HappyCook80's Recipe

Herbed Focaccia

Category: Recipes

Herbed Focaccia

2 cups warm, 105 to 115 degrees water
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 pinches of sugar or 1/2 teaspoon honey
5 to 6 cups unbleached all purpose flour, divided, plus more for
dusting while kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
cornmeal or semolina for sprinkling
1 tablespoon crumbled dried whole rosemary or sage, or 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh, or to taste
1 tablespoon crumbled dried oregano or basil, or 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano or basil
1 heaping tablespoon coarse salt, such as kosher salt or coarse sea salt

Pour warm water in small bowl. Sprinkle yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour over surface of water. Stir until dissolved and
let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 15 minutes.

To mix by hand: In large bowl, place yeast mixture, salt, 1/3 cup oil and 1 cup flour. Whisk hard until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add
remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring with wooden spoon until dough is soft and sticky and just clears sides of bowl.

To mix with food processor: Place salt and 2 1/2 cups of flour in work bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade. Add 1/3 cup oil to yeast mixture and, with machine running, pour yeast-oil mixture through feed tube. Process until ball forms, about 30 seconds.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and vigorously knead to form springy ball, dusting with flour only 1 tablespoon at a time as needed to prevent sticking, about 3 minutes. The dough should be quite soft, smooth and very springy. Form dough into flattened ball.

Place dough in greased deep container. Turn once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until tripled in bulk, 1 1/2 hours.

Grease 17 by 11 inch baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place dough ball on a lightly floured work surface. Use heel of hand to press and flatten dough. Lift and gently pull dough, stretching it to baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, combine 1/4 cup oil and herbs in small bowl. Let sit 30 minutes at room temperature.

About 20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using fingertips or knuckles, gently poke indentations all over dough surface no more than 1/4 inch deep. Drizzle herbed oil over dough, letting it pool in indentations. Put pan on oven rack and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove to cooling rack and let
cool in pan. Sprinkle with coarse salt and serve warm.

Note: If you don't have a large capacity food processor, divide the ingredients for the dough in half and work them in 2 separate bowls.
Yields 26 servings.