Foccacia

I can’t believe it’s Thursday already!  This week feels like it’s flown by a bit fast.  I’m guessing it’s because I have the two older boys in Vacation Bible School.  Which means I’m down to one child in the mornings.  Which means (do I really have to spell it out?) that I’m down to ONE child for three hours each morning!  Sheer heaven I tell ya.  And I love that this wonderful week falls smack dab in the middle of the summer break.  Just when you think you can’t take one more day of fighting, mess, and “Mom, I’m booorrreeeddd”, WHAM!, like a fly swatter to the head, there it is, a three hour break.

And, what may you ask, have I done with this precious 15 hours of bliss so far?  Have I gotten myself a hair cut?  I know, I’ve had coffee with the girls.  No wait, I’ve gone shopping; I must have done a little of that, right?  Ummm…. would you believe I’ve done none of that?  Although I will in fairness say, that I MUST get to the grocery store before the little rugrats are back 24/7, so tomorrow come hell or high water I’ll be there.  No no my friends.  What I actually do with all that free time is head back to the house and blog.  And blog.  And blog some more. Sad I know, but what can I tell you, I love my blog.

Bloggers Anonymous anyone?

If I’m going to spend all this time blogging for you, I might as well throw a recipe out there, right?  Today’s flavor of the moment is one of my kid’s favorites for the sole purpose that it’s bread.  Every night when I’m making dinner they ask if we’re having bread.  They can’t get enough of the stuff and, to be honest, either can I.  And no, we don’t have it every night.  Bread baking takes some serious preparation which is definitely a good thing.  I don’t know about you, but there are only so many days in the week when I can actually think of dinner time more than an hour before it’s supposed to be served.

This bread was actually prepared for our supper club this past weekend.  I made two loaves because I knew the second my kids saw what I was making they would beg me into submission asking for a slice.  And for good reason.  I tell ya, this bread was GOOD.  Just like the leading lady in a cheesy teenage chick flick, it had the beauty and the brains.

Good grief, can you tell I’m feeling a bit cheeky this morning?  It’s time for me to zip my lip and move on to the reason we’re all here; foccacia.  I can’t take credit for this recipe.  It was taken from Pam’s Mediterranean Cooking Page.  Here’s what you’ll need to pull this bread together:

Ingredients Needed:

1 Cup of Luke Warm Water
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1tsp of Sugar
1 tsp of Salt
2-1/4 Cups of Bread Flour
1 Pkg. of Yeast
2 Cloves of Garlic, Chopped
A Few Swirls worth of Olive Oil for Brushing on the Bread
One or Two Stalks of Fresh Rosemary
A Few Shakes of Black Pepper
A Few Shakes of Dried Basil

This recipe is set up for a bread maker, so if you have one, now would be the time to grab it.  If you don’t, you can still whip this up.  You’ll just need to mix the ingredients, knead it for a good 5-10 minutes and give it an additional rise until doubled in size.

Assuming you do have a bread machine, throw in the warm water, olive oil, sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast according to the order the manufacturer suggests.  In my case, I added them exactly in the order I listed them here, making a well in the flour to pour the yeast into at the end.   Run your bread machine on the dough setting.

Once your dough is finished, pull it out of the bread maker (or join us after your first rise at this point), give it a few good kneads and then roll it out into your desired shape for your bread.  After it’s rolled out, take your thumb and make some random indentations around the bread.  Here’s mine rolled out with the thumb marks:

Grab a few sprigs of rosemary and stick one in each thumbed indentation.

Now, cover your bread with plastic cling and let it rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.  I like to let mine rise in the oven with the light on.  When your bread is finished rising, remove the cling wrap, place your bread in the cold oven if it isn’t already there, and turn it on to 375 degrees.  Let your bread cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

And if this doesn’t make you crave bread, nothing will.

Hopefully everyone’s having a great summer so far and all you moms out there are finding an hour or two to yourself.  If not, grab a book and a slice of this bread and go hide out in the bathroom – with the door locked – and your noise blocking earmuffs on.  Enjoy.

Foccacia

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Luke Warm Water
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1tsp of Sugar
1 tsp of Salt
2-1/4 Cups of Bread Flour
1 Pkg. of Yeast
2 Cloves of Garlic, Chopped
A Few Swirls worth of Olive Oil for Brushing on the Bread
One or Two Stalks of Fresh Rosemary
A Few Shakes of Black Pepper
A Few Shakes of Dried Basil

Directions:

In your bread machine, throw in the warm water, olive oil, sugar, salt, bread flour, and yeast according to the order the manufacturer suggests. In my case, I added them exactly in the order I listed them here, making a well in the flour to pour the yeast into at the end. Run your bread machine on the dough setting.

Once your dough is finished, pull it out of the bread maker, give it a few good kneads and then roll it out into your desired shape for your bread. After it's rolled out, take your thumb and make some random indentations around the bread.

Grab a few sprigs of rosemary and stick one in each thumbed indentation.

Now, cover your bread with plastic cling and let it rise for another 45 minutes to an hour. When your bread is finished rising, remove the cling wrap, place your bread in the cold oven if it isn't already there, and turn it on to 375 degrees. Let your bread cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.