Garlic, Rosemary and Sea Salt Focaccia

I love the simple pleasure of baking bread.

The smooth, elastic dough between your fingers as you knead. The excitement of seeing how much your bread has risen. The eager, nervous anticipation as you watch it cook. The lovely smell, drifting through your house. Most of all, the joy of a warm, delicious mouthful of bread that you know you made.

This recipe fulfills all of those fantasies. Plus, it came with the thrill of trying something new and succeeding! Now, if you've been hanging out here for a while, you'll know I'm a wee bit addicted to that thrill. I almost never choose to cook something I've made before- and if I do, I have to change it up a bit; fill it, flavour it, ice it! Making a focaccia had long been on my list of things to try- it came with all the joys of baking bread, but was just different enough to warrant calling it 'a new skill'.

In the school term I barely ever bake bread. All the things that make it so wonderful- proving and kneading and baking- take a long time and a long time is one thing I rarely have during the term. That's how focaccia kept getting ignored on my list of things to try and stayed there so very long. But in a way, that made baking this loaf all the more special.

Having said that, however, this recipe is so quick and easy that I think I might make it in the school term. Sunday morning I could make it and it'd be ready just in time for a warm, delicious lunch! This was possibly the quickest of all the focaccia recipes I saw, and although you need a while, proving and baking times leave plenty of time to do whatever else you need to.

I kept this loaf very simple because I'm intending to serve it with a beautiful Italian vegetable soup for dinner, but if you wanted to make it more elaborate to serve on it's own you could top it to your heart's desire! I'm intending to try a tomato (maybe even sundried?), olive and feta one for lunch at some point. Marinated eggplant or capsicum also seem like they'd suit, or maybe goats cheese if we were going to go all out extravagant? Oh the possibilities!

Garlic, Rosemary and Sea Salt Focaccia

Based on: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1789/olive+rosemary+focaccia

Ingredients

• 310ml (1 1/4 cups) warm water
• 2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 3 1/2 tbs olive oil
• 450g (3 cups) plain flour
• 2 tsp sea salt flakes
• 1 1/2 tbs fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 tsp garlic, crushed*

Method

1. Combine the water, yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of oil in a small bowl. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 5 minutes or until frothy.
2. Place flour and half of the sea salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.
3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Brush a bowl with oil to grease. Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush a 20 x 30cm Swiss roll pan with 2 teaspoons of remaining oil. Punch down centre of the dough with your fist. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes or until dough is elastic and has returned to original size. Press into the prepared pan. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 20 minutes or until doubled in height. Use your finger to press dimples into the dough. Brush with remaining oil and sprinkle over rosemary, garlic and remaining salt. 
5. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden and focaccia sounds hollow when tapped on base. Serve warm or at room temperature.
 

Mia :)

*I actually used dried minced garlic, because we *gasp* only have one clove of garlic in the whole house! If you would prefer to use dried, it worked out well, but otherwise I imagine fresh would be even yummier!

Olive and Rosemary Bread

There is nothing better than a fresh, warm loaf of bread.

Nothing.

It's usually Dad who makes bread in our house. Beautiful Sourdoughs, with days of effort and care in them.

But this loaf doesn't ask for days of effort and care. Not at all! 

 Maybe half an hour of your time, and two hours of resting. That's all these loafs want. They're not greedy, that's for sure.

Which makes them perfect for a weekend morning. Prepare them, go get some stuff done while they rise, shape the loaves, get some more stuff done and bake them. Voila! Fresh bread!

But this isn't just your average loaf either. It's moist, stays soft and is full of olives and rosemary.

It's delicious! Do I have you sold?

I'd recommend fiddling with it- add whatever you please! I think nuts, dried fruits, different herbs or sun dried tomatoes would all be nice. Add them during the punchdown- a short knead to get the air out of the dough.

What would you add to the bread?

Olive and Rosemary Bread

Based on: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/delicious-rosemary-bread/detail.aspx and http://mademoisellesonushka.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/rosemary-olive-bread.html

• Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons rosemary
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 egg, beaten


1. Dissolve the sugar in warm water in a medium bowl, and mix in the yeast. When yeast is bubbly, mix in salt, butter, 1 tablespoon rosemary, and Italian seasoning. Mix in 2 cups flour. Gradually add remaining flour to form a workable dough, and knead 10 to 12 minutes.
2. Coat the inside of a large bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl, cover, and allow to rise 1 hour in a warm location.
3. Punch down dough, and divide in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly grease paper. Shape dough into 2 round loaves, and place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary. Cover, and allow to rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Brush loaves with egg. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
• 
  

Mia :)

Caraway Seed Bread Rolls

I've got some obsession with trying new things as of recent. I've made my first full sized cake, my first layer cake, my first red velvet cake, my first rainbow cupcakes, my first filled cupcakes and my first macarons all within in the last month or two.

Wow! Suddenly that sounds like a lot! But actually, the first 3 were all achieved in one cake, so I'm a bit of a cheat : ).

Still, to add to my never ending list of new things, last weekend I made my first bread rolls. And to tell you the truth, they were ridiculously easy.

And pretty tasty too!

They were a little bit flatter and denser than I had hoped, but actually I quite liked that. They're also really small, more of a snack than a meal!

That said, two of them with a bit of melted cheese and tomato relish were a pretty good lunch the next day!

I made them for an athletics event we went to (by that I mean Mum, Dad and my younger sister). It was AMAZING! We were about 3 metres away from the pole vaulters and there were runners and jumpers and throwers, all at world class level, all going at once!


So, if you ever get the chance to go to the Sydney Track Classic, go! It was an experience I don't regret!

Caraway Seed Bread Rolls

(Based on: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rye-Dinner-Rolls-with-Crisp-Tops-352316)


Ingredients

1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 scant cup warm water (105-115°F), divided

3/4 teaspoon sugar

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting

1/3 cup light or dark rye flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Stir together yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, and sugar in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.)

2. Stir flours, salt, and remaining scant 3/4 cup water into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms. Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead with lightly floured hands until dough is elastic and smooth but still supple and slightly sticky, 6 to 8 minutes. Form dough into a ball.

3. Put dough in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise in a draft- free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.

4. Punch down dough (do not knead). Remove from bowl and fold into thirds like a letter. Divide into 16 pieces and roll each piece into a ball, transferring to a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and loosely covering with plastic wrap (or towel). Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

5. Lightly brush each ball of dough with some of egg white. Gently lay a round of rye-crisp dough, egg-wash side up, on top of each roll. Bake rolls until golden-brown, about 20 minutes. Cool to warm or room temperature.


Mia :)