All the Pages Are My Days

I've been wanting to expand my repertoire of yeast recipes beyond cinnamon rolls for some time now, and the receipt of two bread and baking cookbooks (The Bread Bible and King Arthur's Flour Baker's Companion) for Christmas has already motivated me to try a couple of different recipes.

The cinnamon chip bread, while simple to make, and tasty, suffered from my lack of cinnamon chips, so I decided not to post a recipe that hadn't realized its full potential. Still, the recipe basically worked, and among other things I learned first hand the need to slit the loaf before baking!

On the other hand, this thin, flavorful flatbread recipe worked very well, so as Julia would say, "bon appetit'!"

Ingredients

1 cup water, warm
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt (seems a bit high; I used 1.5 tsp)
5 teaspoons italian seasoning, heaping (Penzeys Buttermilk spice mix works great!)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Preparation

Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your bread machine. Program for Dough or Manual, and press Start.

At the end of the cycle, remove the dough from the machine and punch it down. Roll it out to form a rectangle, and transfer it to a cookie sheet, 10 x 15-inch to 12 x 18-inch. Pat the dough into the pan. Make indentations in the dough with your fingertips, about an inch apart, and drizzle sparingly with olive oil.

Focaccia may be topped with a variety of ingredients, including browned onions, fresh garlic, goat cheese, pesto, fresh sage and bacon, potatoes and rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Gorgonzola cheese, olives, or any combination of those or other ingredients of your choice.

I used a combination of:

1/2 onion, diced and sauteed till nicely browned and carmelized
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 tsp fresh rosemary

Sautee together all ingredients except the rosemary. Sprinkle the rosemary over the top of the bread. Spread the onion mixture over the focaccia. Grate parmesan cheese over the onion mixture and finish with a bit of sea salt if desired.

Let the focaccia rise for half an hour to an hour. This will make a lighter bread. Bake the focaccia in the preheated 450°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil(optional), and serve. Serves 6 to 10.

Nutrition information per serving (1 plain piece, 1/10 of loaf, 68g): 159 cal, 4g fat, 4g protein, 26g complex carbohydrates, 1g dietary fiber, 427mg sodium, 76mg potassium, 1mg vitamin C, 2mg iron, 79mg calcium, 40mg phosphorus.

Recipe based on King Arthur's Basic Focaccia recipe.