Focaccia w/Rosemary & Sea-Salt MumBum

Focaccia w/Rosemary & Sea-Salt MumBum

Our mom, Mary Bumgarner, has the amazing ability to throw together a focaccia or any other type of bread at the drop of a hat. She's been doing this for so long, she doesn't even use recipes or measures anything anymore. Makes it hard for us, her chillun, to follow in her footsteps! Below is the closest we could come to getting a recipe written down correctly! Mom says focaccia is a much more forgiving recipe to make than traditional bread as amounts can be less exact. The amounts given are mom's best guesstimate. Oh, and mom makes all her focaccia's and breads in her Cuisinart!

The MumBum throw-n-go:

In a 10" round cake pan:

olive oil 1/8" deep - cover the entire pan evenly

In a small bowl, stir:

1 C. tepid water (not over 110º F. - it will kill your yeast) 

1 t. granular yeast

about 1/2 t. or so of sugar to feed the yeast

In bowl of a Cuisinart, w/the plastic blade, combine: 

2 3/4 C. or so bread flour (you can use all-purpose flour)

1 t. kosher or sea salt

generous T. squeeze honey

2 T. or so olive oil (NO MORE than 2 T.!)

coarse ground sea or kosher salt

coarsely chopped fresh rosemary

olive oil. 

You will need to preheat your oven to 425º F just before baking - gotta let that dough rise!

Pulse the Cuisinart mixture to stir stuff up. Pour about 1/2 of your yeast mixture into the Cuisinart bowl. Pulse a few times to mix it. Pour in the rest of the yeast mixture and pulse again to mix off and on to really combine well. The dough should be forming into the ball as you're pulsing and climbing up the sides of the Cuisinart. Open the top of the Cuisinart and touch the dough - if it's really wet dough, add 1 T., and no more than 2 of flour and pulse again, if it too dry (not sticky), add 1 T. and not moore than 2 T. of water. If you touch the dough and it sticks to your finger, it's just right! (Goldilocks anyone?) You don't want the dough too dry or too wet; you want a sticky stick-to-your-finger, but soft dough. Pulse a few more times and the dough should be a dough that cleans the sides of the Cuisinart bowl. Let it rest 5 minutes. Pulse a few more times. (How you're kneading the dough.) 

Put a little bit of flour on your wooden board or counter top. Turn Cuisinart bowl over and let dough fall out - helping with a scraper or your fingers if needed. Once on the board, with floured hands, gather it up, knead a few times, form in a ball and put in a plastic bag to rise. When it's doubled in bulk, turn out of the bag and work it with your fists/hands to form it into a circle that is going to fit your pan. Place in the pan and push out with your fingers until the dough is meeting the edge of your pan. Let it rise again, until it's getting good and bubbly, and bigger than it was. Then spread your fingers apart and make nice deep indentations all over the dough (see above photo). Sprinkle with coarse sea  or kosher salt and fresh  coarsely chopped rosemary. Sprinkle with olive oil so the oil goes down into your finger divots. When it's once again nice and puffy, put in a preheated 425º F. oven and bake for about 35 - 45 minutes, until it's nice and brown and ~puffy~ (see above photo). 

This can be made ahead; let it rise once then put it in a bag in the refrigerator. It will keep for 3 or 4 days. To bake, take it out, let it come to room temperature and bake as indicated above, or roll out and use for a most excellent pizza dough.
I think focaccia is at it's most delicious when served warm from the oven - and no butter needed!

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again!
xoabb