Greek Olive Focaccia Recipes

OLIVE FOCACCIA

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and 1 cup flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, olives and parsley., Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 50 minutes., Punch dough down. Shape into a 9-in. circle on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 25 minutes. With fingertips, make several dimples over top of dough. Brush with oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and cheeses., Bake at 400° until golden brown, 14-18 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.

FOCACCIA WITH OLIVES AND ROSEMARY

Steps:

• Place 2 cups warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle dry yeast over; stir with fork. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes.
• Add 4 1/4 cups flour and salt to yeast mixture and stir to blend well (dough will be sticky). Knead dough on floured surface until smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is sticky, about 10 minutes. Form dough into ball. Oil large bowl; add dough, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough; knead into ball and return to same bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area until doubled, about 45 minutes or less
• Coat 15x10-inch baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Punch down dough. Transfer to prepared sheet. Using fingertips, press out dough to 13x10-inch rectangle. Let dough rest 10 minutes. Drizzle 2 tablespoons oil over dough. Sprinkle olives and chopped rosemary evenly over. Let dough rise uncovered in warm area until puffy, about 25 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 475°F. Press fingertips all over dough, forming indentations. Bake bread until brown and crusty, about 20 minutes. Serve bread warm or at room temperature.

GREEK FOCCACIA BREAD

Steps:

• if you don't keep roasted garlic around you can easily make it by trimming off the top of a whole garlic bulb, just enough to expose the cloves, make a little cup around it with a 6 inch piece of tin foil, drizzle a spoonful or two of olive oil into the exposed cloves, wrap it up and bake at 375f for some 45 min or until soft. it makes the house smell so good and makes it so easy to add lovely healthy garlic to everything i often keep a head in the fridge. just squeeze out of the skin and you can do whatever with it.
• mix yeast, sugar, and water, set aside till it starts bubbling suspiciously. if your yeast is really fresh keep an eye on it or it will bubble over, you want it to just start bubbling so all that rising power goes into the bread itself. btw, yeast should be kept in the fridge in an airtight container once opened and not for more then 3 months or it wont rise properly anymore. i'm testing what happens with longer term storage in the freezer.
• mix the flour with the herbs, olives, cheese, garlic, and salt in a big bowl.
• add the yeast mixture and the oil to the flour mix and stir till a soft dough forms. it'll be really sticky at first but that's ok. try to keep it mostly in a lump and not on your hands. sprinkle with a few handfuls of flour and kneed until it's pliable and elastic but still soft.
• let rise in a warm place, covered with a clean towel until doubled in size (about 45 min) if my house is cold i sometimes turn the oven knob just until the burner clicks on-not even to 170f which is our lowest, let it heat while i knead the dough and clean up and then turn it off before putting the bowl (totally wrapped in a towel in case the racks are too hot for the plastic) in the oven and leaving the door closed to keep warm. i've also had good results with setting the bowl on the burner the oven vents out of with the oven on a low setting and a pot holder under the bowl but then my cats can get into it.
• once it's risen punch down the dough and kneed a little more, you might need to add a bit more flour to keep it workable and not too sticky but don't add so much that it becomes hard to knead. it takes some practice to get the feel for the texture thing but this is a fairly forgiving recipe so don't worry about it too much.
• divide in two and form into two smooth, round loaves about 1 inch thick, coat in a bit more olive oil and place on a greased cookie sheet, remember that they'll double in size again so give them room to expand. if you want you can freeze the dough at this point and when you thaw in the fridge it will do it's second rise at the same time.
• let rise to double the size again, be aware that the second rise sometimes goes a lot faster then the first and heavily over-proofed bread ends up with large air pockets that collapse after baking.
• bake at 325f for 30 min or so or until it sounds hollow when tapped gently. if it's getting too brown turn the temp down to 310f. when done they should be just golden.
• let cool for 15 min or until you can handle easily. if you want a soft crust instead of a crispy one you can brush with a bit more oil after baking. this is a very soft bread so use a serrated knife to cut (ala sawing) and try not to press down too hard or you'll crush it,.
• serve with butter or a shallow dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

GREEK OLIVE FOCACCIA

Steps:

• Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except olives, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 teaspoon rosemary in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Add olives at the Raisin/Nut signal.Select Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use delay cycles.Remove dough from pan, using lightly floured hands. Cover and let rest 10 minutes on lightly floured surface.Grease cookie sheet. Pat dough into 12-inch circle on cookie sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until almost double.Heat oven to 400°. Make deep depressions in dough at 1-inch intervals with fingertips. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon rosemary. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until edge is golden brown. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack.1 serving: 155 calories (20 calories from fat) 2g fat (0g saturated) 0mg cholesterol 200mg sodium 31g carbohydrate (1g dietary fiber) 4g protein.SUCCESS TIPIf your bread machine doesn't have a Raisin/Nut signal, add the olives 5 to 10 minutes before the last kneading cycle ends. Check your bread machine's use-and-care book to find out how long the last cycle runs.Do-ahead NoteAfter you have patted the dough into a circle on the cookie sheet, cover it with plastic wrap. You can refrigerate it from 4-48 hours. Before baking, remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Cover with kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place about 2 hours or until it is almost double. Then continue as the recipe tells you.ShapingMake depressions in dough at 1-inch intervals with fingertips.From "Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook, The Goodness of Homemade Bread the Easy Way." Text Copyright 1999 General Mills, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.