Easy No-Knead Focaccia | Bread Baking for Beginners

hi I’m Paige welcome back to my kitchenyou’re watching the next episode of myseries doing it with Paigey[Music]today we will be making a simple noneedful kacaand a different variation of focacciafrom this book bread baking forbeginners for those of you that don’tknowfocaccia is an Italian flatbread that issimilar to pizza crust except it’sbetter the fifth recipe in this book isa simple no need for kochia that onlycalls for olive oil and sea salt as thetopping the sixth recipe in this bookactually adds figs walnuts and Parmesancheese as toppings however today I’mgoing to add some of my favoritetoppings and skip out on the figs andwalnuts here are the toppings we’ll beusing todayI personally love olives on my focacciamy husband however absolutely hatesolives so I’ll be making two separatevariations one with and one without ifit’s just my husband and I sharing Iwill usually do half olives half withoutso if you have some picky eaters in yourfamily that might be the best bet foryou if you’re following along with thisrecipe at home feel free to get creativewith these toppings just a few examplesof things that you could add at home isrosemary lemon zest fresh herbs cherrytomatoes sun-dried tomatoes feta cheesered onion anything that you like Iguarantee you it’s going to turn outgood I encourage everyone to getcreative and add whatever toppings youlike to your fokaha today I’m actuallygonna be taking you guys with me we’regonna be going on a little outing to theKroger near me they have an olive barthat has a great selection and I usuallyfind all of my favorite olives there ifyou don’t have a Kroger or you don’twant to spend $8.99 a pound on olives Idon’t blame you you can use olives outof a jar or again you can use anytoppings that you like all right let’shead over for my olives I’m just gettinga good assortment my favorite olives touse for the spread are Castelvetranoolives and kalamata olives I usuallywill get a Greek Mediterranean mix whileI’m there as well and just throw themall in one container and just kind ofpick and choose from there just makesure to get your olives pitted becauseyou don’t want to be you taking a biteinto a hard pit now feel free to useyour favorite cheese but my favoritecheese is a merlot bellavita no it’skind of on the verge of a cheddar and aparmesan but the great twist about thischeese is that the entire wheel isactually soaked in Merlot so it justgives it this really nice fruity finishwhich I just love now we’re gonna goahead and get started mixing our doughhere are the ingredients we’ll need forour dough today and as always we’ll needto weigh them out before we start we’regoing to start by mixing the water ineast until it’s nice and bubbly wellthen add the flour on top of the waterand the salts on top of the flour we’regoing to jump right in and start mixingwe want to mix until we make sure all ofingredients are well combined now useyour instincts to determine when all ofyour ingredients are well combined thekey to knowing when they’re wellcombined is being able to get a reallygood stretch out of your dough afteryour dough is mixed well you’re going towant to let it sit for about 20 minutesso that that flour can absorb some ofthat water then you can move on tofolding the dough we’re now going to goall around the dough stretching andfolding it to meet the other side now wedo this to give the dough strength wewill do this until the dough hasstrengthened up and isn’t so loose andstretchy anymoreI usually go around the dough one to twotimes we’re now going to place a flowerto kitchen towel over a bowl and let itrise for about an hour and a halfalright our dough is done proofing nowwe’re going to go ahead and startshaping our dough into a focaccia wewon’t be using our cast iron dutch ovenstoday instead we’ll be using the bakingsheets lined with parchment paper iusually spray my parchment paper with alittle bit of cooking spray just to keepmy dough from getting too sticky on itwhile i’m shaping it but other than thati’m gonna go ahead and show you how wedo ityou’ll just want to turn your dough outfrom the bowl onto a greased bakingsheet then you can coat it in some oliveoil the key here is to shape the doughinto a rectangle the best that you canif you can’t achieve a rectangle shapedon’t worry it’s not going to affect thetasteyou may notice that first that yourdough is difficult to shape just give ita few minutes be patient and let itrelax it’s not going to stretch directlyinto a rectangle as soon as you start toshape it it’s going to need a little bitof time to relax so just be patientcontinue stretching and eventuallyyou’ll get to the desired shape that youlike once you’ve got your dough shapedinto a rectangle you’re going to want tocoat it in a little bit more olive oiland then use your fingertips to pressdimples all throughout the dough you’llalso want to go ahead and have yourtoppings prepared when using olives Iusually like to cut mine in half nowit’s time to start adding our toppingswhen using olives I usually like togently press them into the dough I’llthen go on to add minced garlic sea saltfresh cracked black pepper and cheesenow I’m going to prepare my focuswithout toppings the exact same waythe only thing I’ll be adding to thisone is sea salt extra cracked blackpepper for my husband and cheese afterour dome has been shaped we’re gonna goahead and preheat our oven this isactually going to be a little bitdifferent than the other recipes thatwe’ve done because as of now we’re goingto have a roasting pan inside of theoven preheating with about an inch ofwater in the roasting pan this is goingto create steam in the oven for thefocaccia to rise once our oven ispreheated with that roasting pan insidewith the water in it we’re going to putwith the UFO catcheron the rack above and we’re going to letthat cook for about 10 minutes after twominutes we’re going to remove theroasting pan with the water in it andallow the focaccia to cook for anadditional 10 to 15 minutes until itreaches the color that you’d like hereis what your focus will look like afterit’s been in the oven for about 10minutes with that roasting pan filledwith water and this is what it lookslike when it’s all done and so now I’mgonna go ahead and show you what ourspread looks like all right here is ourspread at our place this is usually howwe serve it cut up into squares and withmy special sauce I’m going to dig inthis is a great bread to make for largegroups of people or parties it alsolooks great on cheese boards or charredcoterie boards so keep that in mind foryour next event I do want to note itdoes make quite a bit of bread if youhave any leftovers I can say that itfreezes beautifully just seal it in anairtight freezer bag and you can keepfor quite a while to reheat them youwon’t even need to thaw them out you cantake them directly from the freezer to abaking sheet and cook them for about 10minutes at 325 they will honestly tasteas if you had just baked them that dayfor those of you at home that areinterested in what cheese and type ofOlives that I used you didn’t catch thatearlier I’ll be sure to write those inthe description for you if you follow italong with this recipe at home and youused different toppings please let meknow in the comments what you used andhow you liked this recipe be sure totune in nextsweet because we are going to be makingsimple rustic baguettes so I am veryexcited to try that recipe with you guysI’m about to go devour this entire trayof focaccia I’m not even kidding youguys I will see you guys next week ifyou liked this video be sure to give ita thumbs up be sure to subscribe thanksagain for watching doing it with Beijingyou