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Italian Bread - Herb Focaccia
A delicious herbed Italian flatbread known as focaccia. It is a good accompaniment to soups, salads, houmous, or on its own. After dhur prayer, we enjoyed lunch together- ladies and children sampling the freshly baked bread. Makes two 13" x 9" flat loaves or 3 pizza rounds Suitable for home freezing.
Ingredients (imperial measurements)
Method 1. In a large bowl, put in 4.5 cups of flour. Mix in salt and herbs. 2. In a separate bowl, put in warm water. Add in sugar. Mix in normal yeast with a spoon. Allow this to stand for 5-10 minutes until a thick froth is seen on top. 3. Stir olive oil into yeast/water mixture. 4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stir with a spoon until you get a soft dough. Start using your hands to bring all of the flour in and form a dough. If needed, add in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour gradually. Dough should be easy to handle. 5. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 10 minutes (it can be a shorter time, but kneading it makes it softer) 6. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes before rolling out to fit your pans. 7. Oil the baking pans lightly. You can sprinkle cornmeal in the pan bottom for a "rustic" bread
8. Roll out dough to fit pans. Dough should be less than one-half inch in height (remember that this is a flattish bread). Place dough in pans. Cover the dough with a damp cloth, let it rise for 20 minutes in a warm place. 9. Preheat oven to 230 C/450 F/ gas mark 8
10. With lightly oiled fingertips, make indentations in the dough, 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch apart all over the dough. Sprinkle dough tops with fresh pepper. Drizzle olive oil over dough.
11. Bake in the oven until golden, which varies from 10-12 minutes depending on the oven. Remove the bread from the pan right away and cool on a wire rack (so that condensation doesn't make the bread soggy on the bottom.) © Ladies Afternoon Club, 2004 |
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