Genuine Italian Foccacia.... does better bread exist?

Bookalokal is a wonderful concept for people that are interested in food. This week I attended a cooking class for foccacia making with the lovely Arianna that also makes superb jams and other preserves as well as a perfect Panettone for Christmas (I guess just about now is the time to start preparing for my favorite holiday). I would therefore claim that this recipe is genuine italian, although I do believe Italian grandmothers from different parts of Italy still will fight over who makes the best and most genuine Italian version of this ever so popular bread.

Foccacia

300 g water

400 g flour

2-5 g fresh yeast

10 g salt

Olive oil

Salt, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, olives

Mix the water and yeast together until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and gently mix the ingredients together. Leave the dough for a couple of minutes before you add the salt. Add some olive oil on top and leave the dough to rest for half an hour. Keep the dough moist by leaving a towel or plastic over the baking bowl. Fold the dough together like a package in four turns, leave to rest and repeat at least three times with a 30 minutes period of rest between each time.  

Then leave the dough over night or until it has doubled in size. Gently stretch the dough to a square on a baking tray and leave to rest for another 30 minutes, the point being to keep the large bubbles in the dough which should now have developed. Add some oilive oil on top and sprinkle with fresh herbs and salt. Olives and cherry tomatoes can of course also be used, be creative. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-30 minutes (200 degrees Celsius).

There you go – exquisite, genuine, italian focaccia!

And if in Brussels - try one of Arianna's great workshops. Otherwise - check out her great Facebookpage here.