AuthorSteve Nubie
Focaccia bread is an Italian artisanal bread with a great crust and a firm, flavorful chew. It’s a great bread for soups, stews or for dipping into sauces, olive oil or simply spread with butter or eaten on its own. It’s a standard side-dish for pasta dishes and is even used as a crust for a robust pizza. The recipe is easy to make using your bread machine with the basic dough setting, and then you shape, garnish and finish baking in the oven.
This recipe features parmesan as a major part of the flavor profile both as an ingredient in the dough, and as a topping. An egg yolk wash is an option to give the top crust a nice, golden brown color. Other toppings include fresh rosemary and a pinch of sea salt and cracked black pepper. You can customize toppings to suit your taste from oregano to thin slices of vegetables, but the toppings usually don’t take center stage but simply act as a garnish.
A short-cut process step is to place the risen dough from the bread pan into a buttered pie pan and allow it to have a second rise before inverting onto a buttered baking sheet for the final finish before the oven. You could shape the dough into a round on the baking sheet by hand, but a pie pan will help you get a more uniform shape, height and width before baking.
Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order indicated in the first ingredients section. The get your water to 110 degrees Fahrenheit or 43 degrees Celsius, just put it into a microwave oven for 60 seconds and you should be very close to this ideal temperature range.
Select the basic dough setting and press start.
In the meantime, butter a pie tin to make molding the Focaccia easier and also butter a baking sheet for finishing the Focaccia in the oven.
When the basic dough setting is complete, pull the dough from the bread pan into the pie pan. Spread around gently to fill the pan to the edges and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes. You can also put directly on the baking sheet and shape by hand into a round, flattened shape about 12 inches in diameter.
After the Focaccia dough has risen either in the pie pan or on the sheet, glaze with the mix of egg yolk and one teaspoon of water and brush over the surface of the dough. This is an optional step. Drizzle the 4 teaspoons of olive oil over the top and then sprinkle the 1/3 cup of grated parmesan over the top followed by some cracked black pepper and a sprinkling of sea salt. You then sprinkle about a teaspoon of fresh rosemary leaves over the top and let rise for another 15 minutes.
While the Focaccia is doing its final rise preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit of 205 degrees Celsius.
When the oven is preheated bake the Focaccia for 20 minutes or until golden, brown.
Let rest for 5 minutes and serve.
Ingredients
Directions
Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order indicated in the first ingredients section. The get your water to 110 degrees Fahrenheit or 43 degrees Celsius, just put it into a microwave oven for 60 seconds and you should be very close to this ideal temperature range.
Select the basic dough setting and press start.
In the meantime, butter a pie tin to make molding the Focaccia easier and also butter a baking sheet for finishing the Focaccia in the oven.
When the basic dough setting is complete, pull the dough from the bread pan into the pie pan. Spread around gently to fill the pan to the edges and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes. You can also put directly on the baking sheet and shape by hand into a round, flattened shape about 12 inches in diameter.
After the Focaccia dough has risen either in the pie pan or on the sheet, glaze with the mix of egg yolk and one teaspoon of water and brush over the surface of the dough. This is an optional step. Drizzle the 4 teaspoons of olive oil over the top and then sprinkle the 1/3 cup of grated parmesan over the top followed by some cracked black pepper and a sprinkling of sea salt. You then sprinkle about a teaspoon of fresh rosemary leaves over the top and let rise for another 15 minutes.
While the Focaccia is doing its final rise preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit of 205 degrees Celsius.
When the oven is preheated bake the Focaccia for 20 minutes or until golden, brown.
Let rest for 5 minutes and serve.
Thank you! Just like Nana’s bread.
That’s great to hear!
Steve