Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia
This garlic and rosemary focaccia is surprisingly simple to make yet so rustic and delicious. A soft, airy Italian flatbread with a golden crisp crust!
Equipment
- Medium frying pan
- Large mixing bowl
- 12 x 8 inch traybake pan
Ingredients
- 480 g strong white bread flour
- 7 g instant dry yeast
- 9 g salt
- 330 ml water lukewarm
- 110 ml olive oil
- 2-3 large cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Add the olive oil, rosemary, minced garlic and pepper to a cold medium sized frying pan. Place it on a low heat for around 4-5 minutes, stirring often, and remove from the heat once the garlic has become aromatic but not browned. Pour straight into a small bowl.
- Add the strong white flour to a large bowl, then add the yeast and salt to opposite sides of the bowl (to prevent the salt from killing the yeast).
- Add around 3/4 of the lukewarm water and three tablespoons of your garlic-rosemary oil to this large bowl.
- Begin mixing together with one hand, kneading to combine. You may need to add a little more water to bring it together until it forms a slighty wet, sticky dough.
- Add one tablespoon of the garlic-rosemary oil to your countertop and place the dough on top. Begin kneading the dough on the oil, which helps prevent it from sticking to the counter without having to add more flour.
- Knead the dough for around 10 minutes. It will be slightly awkward to work with at first as it will stick to your hands but keep kneading and it will become less wet and sticky, and after around 10 minutes will form a smooth surface.
- Once sufficiently kneaded, lightly oil your large mixing bowl (no need to clean it first) and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with film or a tea towel and place in a slightly warm place for 1-2 hours to proof until doubled in size. I put mine in my airing cupboard!You'll know it's sufficiently proofed if you gently prod it with your finger and the dimple you made slowly springs back. If it doesn't leave a dimple, it needs more time to proof. If the dimple doesn't spring back, it has over-proofed.
- Lightly oil your 12 x 8 traybake pan with two tablespoons of the garlic-rosemary oil.
- Gently pour your dough into the pan.
- Begin gently flattening the dough and spreading it to the sides and corners with your fingers. It will have some resistance when trying to stretch it so may not want to stay in the corners! If so, simply place a slightly damp tea towel on top for 5-10 minutes. This allows the dough to rest so that you can stretch it further into the corners more easily.
- Add around two more tablespoons of the garlic-rosemary oil and gently spread it across the top with your fingers.
- Press 'dimples' into the dough with your fingers - don't be scared to press all the way down to the bottom of the dough!
- Place the tray gently into a clean plastic bag, tucking the edges under so no air/draft can get inside the bag. Place on your countertop to proof for one hour. About 20-30 minutes before the dough has finished proofing, preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan.
- After the one hour proof, carefully remove the tray from the plastic bag. It should have risen so that the dimples are slightly less defined.
- Place the tray onto the middle shelf of your preheated oven and bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown.
- While still hot from the oven, pour the remaining garlic-rosemary oil over the top. You can use a pastry brush to spread it more evenly across the top if you like.
- Leave to cool in the pan for around 15 minutes before removing it and placing it onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Focaccia is best eaten on the day, though will be fine for up to 3 days when stored in an airtight container or double wrapped in film.
Notes
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