Focaccia

I make my own bread, but today I didn't want to make my usual fairly plain sandwich loaf.  Although it's delicious, and a pretty fail-safe recipe, I just liked the idea of doing something a little different for our sandwiches.  Focaccia is very similar to a pizza dough, just without the toppings, and works beautifully filled with your favourite sandwich fixings.  We actually had some for dinner as a sort of Philly cheesesteak but with leftover meatloaf sliced up inside along with fried onions and provolone cheese melted on the top - it's sounds kind of strange but turned out surprising well.  This recipe originally came from Julie Van Rosendaal's book 'Grazing' - a food bible for anyone who likes 'snack' food (among other things :o)

Focaccia
1 'loaf'

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
a pinch of black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil

topping
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
sprinkling of italian seasoning
coarse salt

• Combine the water and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer; sprinkle with the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5-10 minutes. (If the yeast doesn't foam, it could mean that either the water was too hot and killed the yeast, or your yeast may be inactive, in which case all you can do I'm afraid is buy new).
• add 2 cups of the flour, salt, pepper and olive oil, and using the dough hook on your mixer on a low speed, mix until all ingredients are combined and it forms a soft ball - add more of the flour in 1/4 cup increments if the mixture is too moist and is sticking to the bowl.
• mix / knead for a couple of minutes in the stand mixer, until it's smooth and elastic.
• transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turning the ball of dough to cover all over with oil; cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size - about 45 minutes.
• pat the dough into a 9" x 10" disc on a baking sheet.
• poke holes with your fingers all over the top and drizzle with oil, garlic, italian seasoning and salt.
• cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave to rise for an hour, until doubled in size.
• preheat the oven to 400 F.
• bake for 20-30 minutes, until it's golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Focaccia ingredients.

let the yeast foam up before adding the other ingredients - this was as it started foaming.

if you don't have a stand mixer, mixing by hand works fine too.

turn the ball of dough a couple of times to coat with oil.

doubled in size.

press it out into either one large flat bread as this, or divide the dough and make individual serving size breads.

a simple flat bread that can be used for sandwiches or even torn up to accompany a dip.

Pizza Dough

One thing that we missed when we first moved into our little cottage in the country was pizza on those nights when we just didn't have time or inclination to cook - we're pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, way too far from any takeout delivery routes.  After a lot of trial and error (too bland, too dry, too yeasty), I've finally settled on the perfect pizza dough for us.  Mixing it in the bread machine on the dough cycle, makes things really easy, but if you don't have one, using a stand mixer or even by hand and kneading will work fine too.  Once you've got the dough bases sorted out the skies the limit as to what toppings you want - my hubby and I are definite meat lovers but this recipe produces either dough to make two large rectangular pizzas (that's what we tend to do), or at least six smaller individual pizzas so you can all have whatever toppings you want :)

Pizza Dough
enough for 2 large rectangular or 6 small circular bases.

1 1/3 cups warm water
3 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

• in a bread machine pan add the ingredients in the above order and set on the dough cycle.
• when the cycle finishes, remove dough from the pan onto a lightly floured surface. 
• divide the dough into however many pizzas you are going to make and using a rolling pin, roll out to approximate 1/4 inch thickness.
• transfer to baking sheets covered in parchment paper or silicone sheets, and pierce holes all over using a fork.
• let the pizza bases rise slightly for 20-30 minutes, then brush with olive oil and bake in a 400 F for 5-7 minutes.
• reduce heat to 350 F.
• cover with whatever sauce, vegetables, meat or other toppings that you want and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toppings are to personal preference.

 pizza dough ingredients.

I LOVE my bread machine :)

we usually make two large rectangular pizzas - evening meal and at least two days of lunch leftovers!!!

we're both meat lovers, hence the beef cooked sausage and lots and lots of peppered salami - yummy!

one had jalapeno peppers - that's for my hubby - he likes things a little hotter :)