Anne Burrell's Focaccia

I do not watch too much TV. But when I do switch it on, I have to see what's coming on food network. There are very few shows by chefs that I like to watch and one such show is 'Secrets of Restaurant Chef' hosted by Anne Burrell. She is a dare devil in the kitchen and I can relate to her style better than Giada who does everything so delicately. Come to think of it, when you are cooking, it does get dirty around and there is nothing wrong in showing it. On the top of it, Anne Burrell shows you so many techniques that lot other people fail to teach you. If there was voting system for choosing the next iron chef, I would've voted for her many times. I like her that much among the food network chefs.

Enough about Anne Burrell. When I was looking to try a different focaccia recipe, something caught my attention by this recipe. Usually every focaccia recipe tells you to dimple the dough after rising. This one actually tells you to poke holes before it rises. I tried it and taste wise, it comes very close to the 'Sourdough Focaccia', which takes more than a day to make.

One year back - Toasted Quinoa - One pot meal
Adapted from - Anne Burrell's recipe
Ingredients:
Warm Water - 1 3/4 cup
All purpose flour - 5 cups
Salt - 2 tsp
Olive oil - 1/2 cup + 2 TBSP divided use (Original recipe uses 1 cup)
Sugar - 1 TBSP
Instant yeast - 2 tsp (or active dry yeast 2 1/4 tsp)
Italian Seasoning - 1 heaping TBSP (optional)
Kosher salt to sprinkle (optional)

Method:
Refer to the source to make it by hand. I made the dough in the bread machine. Place 1/4 cup of olive oil, salt, sugar, warm water, flour, Italian seasoning if using, yeast in the bread machine pan and start on dough setting. When it beeps, check to make sure that all the flour is mixed well. Dough will be a little sticky. Let it complete the cycle.
When the cycle is complete, pour 1/4 cup of olive oil on a jelly roll pan ( 15 X 10 baking sheet with 1" height and lip). Place the dough on the pan and with oiled hands, stretch it to fit the entire pan. Turn it over once to coat the other side with oil too. Poke holes with your finger all around to get a nice uneven surface (this is what caught my attention to use this recipe). When it rises again, some of it will fill in and some will have space for you to drizzle oil on. Cover with an oiled plastic wrap and let it rise for 45 minutes to an hour till it reaches the rim of the pan or doubles in volume.

Towards the end of rise time, preheat the oven to 425 F. Sprinkle some kosher salt if desired and drizzle with the remaining 2 TBSP olive oil. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or till golden on the top. Remove and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. Slice when completely cool. I couldn't resist the smell of this baking and sliced when it was still warm.
I am sending this to yeastspotting.


Enjoy.

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