Easy Focaccia Bread

Looking for a bread-maker Focaccia recipe? You’ve come to the right place.

On weekends when my Englishman and I go away, we set the bread maker on timer so we wake up to piping hot, delicious bread at 6am. A perfect start to the day.  A crusty loaf is set to be our emergency rations if the hunger pangs get to much and we are adventuring somewhere off the radar. Fresh bread, with soft butter and sliced tomato and a sprinkling of salt — wham. Beautiful.

The bread maker is not only great for making bread, but making dough to form in any way you choose and bake in the oven.

When it comes to focaccia bread, it’s a brilliant time-saving option as it is fast to make (in the scheme of bread making): 45 minutes on ‘dough’ mode in the bread maker, 30 minutes to rise as the oven heats, and 25 minutes baking in the oven. Perfect! Fast, I hear you say? Yes, when compared to the usual 4 hour setting for regular bread.

Focaccia (Italian pronunciation: [foˈkattʃa]) is a yeasty flat bread. Topped with olive oil and herbs/spices, it is an ancient Mediterranean bread. It is dimpled (or dotted) with the knuckle to create wells then spread with olive oil prior to rising and baking.

Possible toppings are varied and numerous but ultimately seem very simple comprising of some of the following: rosemary, sage, garlic, Parmesan cheese, sea salt, and olives – it is very much a bread with toppings.

There are variations to play with too:

• Add chopped bacon, onion, herbs and olive oil as a topping but exclude the extra salt.
• Add your favourite ‘topping’ ingredients into the dough and simple top with olive oil and herbs.

You can make this yourself, without a bread maker, but be prepared to knead and  punch, and knead and punch!

Focaccia (Bread Maker Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 tsp bread making yeast
• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 1 Tbsp milk powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/4 water

Topping example

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• sea salt

Method

1. Place 7 ingredients in bread maker in order as listed. Turn the breadmaker to ‘dough’ setting which is around 45 minutes. Allow to mix and knead. When finished its dough cycle, remove dough.
2. Knead dough on a lightly floured work surface (to stop any stickiness), then spread out on oven try lined with baking paper. Flatten as much as you can (with a rolling pin in necessary) to a 1cm thickness.
3. Set oven to 200°C. 
4. Cover dough and allow to rise (approx 3o minutes).  Find a cozy place in the sunshine or rest on top of the oven as it pre-heats.
5. Drizzle with olive oil. Work over dough with finger tips, punching down with knuckles or making indents with fingers as you go, punching out any air pockets. 
6. Before placing in oven, cover with your chosen toppings. Bake for 25 minutes, until firm and slightly beginning to brown.
   
7. Slice while warm and serve with anything and everything!