Categories: Bread

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2/3 cup milk, whole
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tsp yeast, instant
• 2 Tbsp oil, grapeseed
• 4 cups bread flour, white
• 2/3 tsp. salt, kosher
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper, green

Directions

1. Short directions: Mix first 7 ingredients together in a mixer, check for dough to be not sticky but not dry, knead 15 minutes, rise 30 minutes, spread it out in an olive oil coated pan, poke finger prints all over the bread, coat top with oil, spread herbs on top, bake 20min at 400degrees.

2. Longer directions: Mix the milk and water in a large measuring cup, microwave for 20-30 seconds until the mixture is warm to the touch. Mix the liquid well and make sure there are no hot spots, else this will become a flatbread recipe.

3. Add the sugar and yeast to the milk mixture and dissolve both, by hand or with a spoon. Let the mixture sit on a warm countertop (or rundown 50’s stove-that-is-always-warm-to-hot top) for 5 minutes. You can add the grapeseed oil (or any generic oil, olive works too) at this point. I just let the yeast sit and rest a bit but this isn’t enough for it to foam. Since the yeast is instant you don’t really have to do any of this but it’s definitely shaved off quite a bit of wait time for my breads.

4. Mix salt and flour in mixing bowl (or Kitchenaid bowl), slap dough hook on, start mixing on low. Add the liquid mixture slowly. The dough should look 30-40% dry; that is stop adding liquid when about 30% of the components of the mixing bowl are still dry. Dough should immediately ball up and pull away from the sides of the machine if you did this right. Touching it should very lightly sticky to not sticky but springy and not dry. Your mileage varies with the amount of liquid needed, due to your possibly not living in a desert (i.e. I add a bit more water until the dough looks and feels right).

5. ead for 15 minutes; remove ball of dough from hook, flour on both sides, put it back in the mixing bowl, put it in a warm place to rise. Let the dough rise about 2.5-3x (with this much yeast it should take 30-45minutes, anything longer and you have old yeast). Remove dough from the bowl, don’t punch down (I don’t want springy super elastic dough for foccacia bread anyway). Place 1/4cup olive oil in a large baking pan (I use 12×16 or so), and make sure every inch of the pan’s bottom and sides are covered in oil. Spread the dough around into a rough rectangular shape with your hands and lay it in the pan, making it conform to the pan. If the edges or corners spring back and the dough refuses to make a nice rectangle, let it rest for 5 minutes and keep pulling it into a rectangular. Dough should be even, and feel free to make finger dimples all over the bread. Cover the top of the dough with 1/4 cup olive oil, smear it all over, scatter garlic and herbs all over. Let it rise about a half hour (mine rose to 2 inches high).

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees; when oven is preheated I usually check for the dough and usually bake at this point or let it rise a bit more. Bake for 15-20 minutes, and rotate if you have an oven that bakes unevenly. Crust should be a medium golden brown (and the bottom will be too – the miracle of tons of olive oil guarantees it). Remove from oven, feel free to scatter parmesan cheese or fresh herbs or whatnot on it, but I opt for this first: Upend the hot bread onto a large cutting board – the entire thing should drop out immediately. If it doesn’t, your dough was 1) too wet, 2) not kneaded enough, 3) you forgot to spread olive oil everywhere? Then I upend it again, scatter whatever else on top.

7. Cut into (in my case 12 large) squares, cut those in half, make a sandwhich, or just opt to eat the hot crusty bread as is. Bread reheats (toaster oven) well, as the initial oven crust disappears upon cooling. Not that greasy despite appearances; however your hands will disagree.

8. **Note: this makes a crappy 3am snack, unless your snack involves waiting around for a couple of hours.

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