Glorious Bread!

So today I decided I had to make bread. Focaccia in particular. After that raw/liquid day, all I wanted was some bread, bread, and more bread. This is the beautiful Focaccia before baking. Half with olives for the olive loving mama and half just plain. This was probably my first go at focaccia since culinary school over 10 years ago, yikes.

Here is the gorgeous finished foccacia and my plate with olive sundried tomato tapenade. I had quite a bit of yellow sundried tomatoes that I had dried in the dehydrator awhile back, and I couldn't have thought of a better accompaniment for the bread, other than maybe soup. So flipping delicious and just what I needed to satisfy my appetite. Yummers. Such a simple recipe, just a bit of rising time, but so worth the wait.
Focaccia Recipe:
4 C unbleached AP flour
1 Tbsp Salt
1/2 C Olive Oil
2 packages Active dry yeast
1 1/4 C Water

Flour, salt, half the olive oil, yeast and warm water in a bowl and mix with hand until all flour has been picked up. Take out and knead on floured surface for about 6 minutes. Put back in bowl and cover with damp towel and let rise in warm place for about 2 hours. After dough has risen, turn out onto a greased sheetpan. Flatten dough ball into about an inch thick circle. Make indentations in dough and drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt on top. You are welcome to add any seasonings, olives, caramelized onions, etc. to it. Let the dough rise on pan for another hour and then it goes into an oven at 450F for about 25 minutes. Pull out and put on cooling rack, or if you are really craving bread like I was, you might as well go ahead and slice that bread hot and enjoy. Really so worth the time.

Ashleigh & Rian enjoying some of momma's homemade bread. I really can't harp enough about what a wonderful experience baking something from scratch and truly enjoying it is. I hope to inspire more people to make more food from scratch. Unfortunately other than the bread, my day was quite unproductive and not exactly what I was hoping for, but I did get to spend some quality time with the hubby and isn't that what life should be about anyways? Hope everyone is enjoying a lovely homemade evening.

Peace, Yasmin