Harvest King Focaccia

Posted by Margalit

Tonight was our red meat night of the week and I did something incredibly simple. I grilled rib-eye steaks and fresh asparagus. Since that took almost no effort whatsoever, I decided to make a focaccia, a yeasty flat bread my family adores.

The secret to the stretchy dough which bakes into a puffy flat bread with large irregular holes, is adding enough oil and increasing the water to if the dougt seens dry to reach about 72% hydration. This dough also makes great pizza!

Makes almost 2 pounds of dough.

Ingredients

3 cups Harvest King flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/4 teaspoons rapid rise, bread machine or other instant yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1-1/2 cups room temperature water
1 teaspoon mild honey, such as clover
1/4 cup good olive oil (or vegetable oil) plus 4 teaspoons for oiling the pan and top of bread
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary needles
fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper to taste

Equipment: A baking sheet or half size sheet pan.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the bread flour, whole wheat flour and yeast. Then whisk in the salt. Stir in the water, honey, and oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook or by hand with a wooden spoon, knead (if by hand stir vigorously) for about 3 minutes or until the dough begins to come away form the sides of the bowl. It will not come away completely and should be very sticky to the touch.

Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and lightly spray or oil the top of the dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot. Allow the dough to rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. After the first 30 minutes, scrape the dough onto an oiled counter and with oiled hands stretch it and give it a business letter fold. Repeat this a second time. The dough will no longer stick to your fingers.

Set the dough back in the bowl and let it finish rising. (Stick a finger into the center of the dough and if it keeps the indentation it’s ready.)

If baking it the following day, press down the dough and set it in a large oiled zipper type storage bag, leaving a tiny bit unzipped for the forming gas to escape, and refrigerate it.

Remove it to room temperature 1 hour before shaping.

When ready to shape the dough, spread 2 teaspoons of all onto the baking sheet and set the dough on top. Flatten the dough gently with your fingertips to about 12 inches by 5 inches and 1/2 inch high. Try to keep as much air in the dough as possible. Oil the top of the dough with 2 teaspoons of oil. Cover with a large container or oiled plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled to 1 inch high--about 1 hour.

While the dough is rising, set the oven rack toward the bottom and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it. Set a cast iron skillet or heavy baking pan on the floor of the oven or on the lowest shelf. Preheat the oven to 475F. for 45 minutes or longer.

With your finger tips, deeply dimple the dough all over. Sprinkle with the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Quickly but gently set the baking sheet on the hot stone or hot baking sheet, and toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath. Immediately shut the door and bake 5 minutes. Turn the sheet half way around and continue baking 10 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. (An instant read thermometer inserted into the center will read about 210°F.).

Remove the bread to a wire rack to cool completely or until just warm.

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

ChloeM said:

i love focaccia. sadly, i can't bake to save my life. i did attempt to make this once during a baking class at The Viking School and i used Fleur De Sel (the very expensive salt) -- oh my, it tasted delicious! of course, i got a little bit of flak for using the $10 cup of salt because we made 4 recipes which equaled using 6 teaspoons total!

Posted at 10:04 AM, on April 28 2007

Harvest King Focaccia

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