Yeastspotting: Rosemary Sea Salt Focaccia

One of my favorite first finds of the food blogging world was Wild Yeast's "Yeastspotting" feature, which regularly links to incredible bread recipes around the internet. So now that I've been cooking and blogging myself for a while, I decided to submit this Rosemary Sea Salt Focaccia Recipe, which is by far my most requested. EVERYONE likes it. At least so far!

Rosemary Sea Salt Focaccia

1 pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP fresh rosemary – some chopped, some whole

Coarse Salt

1. Dissolve the yeast in one cup warm water, cover with towel, sit 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and chopped rosemary. Stir with a wooden spoon. Now add the water/yeast mixture.

3. Mix with a spoon and then hands, knead in the bowl until smooth. (Really! There's no need to smother your counter in flour!)

4. Oil another mixing bowl and put in the dough, spinning to coat with olive oil. Cover

with a towel and let rise in a warm place 1.5-2 hours until doubled in size.

5. Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C.

6. Don't punch the dough down! Just pick it up out of the bowl and place it in a big round pan - I use a large cake pan.

7. Using all ten fingers, create big dimples in the top of the bread as you stretch it to the sides to fill the pan. (I didn’t know what this meant until I ate focaccia in Italy. The many dimples actually go down about a half-inch in the final baked Italian version – making the top look like a prairie dog field).

8. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle on sea salt chunks and fresh rosemary. Be liberal!

9. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Let sit for a few minutes and cut with a pizza cutter. Serve warm.

Alternative toppings: pesto and mozzarella, roasted vegetables, chopped sage and parmesan, sliced olives and mozzarella. Always add cheese halfway or more through baking so it melts but does not burn.