Bread, you say?

So I'm sort of muscling in on the bread making, albeit only temporarily.  It's about time I posted something else here, anyway.

I'd only ever made bread a couple of times before, and these efforts were by no means amazing, but also by no means a disaster, to the extent that I have no further recollection than that they happened.  The focaccia recipe from River Cottage Every Day caught my eye when I first bought it, but I'd never got around to making any until my friend Tim told me to 'bring something tapas-y' on New Year's Eve just gone.  Given the circumstances in which one would buy focaccia, ie not just for toast and things I've ended up not really ever having had a bad one, so my standards and expectations of what one should be like were pretty high.  Which made it even more satisfying that the one I made was amazing.  My friend John went to the extent of proclaiming it 'the best bread I've ever tasted'.  And you know what, I probably wouldn't go that far, but it was definitely up there.  It looked amazing as well.  My mum got very jealous (you know, like kids do when they don't get any of something made for a party, which this was) so I was subsequently told to make some more two days later.

So anyway, Tim and his girlfriend Emma just moved into a new flat and dutifully had a convivial evening to warm the place.  I was told to bring focaccia.  I'm not sure if ever my invitation was riding on this, but it's not like I objected or anything.  In fact I took it as an opportunity to try it a little differently.

The original recipe, from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Every Day.

500g strong white flour
10g fine sea salt
5g dried yeast or fast-action yeast (I used dried, it's easier to come by)
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil (I used rapeseed, and have done each time I've made this)

To finish:
Rapeseed or olive oil
Flaky sea salt
Leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix together.  If you're using ordinary dried yeast, dissolve it in 350ml warm water.  If using fast-action yeast, add it straight to the flour.  Add the yeast liquid or 350ml warm water to the flour and mix to a very rough, soft dough.  Add the oil and squish it all in.

Scrape the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface.  With lightly floured hands, knead until it's smooth and silky - anything between 5 and 15 minutes.  As it's a very sticky dough, you'll need to keep dusting your hands with flour; it will become less sticky as you knead.

Shape the dough into a round, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, then cover with lightly oiled cling film or a clean tea towel and leave to rise until it has doubled in size; this will take about an hour.  Knock back the dough and, if you have time, leave it to rise again in the same way.  Meanwhile, lightly oil a shallow baking tin, about 25 x 35cm.

Press the dough out into a rough rectangle on a floured surface, then lift into the baking tin and press right into the corners.  Cover with oiled cling film or a tea towel and leave to rise for about half an hour.

Once risen, use your fingertips to poke rows of deep dimples across the surface.  Trickle the top generously with oil, then sprinkle with salt and rosemary.  Bake in the oven preheated to its highest setting (at least 230°/Gas Mark 8) for 15-20 minutes, turning it down after 10 minutes if the focaccia is browning too fast.  Serve just warm, or let it cool completely.

Variations
Knead some chopped black or green olives and/or sun-dried tomatoes into the dough after the first rising.

Dough pre- and post-rising;

The first two times I made the unadulterated, non-variation version and due to time constraints only gave it one rise.  This time I decided to make two, one normal, one olive variation.  Also thanks to making this while watching the England v Italy Six Nations game, I had time to give both a double rise.  The olive dough needs a second rise in any case after you've kneaded the olives in, otherwise it won't have the required volume to stretch to fill the baking tin.  I also read something somewhere recently (can't for the life of me think where) about how bowls freshly washed in ridiculously hot water transplants heat to the dough and aids rising, so I gave that a try, washing the bowls between mixing and rising.

Finished articles, normal and olive varieties (plus side elevation of olive focaccia to demonstrate just how bloody high it was)

These additional elements resulted in the bread rising during baking about twice as much as the previous two I'd made (and also significantly more than the one pictured in the book).  Both were raging successes.  I took half of each to Tim and Emma's, and they were both demolished.  I think the normal version will always go down better than olive or other variations, which I'd agree with, although that is not to detract from olive focaccia as the combination of oil, salt and rosemary is just perfect and doesn't really need any further embellishment.