It’s not as complicated as you think!

Tori and I recorded a podcast episode on Monday for her Manifest channel, and we talked about this amazing Italian dinner we were going to be making tonight. We are making handmade pasta with the traditional Roman cacio e pepe sauce, chicken cutlets, and a caesar salad. All of that sounded perfect, but how can we have all that and not have some good homemade bread? It just wouldn’t be right.

So I decided to make some focaccia. I found the recipe on TikTok a few months ago, and if I could find the video and upload it here I would - I can’t for the life of me find that video. But I did copy down her recipe and I’ve made this several times, and it’s absolutely delicious. Yes, it’s a time commitment - it’s takes about 5 hours from start to finish. But it’s not difficult, so don’t be intimidated - just jump in and try it when you have an afternoon at home. Enjoy!

Focaccia Bread

• 4 cups bread flour

• 2 tsp Kosher salt

• 1 ¾ cups warm water

• 1 ½ tsp yeast

• 1 tsp sugar or honey

• 1 Tbsp olive oil + 3 Tbsp olive oil

• DIRECTIONS:

  • Mix yeast, sugar or honey, and 1 Tbsp olive oil into the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes to let bloom. Meanwhile, add 2 tsp Kosher salt to the flour in a large bowl. Once the yeast/water mixture has bloomed and is foamy, pour into the flour and mix until incorporated into a large ball. It won’t look smooth, but that’s not a problem. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Uncover, stretch and fold the dough over itself about 3-4 times. Then re-cover and let rest for another 15 minutes. Uncover, stretch and fold a second time, and then cover and let rest for 90 minutes.

  • Now prepare a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper that overhangs the sides. Drizzle with 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and into this pan and stretch and fold dough onto itself, once from each end. Turn it lengthwise in the pan and flip over so the dough is completely coated with olive oil and the smooth side is on top. Cover with a plastic wrap and a small towel for another 90 minutes.

  • After this rise, gently peel off the plastic wrap, sprinkle with flaky salt, and add in any extras you may want (herbs, olives, jalapenos, sundried tomatoes, etc.) And then you dimple the dough with your fingers. This is the fun part! Don’t over-dimple and completely flatten the dough - you want pockets of air in there. But do make sure you get lots of ridges and bumps when you dimple it. Once your dough is dimpled, drizzle with a little more olive oil and pop into the oven.

  • Bake at 430 degrees for 18-23 minutes until golden brown. Let cool (if you have the patience), and eat!

Enjoy!

Love, Karen