I’ve been on a huge baking kick lately.  I’m not sure if it is because I’m falling deeper in love with discovery all the uses for my Kitchen Aid mixer, or if I just love the smells that fill the house when something is baking.  Probably both.

I love focaccia bread.  It’s always so soft and flavorful that I don’t mind dropping $5 on a small loaf at Fresh Market.  So when I found a recipe for Onion Focaccia as I was flipping through my Williams Sonoma cookbook, I decided I had to try baking it myself.

I used this recipe, but made a few substitutions and additions.

Onion Rosemary Whole Wheat Focaccia

• 1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1.5 c Warm Water
• 1/2 c Olive Oil
• 4 c Bread Flour (I didn’t have this, so I subbed 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat)
• 1/2 c Chopped Onion
• Coarse Sea Salt for Sprinkling
• Rosemary

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the sugar over 1/2 cup of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 cup water and the remaining sugar, 1/4 cup of the olive oil, the table salt and 1 cup of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.  Add 1 cup of the flour, reduce the speed to medium-low and beat for 2 minutes.

Stir in the onion.

Side Note: Look who hung around to help me out…

Switch to the dough hook. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a soft, shaggy dough forms that starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

Line a heavy rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and brush the paper lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough out onto the prepared sheet. With oiled fingers, press and flatten the dough into an oval 1 inch thick. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

With your fingertips, make deep indentations 1 inch apart all over the surface of the dough, almost to the bottom of the pan. Drizzle with the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, them sprinkle on rosemary and course salt.  Push down slightly to get ingredients into the dough.  I also experimented and sprinkled a little garlic powder of part of the loaf. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Place the pan on your pizza stone and bake at 425 degrees until the bread is lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Check the bottom and, if the bread is pale, bake for a few minutes more. Slide the bread onto a wire rack.

The smell of this bread baking was divine and we couldn’t wait to try some- ht from the oven! I poured a small bowl of olive oil and spices for dipping.

It was delicious.  The whole wheat flour gave it a more dense texture, which I enjoyed.  I will definitely making this again, but possibly add in some minced garlic into the dough? I like a lot of flavor, and this bread only had a lot of flavor on top!

Also, it made enough bread to feed a 15 person Christmas dinner!  Great recipe for hosting a dinner party 🙂

What is your favorite kind of homemade bread?
I heard from a lot of zucchini bread lovers… any other suggestions?