It is not difficult or time consuming, but you do need to follow the recipe for this taste of heaven. This recipe will take 3 hours total from prep to palate, but it is EASY! Actual work time is about 30 minutes.
I have thrown away more dry yeast than I have ever cooked with. Yeast has to be fresh, so check the date on the package even at the store before you purchase it.
This recipe is based on Italian best practices, so you cannot substitute all purpose flour for the seminola or the bread flour. Seminola flour is made from durum wheat, and it is the basis of all homemade pasta created in Nonnas' kitchens in the old country. Both the bread and seminola flours contain higher levels of protein. They are readily available on your grocery shelf.
I only make this recipe using my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook. So easy! The alternative is to mix by hand, build your muscles, and enjoy your sticky hands. It will work using the same time method as the machine.
Finally, a tip when making yeast dough: I let my dough rise in a plastic container not on my marble counters. I find stoneware to be a bit cold and also marble counters are cold. The cold interferes with the warmth the yeast needs to bloom during rising. I place the plastic container of rising dough on my wood butcher block or a wood cutting board placed on top of the marble counter. Toasty! It works perfectly.
Read directions before starting!
Time estimate: 20 minutes to assemble dough and mix. 1 hour dough rising in container. 1 hour dough rises in 9 X 13 pan. 20 minutes to bake. Total prep to eat time: 3 hours.
Ingredients for One 9 X 13 pan of Focaccia:
2 cups bread flour
2 cups seminola flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry yeast (fast acting or regular)
2 cups warm water from tap not boiled just luke warm
2 teaspoons of salt
After rising will add these ingredients for toppings:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons dry oregano or rosemary or both
1 cup rough chopped plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes halved (squeeze tomatoes in bowl to removed liquid you want them dry when added to top of dough)
1 cup olives dried or mushrooms or vegetable of your choice
Method:
Combine flours, sugar, and yeast NOT salt in mixer fitted with the dough hook stir on low just to combine. Add the warm water slowly and then mix on medium 5 minutes. Dough will be sticky. Cover bowl on the stand with plastic wrap and rest it 10 minutes.
Now add the 2 teaspoons of salt and mix the dough on medium 5 minutes. It will come together like the photo below.
Sprinkle rising container with extra virgin olive oil and with oiled hands place the dough in the plastic container to rise. Shape it in the container as a rectangle so it rising to the shape of the baking pan.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour on a wood surface or someplace not cold.
Gently roll the dough into a olive oiled 9 X 13 pan that will be used for baking. Gently stretch it to fit the pan. This should be easy with your hands oiled. Try to not work the dough only touch it barely. With your pinkies make random presses into the dough, not all the way to the bottom, just to give it a slightly rugged surface.
Sprinkle the dough with the salt, oregano and toppings and more extra virgin olive oil as shown below.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1 hour while you preheat the oven.
Bake (heat oven during the second rising):
Preheat Oven to 500 degrees place a pizza stone in the oven to preheat (if you have one) or I use a cookie sheet so the 9 X 13 pan heats evenly on the bottom.
Bake 20 minutes. Remove and cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove gently from pan and cool 15 minutes.
Buon Appetito!
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| Dough will look like this after mixing. |
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| Dough olive oil added placed in plastic container for 1 hour rising covered with plastic wrap. |
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| Looks like this after 1 hour rising. Gently move to 9X13 pan. |
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| Add toppings and let rise again for 1 hour cover with plastic wrap. |
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| Cooled in pan 5 minutes and moved gently to rack for 15 minutes. Mangia! |
