Focaccia bread

I cannot believe that until today, I had not experienced the joy of making my own bread! It was not only fun, easy and delicious but the smell lingered in the kitchen for hours! Chance and I eat a lot of bread for burgers, sandwiches etc and the fresher the bette. Mum and I started with focaccia today, which I made a delicious sandwich out of later :) It was so easy and you should have most ingredients at home. You can make it with anything you desire really but today we stuck to the traditional olive and herbs. Enjoy! X

Focaccia bread

Ingredients:

Large pinch of caster sugar
2 cups (500ml) lukewarm water
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
50ml olive oil plus a little extra
730g plain flour
3 tsp salt
Rosemary, sea salt and olives for sprinkling

Method:

1. Put sugar and 250ml of lukewarm water in large bowl, sprinkle over yeast as set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Add remaining water and oil, then use spoon to stir in about 1/3 of the flour and the salt until the mixture is smooth.
3. Gradually add remaining flour until the mixture becomes too stiff to stir and start mixing with your hands. The dough should be soft so you might not need all the flour.
4. Turn out on to lightly floured surface and knead for 7-8 minutes. Don't worry of the mixture is sticky as ours was, but after kneading for a few minutes it improves.
Place the dough in lightly oiled bowl, and turn it so it is coated in oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in warm area of the house for one hour or until dough has doubled in size.
5. Preheat oven to 220 C and grease baking dish with oil. I used a rectangle tin about 20cm by 30cm. Unwrap dough and punch it once to release the air (the fun part) then press mixture in to the dish. Use fingertips to make deep dimples all over the surface.
6. Drizzle dough with olive oil and then sprinkle rosemary and sea salt over. Place olives where desired.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until bread is a deep golden brown and cooked through.