Fast and Fluffy Foccacia

Instead of jumping out of bed and greeting the new year with a bang, I’ve been down and out with a nasty cold. In the mornings I just want to wrap myself in blankets human-burrito-style but the reality of it all is that there are things that need to be done. Still, even though I am sick I am pretty darn lucky to have help from the family. My daughter and hubby decided to spend a whole day cleaning out the large chest freezer in the basement and since it hadn’t been done in three years, it was one heck of a job that needed doing! They found a lot of frozen fruit that has come in handy for smoothies and more importantly, many containers of pre made stock.

Everyone is back to their regular routine of school (and work), and so far I’ve managed to keep up with the laundry and day to day chores. I’ve been making simple meals including a couple of home made soups in order to use up the stock unearthed during the freezer clean. I found a really great way to make a light, fluffy foccacia bread to eat with the homemade soups and I hadn’t left the house in three days until yesterday when I realized I was out of Tuscan herb infused olive oil. Does that sound like an emergency to you? In my feverish state, I thought it was and I left the house in my sweats and big winter boots (no socks) to grab some at Soffritto which is really only a 5 minute drive away. I tried to keep the visit short because I was coughing a lot and really wanted to get back into my couch burrito.

I stayed up long enough to make the foccacia and snap a few photos.

Foccacia Bread 

2 tsp regular yeast

1 cup warm water (slightly warmer than body temperature)

1 tsp honey

Place yeast, warm water, and honey in bowl of mixer. Stir slightly and leave to activate about 8 minutes. It should look similar to this:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup oil

Attach paddle to the mixer and add the flour, salt, and oil to the bowl. Mix on low until ingredients are combined, then scape dough off the paddle and turn the machine back on so that the dough is kneaded for about 5 minutes. Cover, let rise in a warm place for an hour until the dough is doubled in size.

Work the dough slightly to get rid of air bubbles, then spread to about 1 1/2 cm thickness on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let the dough sit for 20 minutes while you pre heat your oven to 375 F. Poke the dough to make indentations with your fingertips, then drizzle olive oil over top. Scatter salt over the dough (I use sel gris) and top with sliced cherry tomatoes, fresh rosemary, grated Parmesan, or use which ever toppings you prefer. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes and remove when the top of the bread is nice and golden.   The best part of this recipe is that it produces really light and fluffy foccacia in under two hours!