recipe:: Foccacia Bread

one day this summer, the bread-making-fairy visited our house--at which time fate threw this bread recipe in my lap via allrecipes.com. our lives have never been the same...

this Foccacia bread can be made well, as Foccacia bread...or pizza crust :) which is what we opt to use it for 9 times out of 10. there is minimal kneading & Dr. Seuss's clean-up crew doesn't have to follow us in the kitchen...

Michael's Foccacia Bread

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Ready: 1 hour 10 minutes

1 tablespoon honey
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion (you can add more if you wish)
5 cups all purpose flour, or as needed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary (option: leave this out on pizza crust)
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon kosher salt (we use sea salt)

1. Dissolve honey in warm water in a large bowl (don't make the water too warm--it'll kill the yeast), then sprinkle yeast over the top. Let stand for 5 minutes until yeast softens & begins to foam (i'm just going to be honest here...the bread-making fairy didn't leave me good luck with yeast...mine barely foams--i still just wait 2 minutes). Stir in 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, onions, & 5 cups flour until the dough comes together. Knead on a well floured surface until smooth & elastic, about 5 minutes (or use your KitchenAid mixer & let the dough hook knead the bread for you about 3 minutes). Lightly oil large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, turn to coat with oil. Cover with damp cloth (i also cover with plastic wrap) & let rise in a warm place until doubles in volume, about 20 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 415 degrees.

3. Place dough onto oiled baking sheet & flatten to cover the whole sheet evenly. (note: when making pizza dough, i plop the dough onto the middle of the flour-covered pizza baking sheet/stone & roll out the dough directly on the sheet/stone...this saves me a counter covered in flour to clean-up). Next part can be skipped on pizza: Use the tips of your fingers to make indentations all over the dough spaced about 1 inch apart. Drizzle the foccacia with 3 tablespoons olive oil, then sprinkle with rosemary, cheese, & remaining salt. Let rise 10 minutes.

4. Bake in oven ~20 minutes or until golden brown.