As I've mentioned before, The Hubble is the sponsor of a Polish student in his current class. Most Sundays, The Hubble and The Polish Student will get together for a study session, leaving me and Little Butt to spend the day doing whatever it is we do (she usually plays and I usually sit on the computer or read).
A few Sundays ago, The Hubble and The Polish student were working late studying for a big test the next day. So I knew that I was flying solo for dinner. Little butt usually has mac & cheese or chicken nuggets. I found this recipe for spinach with garlic chips and decided to throw it over some angelhair pasta for dinner that night.
I knew my dinner wouldn't take very long and my mom had just sent me a huge box of books so I decided to sit down and read for a bit before making Little butt and I something to eat. Well, shortly after I sat down to read I received a twitter message on my phone from King Arthur Flour about a no-fuss focaccia. I watched the video and wrote down the recipe and rushed to get this bread started. I thought it would be great with my planned dinner.
Though the video is better than what I can show you I figured I would go ahead and take you through the process anyway. The bread was delicious and well worth jumping up to get it started in time for dinner. So here we go:
Ingredients: All-purpose flour, active dry yeast, salt, Italian seasoning, extra virgin olive oil and your favorite sharp cheese (I used extra sharp Vermont white cheddar because that's my favorite!).
You are going to first dump some warm water in a bowl (we are going to be doing a lot of dumping in this process).
Dump in the yeast...
Salt...
Olive oil...
Flour...
Cheese (after you have shredded it)...go ahead and add a bit more than called for if you want. Mmmm...cheese!
And 1 tablespoon of the Italian Seasoning. Easy so far right??
You can either do this by hand (which the video suggests) but I'm lazy and used my mixer with the bread hook.
While the dough is mixing, pour some olive oil in a pan (I only had a glass pan but I would recommend using/getting a metal cake pan).
Use a basting/pastry brush to spread the oil and coat the pan.
When the dough is sufficiently mixed together...
Dump it in the oil coated pan...
Then spread it out and cover it with plastic wrap. Let is sit and rise for about an hour.
Make sure you thank your sous chef for all the help she's given you!
After the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap...
Pour more oil over the top...
And use your fingers to spread the oil and press holes in the top of the dough.
Sprinkle a bit more Italian Seasoning over the top.
And sprinkle more cheese on top as well...because why not? Cheese makes everything better!
Pop it in the oven, bake and bam! You have focaccia. Easy peasy...
Until you try to take it out of the glass pan and it all sticks to the bottom that is. Oh well. It still tasted delicious! Enjoy!!
No-Fuss Focaccia
Slightly adapted from How2Heroes via KAF twitter
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup shredded cheese (heaping) + more for sprinkling on top
- 2 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning, divided
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F about 10 minutes before hour of rising time is finished.
- Liberally grease bottom and sides of 9x13 baking pan with oil.
- Combine water, yeast, salt, oil, flour, cheese, and 1 Tablespoon seasoning in large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer for about a minute or until combined.
- Place dough into oil greased pan, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for one hour.
- Once risen, drizzle with oil and spread with fingers while indenting bread with fingers.
- Sprinkle dough with the remaining Tablespoon of seasoning and extra cheese.
- Bake about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn out bread onto cooling rack.
- Serve and enjoy!