Friday, January 10, 2014

no-knead rosemary garlic focaccia

When you find a good thing, it is kinda hard to stop at one attempt, isn't it?

The LAM, being an ang moh, can eat bread everyday. Well, he does eat bread every day.

For me, though, bread translates to dry breakfasts that I had to swallow with Milo before going to school. Somehow that does not make me wanna go out and buy a loaf of bread to munch on.

Having said that, I really do like focaccias. On days when we go to our usual sandwich place for lunch, I would always have {whatever filling I felt like on that day} with focaccia.

I think I like focaccia because it is actually a tasty bread, seeing that some flavouring is usually added to the bread. I love focaccias with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, and this is the combination I made today.


This is a very similar recipe to the no-knead artisan bread I made last week. It involves dumping the ingredients into a bowl, stirring to combine, proofing for 12 hours (or up to 24 hours), then bake.

If only all things in life were so simple!

To start making the focaccia, I added flour, instant yeast and salt into a mixing bowl.




You need to use instant yeast for this recipe.


If you are using normal yeast, you will need to place the yeast in warm water, wait for the yeast to start reacting before adding it to the flour mixture.

Just a bit troublesome, no?

Using a whisk, I mixed everything together.


I added the water.


And mixed using my danish dough whisk, I mixed until everything was combined. There is no need to over-mix.

If you don't have a danish dough whisk, just use a normal whisk. For benefits of using a danish dough whisk, see here.




You should end up with something that looks like this.


Cover the bowl with cling film, and let the dough rise for 12-24 hours.


When I was ready to bake, I emptied about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil (use the best one you can afford) into a pan. Here, I used a 8x8-inch pan, but any pan would be okay.


With the help of a scrapper, I transferred the entire dough into the pan. Then, using my fingers, coated with the oil from the pan, I made dimples on the dough. No need to get too excited. In fact, handle the dough as little as possible. But do make sure the top is flat-ish. I didn't do that (too worried about over-working my dough) and I had a lopsided loaf of bread. :P



One more thing, you don't need to make the dough fit the entire pan. Unless, of course, you have OCD. Then, do whatever is necessary to maintain your balance with the world.




I chopped a sprig of rosemary, and minced one clove of garlic. These were scattered onto the bread. Along with some flaky sea salt. I like this one.

No, you should not use table salt. You want a good quality finishing salt.


I placed foil on the pan, and left the dough to rest while I pre-heated my oven to 225C.

The focaccia was placed in the hot oven, and baked for 20 minutes.


Then I removed the foil (be very careful!!), and baked for an additional 20 minutes. After which I removed the focaccia from the pan immediately and placed it on a wire rack to cool.


There you have it.


Freshly-baked focaccia.

And hardly any effort required!

Have you taken part in my Ombre cakes giveaway? Click on the picture below to take part!



RECIPE
No-Knead Rosemary Garlic Focaccia 
Adapted from simplysogood

Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour
1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water (room temperature)

For the topping:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Sea salt 
1 spring rosemary, finely chopped

Method:
1. Mix flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add water. Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let dough rise 12-24 hours.
3. Place olive oil in pan. Add dough. Using fingers coated with oil, make dimples in dough.
4. Scatter rosemary, garlic and salt on dough. Cover with foil and leave to rest.
5. Pre-heat oven to 225C. Bake bread for 20 minutes, covered.
6. Remove foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes.
7. Remove from pan immediately and place on wire rack to cool.

10 comments:

  1. Wah, so easy! OK, this HAS to work for me! :-)

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    Replies
    1. it will work!! can't go wrong with this one. very forgiving recipe!

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  2. Hi Diana,
    I love eating foccacia! These looks good, perfect with a cuppa tea!

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  3. Oh wow fantastic... no knead is definitely my kinda bread! Will give this a go.

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    Replies
    1. we all have lazy days, but still wanna eat well. hope you get to try this!

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  4. Looking FAB and thanks for the picture tut!

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  5. A baking novice here... Do I put the dough in the refrigerator to let it rise?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cal no. You need to leave the dough on the kitchen table to proof. Not in the fridge. :)

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