Focassia with onion & olives

I love making different kind of breads at home.  While baking the bread, the wonderful fragrance wafts throughout my home and I simply love it..  I have tried quite a few kind of breads at home and loved the taste and texture of all of them. 

Today's recipe is Focassia bread.  Its an Italian flat bread which is, traditionally, seasoned with olive oil, salt and herbs. 

Focassia was in my TO TRY list since quite a long time.  So I finally tried my hands on it yesterday and it came out very well.  The taste was so fresh and flavourful.  The texture was also so soft and fluffy.  The whole batch finished up in a jiffy, it was that good.

Making Focassia at home is so easy.  Make the dough and stud it with your favourite toppings, bake and dig in.  I had a bottle of green olives so I used them as topping with sliced onion.  I sprinkled some mixed herbs too that enhanced the flavour nicely.  
Making breads at home gives you liberty to customize it as per your taste.  In this recipe you can top it up with black olives, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, basil, fresh veggies, coriander or even cheese.  Just let your imagination work here.  Whatever topping you use, I can bet, the taste would be superb.  

I used my pizza base recipe for the dough.  Its so simple and easy.  Traditionally, for topping up Focassia base a lot of oil is used but in this recipe I have used just two tablespoon of extra virgin oilive oil.  I was apprehensive about the results but the finished product was awesome with no compromise in taste and texture.  Now its a fail-proof recipe so I am sharing it with all of you.  Do try it.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Dough
Maida	2 cups
Dry Active Yeast	1 tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Olive oil	2 tbsp (30 ml)
Water (lukewarm)	¾ cup
Topping
Sliced green olives	¼ cup
White onion	1/4th of a small onion
Mixed dried herbs	¼ tsp
Crushed black pepper	¼ tsp
Salt	To taste

Method:

• In a bowl, take all purpose flour, salt, sugar and active dry yeast.  Mix well.  Add oil and mix again.
• Add lukewarm water little by little and knead a soft dough.  Knead it well for about 5-7 minutes.  Shift it to another bowl and cover with a cling film or wet cloth.  Keep it in a warm place for 2 hours.
• Take a baking tray and line it with a butter paper.  Set aside.
• After 2 hours, punch down the dough and flatten it on the lined baking tray evenly.  Prick with a fork on the top.  Make deep indents or dimples on the top with your finger (as shown in the pic below).  Spread one table spoon on the top evenly.  Cover the tray with a damp cloth and set aside for 20 minutes.

• After 20 minutes, again pour one tablespoon oil on the top evenly and arrange the sliced olives and onion on the top.  Press the toppings a little.  Sprinkle crushed black pepper, salt and mixed herbs (as in the pic below) and again cover the tray with a damp cloth and set aside for another 15 minutes.

• Meanwhile preheat the oven at 200 degree.
• After 15 minutes, put the tray inside the oven and bake for 25 minutes or till the top turns golden brown.  
• Remove from the oven and shift it to a wire rack to cool down.

• Slice it as per your choice and serve warm.

Notes:

1. Adjust the water quantity as required and add it little by little.
2. Do not leave the dough to raise for more than 2-3 hours.  It would nicely double up in 2-3 hours.
3. If not using active yeast, take the lukewarm water in a bowl, add sugar  and mix well.  (Do not let the water cool down).  Add yeast and let it sit for 5-7 minutes without touching.  Once it become frothy and bubbly, add it to the flour, sugar, salt and oil mixture and knead it to a soft dough.