Rosemary Focaccia

This was another adventure in making my own bread, that turned out wonderfully!  You can see the wonderful air pockets that developed in the focaccia making this light and airy.  I added dried rosemary to the top of mine but this bread base lends itself to a great number of topping.  I think this would be great with some slow roasted tomatoes and maybe some feta cheese.    I strongly recommend making this to go with a bowl of tomato soup or along a steaming bowl of pasta!

Rosemary Focaccia

Recipe at Epicurious

1 package dry yeast

1 2/3 cups luke warm water

5 cups flour

1/4 cup olive oil

2 1/2 teaspoons table salt

1 tablespoon dried rosemary (recipe calls for fresh but I didn't have any)

1 tablespoon coarse salt

Sift together water and yeast in bowl of mixture and let stand about 5 minutes.  If yeast is not active and blooms, restart with new yeast.  Add flour, 1/4 cup olive oil and table salt and beat with paddle attachment at medium speed until a dough forms.  Replace paddle with dough hook and knead at high speed until a soft and smooth, about 4 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl lightly oiled and let rise covered until doubled in bulk 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  

Press dough evenly into jelly roll pan, generously oiled.  Let dough rise, covered with kitchen towel until doubled in bulk about 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Stir together rosemary and 3 tablespoons oil.  Set aside.  Make shallow indentations all over dough with your fingertips then brush oil over top of dough.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake until golden brown, 20 - 25 minutes.

Immediately invert onto rack, turning right side up.  You can either serve warm or allow to come to room temperature.