Rosemary and Sea Salt Focaccia Recipe

I’ve recently moved out to the other side of the country but I haven’t started work yet, so I have a little bit of free time for the next few weeks – what better way to use it than baking?

Focaccia is my absolute favourite bread – specifically rosemary and sea salt. It’s so simple but works really well, plus you end up with a kitchen (and house) that smells of freshly baked bread!

I haven’t made bread in a long time – mainly because I’m too impatient for all of the proving steps – but this has shown it’s worth while in the end.
This took around 4 hours to make including prep time (it actually only took 15 minutes to cook in the end) – and made 6 large or 8 small slices of focaccia.


Ingredients
• 130ml extra virgin olive oil (plus extra for lining the tray)
• 240ml warm water
• 350g plain flour (plus extra for kneading)
• 1 TSP dried rosemary (plus more for topping)
• ¼ TSP ground black pepper
• 2 ¼ TSP active dry yeast
• ½ TSP salt
• ¼ TSP sugar

Method
1. Mix together the water, yeast and sugar, then leave for 5 minutes.
2. Next, add the olive oil and half of the flour. Stir until the flour is just about wet, and then leave for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the other half of the flour, and gently mix to combine.
4. Transfer to a floured board and knead for 5-10 minutes until you notice some air has got into the dough.
5. Transfer to a rectangle oiled baking tray, cover with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise for an hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
7. Press and spread the dough until it is the size of the baking tray.
8. If the dough appears dry, drizzle some olive oil over the top of the dough.
9. Using your index finger, press small holes in rows on the top of the dough. Then, sprinkle some dried rosemary, the black pepper and some salt over the top.
10. Recover with the tea towel and leave to rise for a further 15-20 minutes.
11. Time to bake! Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.