Despite the title, I thankfully (knock on wood) have not seen a cockroach in my apartment, nor any other nasty nasts in there. I must still be craving the comfort food though because nothing sounded more divine than a fresh, hot pan of olive oiled bread the other day. After reading about, and seeing Lucious Food’s focaccia pictures a few weeks ago, I knew it was for me so I made it Sunday afternoon.
I intended to use a recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, but his recipe called for an over night refrigeration. Instead I used Epicurus’ rosemary focaccia recipe that LF recommended, and incorporated the herb oil that BBA suggests one make to coat the bread before baking.
For the herb oil, I used about a cup of olive oil and heated it for two minutes in the microwave(no need for EV, as it can’t be detected or tasted after it is heated). I then added fresh from the garden rosemary, newly minced garlic, and salt and pepper and let it sit in the warm oil for the two or so that it takes the bread to proof.
I let the dough proof for an hour and a half, punched it down, proofed for another thirty minutes then began stretching the dough out on a shoddy oiled cookie sheet I no longer use, but my only one with four edges. I punctured the dough with my finger tips as i stretched it out to mostly fit the pan at which point I again let the dough rest for about 20 minutes before gearing her up for the oil and oven.
You can see the oil filling the finger crevices in the dough and might worry. Fear not though, as the dough will absorb all of that oil while baking. The recipe says to heat the oven to 425, but I cranked mine up to 450, let it bake for 10 minutes, added Parmesan cheese on top, turned it around to the other side for another ten minutes, then turned again for five minutes. My apartment was filling up with garlic and oil senses, then i took the bread out – it was beautiful and tasted as good as it looked.
