oldcoot
Senior Cook
Keep It Simple. Stupid is applicalbe to much of life, and particularly to the making of a simple bread like Foccaccia, as the following demonstrates:
Ingredients:
About a tsp of dry yeast
and as much sugar.
About half a cup of quite warm water. (Not hot!)
Around a cup and a half of flour.
A cople of tablespoonfuls of olive oil, more or less.
And about half a tsp of salt - any darned salt! (Picture 1)
Tools: A medium sized bowl, a spoon (I like wooden spoons 0 they're not so noisy.) A pair of scissors or kitchen shears (same darn things). A skillet or baking pan or whatever. An oven. Maybe a clock, if you want.
Dump all the ingredients into the bowl and stir until a single lump of dough is formed. Should be rather soft, but not sticky. Dump that out on the counter top and knead it until it's very smotth. (Picture 2) Can take up to 10 minutes, but usually a lot less.
Form the dough into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl. Use the same bowl you mixed the dough in - just rinse it clean with HOT water, then dry it. The warm bowl will improve the action of the yeast.
Then cover it with a cloth or a plate or something to keep drafts off the dough ball, and let it sit for 1 hour. Sixty minutes. That's encough! It'll be about twice as big, more or less. (Pics 3 & 4)
Put the ball in a small skillet (or a baking sheet or ?) and flatten it into a disk about 6 or 7 inches in diameter and around half and inch thick or so.
Brush or spray the top with water to make it sticky, then sprinkle a liberal amount of coarse (if you have it) salt, and snip some leaves of fresh rosemary on it. Then dimple it deeply with your fingertips in several places, and drizzle olive oil into each dimple. Picture 5.
Put it in the oven, turn the oven on and set it for 360 F. Bake the bread for about thirty minutes, or until golden on top. The bread will rise quite a bit during the baking. Picture 6.Tilt it out of that well seasoned cast iron skillet onto a cooling rack. Pictue 7. When fairly cool, serve. Or do as I did: slice a piece right away, slather it with some butter, and munch away. Nice crisp crust, not too heavy texture, good flavor.
Now wasn't that easy?
And SIMPLE????
Ingredients:
About a tsp of dry yeast
and as much sugar.
About half a cup of quite warm water. (Not hot!)
Around a cup and a half of flour.
A cople of tablespoonfuls of olive oil, more or less.
And about half a tsp of salt - any darned salt! (Picture 1)
Tools: A medium sized bowl, a spoon (I like wooden spoons 0 they're not so noisy.) A pair of scissors or kitchen shears (same darn things). A skillet or baking pan or whatever. An oven. Maybe a clock, if you want.
Dump all the ingredients into the bowl and stir until a single lump of dough is formed. Should be rather soft, but not sticky. Dump that out on the counter top and knead it until it's very smotth. (Picture 2) Can take up to 10 minutes, but usually a lot less.
Form the dough into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl. Use the same bowl you mixed the dough in - just rinse it clean with HOT water, then dry it. The warm bowl will improve the action of the yeast.
Then cover it with a cloth or a plate or something to keep drafts off the dough ball, and let it sit for 1 hour. Sixty minutes. That's encough! It'll be about twice as big, more or less. (Pics 3 & 4)
Put the ball in a small skillet (or a baking sheet or ?) and flatten it into a disk about 6 or 7 inches in diameter and around half and inch thick or so.
Brush or spray the top with water to make it sticky, then sprinkle a liberal amount of coarse (if you have it) salt, and snip some leaves of fresh rosemary on it. Then dimple it deeply with your fingertips in several places, and drizzle olive oil into each dimple. Picture 5.
Put it in the oven, turn the oven on and set it for 360 F. Bake the bread for about thirty minutes, or until golden on top. The bread will rise quite a bit during the baking. Picture 6.Tilt it out of that well seasoned cast iron skillet onto a cooling rack. Pictue 7. When fairly cool, serve. Or do as I did: slice a piece right away, slather it with some butter, and munch away. Nice crisp crust, not too heavy texture, good flavor.
Now wasn't that easy?
And SIMPLE????
