Description
Focaccia is an Italain soft flat bread topped with veggies and herbs. Baking is not my kind of thing, but surprisingly this one turned out pretty perfect than I expected. Here are few shots from a daring novice baker.| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 2½ cup | All-purpose flour |
| 1 tsp | Salt |
| 1 tsp | Sugar |
| 2¼ tsp | Active dry yeast |
| 1 cup | Warm water |
| 2 tbsp | Olive oil (for bread) |
| 2 tsp | Onion ( chopped) |
| 1 clove | Garlic (finely minced) |
| 1 tsp | Coriander leaves |
| 1 pinch | Salt (for topping) |
| 1 tsp | Oil (for sauteing) |
Instructions
Yeast Goddess bubbling with full energy.
Mix sugar and yeast in luke warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes. You will be surprised to see what happens. Its will rise as shown above.
Mixing the dough
Sieve all-purpose and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast solution and mix using a wooden spoon. It will be extremely sticky at this point. Transfer to lightly floured surfuce and knead for 15 minutes to make a soft dough.
Kneaded soft dough
Coat a deep bowl with olive oil, place the soft dough ball, brush with some more oil, cover and let it rise for 1 hour.
After an hour
After an hour, this is how it should like, almost doubled in size. Punch down once and knead for a minute and place them in a baking pan. I’ve used a 9″ cake pan which was perfect for my dough size.
Punched dough in a cake pan
Apply oil to the surface of the cake pan and gently press the dough to flatten, cover and let sit for another hour.
Dough doubled again after an hour
It will again rise and doble in size as shown. Now press the dough, making small indentations with your fingertips, something like dotting.. creating small wells. Drizzle olive oil and fill those wells.
Preapared bread dough with topping before baking
Saute onions and garlic with little salt and oil in a separate pan, let cool completely. Spread the mixture over the bread dough, press few corainder leaves in those oil wells. Its all set for baking now.
Finished Focaccia
Preheat oven to 475F, place the baking pan in the middle rack and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. This time specification is for a soft crust, made mine for 17 minutes turned out with hard crust with slighty browing of the herb. Choose desired setting and proceed. When done, cool completely and serve. I usually slice them horizontly, toast for few seconds, spread cream cheese , sprinkle salt and pepper, stuff with leafy veggies and serve it as a breakfast sandwich.
Breakfast Focaccia Sandwich
Notes
Storage: 3 days at room temperature. I normally refrigerate for upto a week. Toast and spread with desired to topping before serving.
Yield: 8 small pizza slices.
Source: Basic recipe idea adapted from The Fresh Loaf forums and modified according to my needs.
21 Comments
Hi Mullai, Have a qt abt yeast…i bought the red star yeast…but never saw the bubbles…the mixture did not rise at all…so i threw the whole thing…bought different yeast which rose a lil but not as much as I see in your pic….wonder what im doing wrong :(….i followed the instructions above… do you use any particular type of yeast in red star brand? i will try buying the same thing next time… Sowmya
Updating my comments after baking.
The bread still came out quite well. The dough doubled in size. I added some serrano chillies on top! wud still wanna know the secret behind the yeast 🙂
SSS, Red Star yeast is what I use too. Some of the things to note while buying and using yeast. 1. Check the expiration date, if its something closer to expiry then it might not work. 2. Yeast need slightly warm water to rise, so make sure its lukewarm, add sugar that's what they need to work and rise. Never put in hot water this will kill them and it will never rise. 3. Always refrigerate them after each use. That's all it takes for the magic, try and let me know. Your idea of adding Serrano chillies is awesome, I've never tried so far, sounds interesting and also makes me hungry.
Hey Mullai,
Thanks for the info. I had this Herb Foccacia which had dried rosemary sometime back. I love basil. So, i made mine with dried basil. Added it to the dough.
I love Italian. Looking forward to more Italian recipes from you 🙂
Sowmya
Yeast needs proper attention and right temperature to grow.Always use luke warm water with some flour,sugar and then yeast …u try this way it will work out,but instant dry yeast is not necessary to rise….add it straight to the mixture and work out the dough….Try foccacia basil pesto or Indian curry powder mixes it will be great taste.
hi mullai where do i get all purpose flour in chennai is it the same as whole wheat flour or is it a different one.
krish, all purpose must be available in most super markets like Nilgris, Reliance etc.if not try with maida. Whole wheat is different and pls do use the search as there are many topics relating to this have been already discussed.
thank u so much
Hi mullai,
This recipe looks good. From where we can buy Active dry yeast.
Can u pls tell me brand name.
Thanks for making a wonderful site.
I love all the recipe u post.
Arpita
thanks for the informatiom mullai. i’ll check it.
mullai i’m having onida power grill 20. 2combi grill setting. micro oven out put power 800 watts,grill 1050 watt.having this oven can i do Focaccia? viji
Viji,
There are many models under this brand, the one with grill & convection feature can be used for baking. If you have plain grill then its good for basic cooking and grilling, baking seiya mudiaythu. Check ur microwave manual for the features, "convection" is a must.
Hi! It looks very nice. Surely would like to give it a try. I am impressed with your step wise step description.It has motivated a non baker like me to try my hand on it. Thanx.
mullai, very fine to read, steps presentation is also good. keen to try.can we prepare this by conventional oven only?let me know
Viji, neenga enna oven use panringa??? yeah this was done in a conventional oven. Heavy duty toaster oven might work well too.
Mullai!!! For the first time i am hearing this name..U r exploring very hardly towards many recipes starting from our roadside food to international..Keep up the good and hard work going.Like to Learn a lot from U..
Mullai,
I am sure to try this today itself. Will let you know on Monday.
Regs
Jaya Lakshmi
My favourite.. Thank u thank u thank u for sharing Mullai!
hello whenever i try bread my yeast never bubbles like wat shown ….i always use warm water too any specific brand for yeast??help me please
your bread looks yummy great work!!
Vinita,
Sometimes when the yeast becomes stale or outdated it would not be active, then rising will become an issue. I've used this brand
http://www.redstaryeast.com/products.html
buy those bottles, use whats necessary and store the rest tightly sealed in the upper compartment, preferably putting them in the inner most part of your refridgerator. This way they stay good. Hope this helps.
Mullai….
It looks very nice….would love to try it….will let u know how it came out
mullai
it looks nice, i will try it