Rosemary Garlic Focaccia Bread- step by step

So, here's a guide to making Rosemary Garlic Focaccia Bread, (which by the way, smells good, tastes good, and makes your husband do the dishes):



Here are the ingredients you will need:

All purpose flour, salt, yeast, olive oil (extra virgin is really worth the tiny bit of extra cost), a stem of fresh rosemary (you can use dried, but fresh tastes way better), garlic, and water.

So the first thing you want to do is to put 1 1/4 cup really warm water into the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer (or any mixer with a bread dough hook), add 2 Tbs olive oil (ok, I am sure you all know this, but tsp is teaspoon, and Tb is tablespoon) and sprinkle 2 teaspoons of yeast over the top. If you are using the packets of yeast, just use 1 packet. That is 2 1/4 tsp but it's fine, I promise. After a few minutes, the yeast will begin to foam and look sort of creamy, like this:

Then you want to add your other ingredients; 3-1/2 cups flour and 1-1/4 tsp salt (I like sea salt, it's more flavorful). A quick note about measuring the flour, you need to scoop it into your measuring cup with something, don't use the measuring cup to scoop flour right out of the container. If you use your measuring cup, I've found that it packs the flour in, and you'll get too much flour. I have a scoopy thingy I use, then level off the top when you're done, but don't pack the flour.

Before we go on, a quick aside- I have decided lately that my hands look funky and old. Sort of wrinkled and haggard. I have decided to post photos of my hands despite this nagging insecurity. The only way my hands look decent, and still sort of youthful, is if I hold them like this:

But seriously, who can walk around with their hands in this position?? And how would I get anything done?


....ok, ok, back to the bread.

So after you have all the ingredients in the bowl, put that baby on the Kitchen Aid and attach the dough hook. Then knead it for about 5 minutes, checking it to make sure it's pulling away from the sides of the bowl and looks moist and soft.

 So, after you've kneaded it for 5 minutes, oil a medium bowl with olive oil (I just pour a good glug in there and swirl it around with my hands, this way there's a chance for them to get moisturized.....) then you need to put the ball of dough in the oiled bowl, then turn it so that both sides have oil on them (make sense?)

So now you need the bread to rise in a warm, not-to-drafty spot (I usually stick it on the top of my stove)

In the meantime, you need to make up some garlic olive oil. So put 2 Tb of olive oil in a small bowl, and add 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. I like to press fresh garlic, I think it tastes really good that way. I heart this Pampered Chef garlic press:

So now you'll have something like this:

Next you'll need a cookie sheet that has sides. The one I like best is about 9x12", and is "well loved" (in other words, ugly and stained). I usually cover it with foil and spray the foil with Pam cooking spray.

So now the dough should have about doubled in size (this usually takes between 25-45 minutes depending on how warm it is)

I usually just dump it straight from this bowl onto the cookie sheet:

And then I sort of pat it into the cookie sheet shape with my hands

Then you can add some dimples into the dough with your fingertips:

Then you want to brush all of the garlic oil you made earlier over the top. Use a pastry brush if you have one, I have a silicone one which I like because it comes cleaner than the traditional bristle ones...

Ok, so now take 1/2 tsp of sea salt and sprinkle it over the top. (or, if you're lazy like me, just shake some evenly over and don't measure it. :) )

Then you're going to take the sprig of fresh rosemary, and tear the leaves off and scatter them over the top of the focaccia. I use a lot of rosemary because I love it. If you're going to use fresh, I would say a 4" sprig would be a good amount. If you use dried, I would use a tsp.

Now you're going to let the focaccia rise again for about 20 minutes, and while it's rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then stick the focaccia in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.

It's done when the edges are golden, like this:

I let it cool in the pan for a few minutes, then slide it out onto my cooling rack

All of those dimples have the yummy garlic olive oil inside and it tastes SO good!!

....let's see another shot (I am having way too much fun with my macro setting....)....

And there you have it!!

Happy baking! :) ....and if you decide to bake some, let me know how it turns out!