Focaccia
This is my American gal gone Italian recipe.
What you need:
2 cups of lukewarm water
1 packet of dry yeast (NOT instant yeast) 1.5 TBS
pinch of sugar
5+ cups of flour (I use bread flour but all purpose flour is okay too)
1.5 tsp of salt
2 TBS+ of olive oil
What you'll do:
First mix your sugar and yeast in the water so it activates. No less than 5mins. If your water temp isn't perfect, the yeast won't activate! 105-110 degrees
Meanwhile... toss 5 cups of bread flour with 1.5tsp salt.
Add your flour salt mix and 2tbs of olive oil to the liquid by fork stirring it until you can hand mix it.
Add more flour as needed - until it's not sticky. You'll prob end up closer to 6 cups. But if you add too much flour, your focaccia won't be fluffy - so be sensible.
Next, flour your counter and knead the dough for a while. Once this is good and kneaded, put more olive oil in a bowl or spray it, cover the bowl w/saran wrap, then a towel, and sit it somewhere warm and dark (like the empty OFF oven) for 1 hour.
Take it out, it should have grown big time. Knead it some more for 5-10mins. And begin pressing it out. Can be circle, oval, or square. You want it about 1/2 inch thick.
Now... put olive oil on baking sheet. Not soaking like you're going to fry it, but definitely generous. Put your dough on and finalize its shape on the pan and let it rise for another 30minutes.
Drizzle more olive oil over the top and use your fingers to make indents all over. Don't be shy, poke it!
Add pretty toppings or no toppings, course salt, and brush it all w/olive oil (olive oil is the ticket to yummy focaccia BTW)... and bake at 400 until golden brown. Keep a close eye on it.
Let it rest/cool for minimum 10minutes, slice it, and eat it up!