Focaccia

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/8 tsp instant yeast

2 cups minus 2 tbsp room-temp water

3/4 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsps dried rosemary

1/2 tsp course sea salt

Mis the dough in a mixer with a paddle attachment- start with the flour and yeast, then add the water. It will be very very soupy, you'll never think it can create bread.

Mix for about 20 minutes on a medium speed (note: I would not advise trying this by hand, your arm would fall off). The dough will slowly slowly get more stringy as gluten networks form. If after 20 minutes it's still soupy and not at all pulling away from the sides, add a bit more flour a teaspoon at a time until it gathers on the paddle in a ball. Add the sugar and salt and beat it for 3-5 more minutes.

Scapre the dough into a lightly greased container, and let it rise in the oven (oven off, light on) for 4 hours until doubled. It took mine a full 4 hours.

Plop the dough onto a lightly greased piece of parchment paper in a very large baking sheet. I'm adding this recipe before I perfected it- I didn't use the parchment paper, and mine burned around the edges where there was excess olive oil. It stuck a fair bit to the pan, too, so I'll try it next time with the parchment paper. Spread it out gently, maintaining all the gas in the dough, as much as you can without it ripping. Let it rest for 10 minutes (the gluten will relax and it will be able to stretch more). Stretch it out some more.

Preheat the oven to 475 an hour in advance, and place a baking stone on a shelf in the bottommost position.

Cover the stretched out dough with a well oiled piece of Press N Seal, and let it rise for about another hour or so, until it has gained 50 percent of it's size again.

Sprinkle on the rosemary and sea salt evenly over the surface, place in the oven gently.

Bake for about 13 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

This bread is lovely and tasty and chewy with a nice crust. The (incredibly) high moisture content means that it has nice lovely holes that I love so much. None of us could keep our hands off of it! I'm going to try baking it a bit longer directly on the stone to beef up the crust and using it for sandwiches. But for now it's nice to just eat as is!

Quote:

[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread. ~M.F.K. Fisher