rosemary foccacia bread

My husband used to travel a lot for work when he worked for General Electric.  And while on business trips he had the opportunity to try out different restaurants.  

One of those was the Macaroni Grill.  After coming home from one of his trips, he was raving about "The Macaroni Grill."  First of all, the name of the restaurant did not impress me for some reason, but I decided to give it a try.  It is one of my favorite restaurants to this day.

One thing that really left a lasting impression on me was their bread.  It has rosemary in it.  It's wonderful.

This bread reminds me of it.  Although it's rectangular rather than round.  Next time I want to try round.  I even found some "wanna be Macaroni Grill bread" recipes online.  That would be fun to try next!

Take it from me, make this the day before you plan to enjoy it with your meal, or start preparing it mid-morning.  I didn't get started until late afternoon and because of my poor planning (oops!) ended up changing our dinner plans and baking the bread at 8 pm.  

Everything worked out well and we took it in stride, but next time I will plan better!

At any rate, it was nice to have it ready for dinner the following day.  All I had to do was pop it in the oven and warm it up for 8 minutes!  Deeelish!

rosemary foccacia bread

This recipe makes two 9x13 loaves of bread

ingredients:

1 package dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water, about 100 degrees

2 1/4 cup tepid water

2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for the pan and to brush on bread

3 cups bread flour

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp salt, plus coarse salt ("Kosher") for sprinkling on top

2-3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary 

directions:

1.  Stir the yeast into the 1/3 cup of slightly warm-to-the-touch water and let it rest for 10 minutes.

2.  In a large bowl, pour in 2 1/4 cups of tepid water and 2 Tbsp. olive oil.  After the yeast has rested for 10 minutes and has begun to froth, add it to the water and oil mixture.

3.  Whisk in 2 cups of the bread flour and the Tbsp. of salt.  Add the rosemary.  Then, cup by cup, whisk in the rest of the flour (both the bread flour and the all-purpose).  As the mixture goes from a batter to a thick dough, you'll want to switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon.  By the time you get to the last cup of flour, you will be able to work the dough with your hands.  Begin to knead it in the bowl, incorporating all the flour stuck to the sides and bottom of the bowl as you knead the dough.  

Once the bowl is pretty clean turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 8 minutes, adding a little flour when things get sticky.

4.  In a large clean bowl, pour in about a Tbsp. of oil and put the dough on top of it.  Coat the dough in this oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise (in a relatively warm spot or room temp.) for one hour and 30 minutes.  It should just about double in size.

5.  Spread a little olive oil in 2 baking pans or casserole dishes for easy removal.  Divide the dough in half and put one half in each of the pans.  Press out the dough with your fingers until it covers the whole bottom of your pan.  You can also form the dough into free-form rounds and place on a baking sheet.  Cover the pans and set aside for another 30 minutes.

6.  Dimple the dough with your thumb.  Push in to about the end of your thumbnail, roughly 1/2 inch.  Make dimples across the whole surface of the bread.  Cover again and leave it to it's final rise, about 2 hours.

7.  With 30 minutes to go before the rise finishes, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  

8.  Once the dough has done it's final rise, gently brush the top with olive oil.  Then sprinkle the coarse salt on top.

9.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  When the bread comes out of the oven, turn it onto a cooling rack to ensure a delicious crispy bottom.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes and then enjoy.  

Feel free to do it like they do in restaurants and get a small bowl of olive oil with fresh ground pepper.  

Tear off a piece of bread and dip it in the oil.  

You will wonder why you waited so long to make homemade foccacia bread.  ;)

(recipe adapted from simplyrecipes.com)