes the best sandwiches with any other food.
Therefore, if you need to have an alternative to your typical bread, the focaccia bread is the ideal substitute. You will be able to make it quickly right out your kitchen as well as alter its flavors and seasoning to your preference.
Other Italian recipes:
- Cacio e pepe
- Homemade Pasta recipe
- Alfredo Sauce
- Gnocchi recipe
- Shrimp Scampi recipe
- Panforte di Siena
ITALIAN FOCACCIA BREAD
Ingredients
- Warm water- 350 ml/ 1 ½ cup
- Fresh yeast- 40 g / or 12 g dry yeast
- Unbleached strong white bread flour- 500 g / 5 cups
- Italian extra virgin olive oil- 30 ml/ 2 tbsp
- Salt- 10 g / 2 tsp
- Coarse salt- 25 g / 5 tsp
- Crescenza cheese optional -300 gm
- Rosemary- 1 tsp
- Black Olives sliced- 2 tbsp ( optional)
Equipment
Instructions
- Brush the base of a 40 x 60 cm / 16x 24 inches tin generously with olive oil and put away for a while.
- Take a small bowl, pour the warm water into it and stir in the yeast. Put in a warm place for 15 minutes or until frothy.
- Put the flour into a large bowl and add the olive oil and 2 tsp salt. Pour in the yeast mixture and remaining water, mix well.
- Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, or until soft and stretchy. The dough should be quite wet, but it shouldn’t be sticky. Put the dough in a large, well-oiled bowl, cover loosely with plastic and allow to rise in a warm place about 1 hour.
- Punch down the dough. Flatten the dough out over the base of the tin to cover it completely. Using your fingers, splash the surface with some water , then sprinkle over some coarse salt and drizzle with lots of olive oil (be generous with the oil).
- Using your fingertips, make lots of deep dimples all over the surface of the dough. Leave the dough to rise in a warm, draught-free place for 2 hours, or until doubled in volume. After 1 ½ hours preheat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F /Gas 6
- Bake the focaccia bread for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, during which time it will absorb all the olive oil on the surface. Drizzle over a little more olive oil,add the olives and then bake for a further 20-25 minutes, or until the focaccia is golden in color.
- Immediately remove the focaccia bread from the tin and allow it to cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve while still slightly warm.
Notes
For rosemary facaccia , sprinkle a few springs of fresh rosemary over the top of the focaccia when you add the coarse salt and oil.
Classic Focaccia
For classic focaccia , divide the dough in half and spread the first half over the base of the ton. Cover with Stracchino or Crescenza cheese and then cover with the second sheet of dough, rolled out to fit over the first. Finish off as above.
Nutrition
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