Rosemary Focaccia

February 20, 2015

Focaccia is a type of Italian flatbread. It's very tasty, but also heavy. It's a good appetizer, snack or accompaniment for some sort of soup or stew.  However, beware, it's high in calories. Two wedges is more than 300 calories so you'll have to make adjustments in your eating plan if you have a limited calorie count.  I guess.... just as you would with any type of bread.

Rosemary Focaccia

GTLF: Italian p. 33

Serves 8, working time 20 min., 1 hour 35 min. total time

1/4 C sun dried (not oil packed) tomato halves

4 1/2 C flour

2/3 C grated Parmesan cheese

1 package rapid rise yeast

2 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 1/3 C very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)

3 tablespoons plus 2 tsp olive oil

1. In a small pot of boiling water, cook the sun dried tomatoes until softened, about 4 min. Drain well and finely chop.

2. In a large bowl, combine 4 cups of the flour, 1/3 C of the Parmesan, the sun dried tomatoes, yeast, 1 tsp of the rosemary, the sugar, salt and pepper. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the warm water and 3 tablespoons of the oil to the center. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Do not over mix. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and knead for about 8 min., adding as much of the remaining 1/2 C flour as needed to make the dough smooth and elastic.

3. Spray a 15 x 11 in. jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray. Roll the dough out to a 15 x 11 in. rectangle and carefully fit the dough into the pan. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to rise until light and puffy, about 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. With your fingers, make indentations on the surface of the dough in a random pattern. Brush the top of the focaccia with the remaining 2 tsp. oil and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tsp rosemary and remaining 1/3 C Parmesan. Bake for 12 to 13 min., or until the focaccia is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack. Cut the focaccia into 8 squares, then halve each square on the diagonal, for a total of 16 wedges.

Nutritional Information: 9 g fat, 354 calories, 2.2 g sat. fat, 56 g carbohydrate, 11 g protein, 5 mg cholesterol, sodium 266 mg.

TIPS:

1. If you like bread and decide maybe you want to try baking some, you will absolutely need to buy a candy thermometer. The thing about yeast is that if it's too cold it wont activate and your bread won't rise, and if it's too hot, yeast will die and your bread won't die. So you'll need to make sure the warm water is in the correct range.

2. I made a mistake when I made this recipe by not adding enough water. This made the mixture pretty dry so I didn't add in the 1/2 C of flour at the end. I think that's the reason the bread still came out light ad fluffy.