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half a rosemary and garlic focaccia in a baking dish cut to show texture.
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No-Knead Rosemary & Garlic Focaccia.

This no-knead focaccia, flavoured with rosemary and garlic, is easy to make and great for tearing and sharing with family and friends.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Infusing and proving time up to2 days
Course: Bread, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: no knead
Servings: 1 loaf
Author: Jacqueline Bellefontaine

Equipment

  • Baking Dish I used a stoneware Le Creuset dish measuring 18cm x 25.5cm (7x 10)
  • baking parchment
  • cling film or shower cap (used purely for baking)
  • mixing bowl

Ingredients

FOR THE GARLIC INFUSED OLIVE OIL

  • 4 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
  • 3 cloves of garlic

FOR THE ROSEMARY & GARLIC FOCACCIA

  • 250 g (9oz)strong white bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon easy bake yeast
  • 180 ml (6floz) cool water
  • 1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Instructions

To make the infused garlic oil

  • Place 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a jug and 3 lightly crushed peeled garlic cloves. Stir and cover with clingfilm. Set aside for a minium of 4 hours and up to 24. to allow the garlic flavour to infuse into the olive oil.

Make the Focaccia dough

  • Place 250g flour, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon yeast in a good size bowl stir to mix.
  • Make a well in the flour. Add 1½ tablespoons of the garlic infused oil and pour in most of the water. With your hand or wooden spoon mix the flour into the liquid aiming to combine all of the flour into a soft dough. Add the remaining water to pick up any surplus flour. The dough will be quite soft and sticky at this stage.

Prove

  • Cover with clingfilm or a shower cap (used purely for baking). Place the covered bowl somewhere cool (though not in a draft), to allow the dough to prove slowly. It will triple in size. See notes.

Shape

  • Lay a strip of greaseproof paper in the base of the baking dish and grease the sides with a little butter or olive oil.
  • Without knocking back the dough, use a spatula to carefully scrape around the side of the bowl and tip the aerated dough into the prepared baking vessel. Use your fingers or the tip of the spatula to encourage the dough to take the shape of the baking dish, though you don’t need to be too precise about it.
    Dip your fingers in the remaining garlic infused olive oil and prod the dough a few times to create indentations.

Rise

  • Cover the baking dish with either a shower cap or clingfilm. Set aside for a 1 hour.

Bake

  • Preheat the oven to maximum.
  • When the bread is ready to bake, dip your fingers into the garlic infused oil and make some more dimples in the dough.
  • Remove the leaves from the rosemary sprig and place the leaves and mini sprigs into the indentations (ensuring that there are no tough woody stems attached). Drizzle any remaining olive oil over the dough.
  • Bake. Place the bread in the centre of the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 220℃ (200℃ fan)/425°F/gas mark 7 Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

Cook's Notes
  • Apart from the easy of making, more flavour is created in the bread by proving it slowly resulting in a tastier loaf than those made with a quick rise..
  • The dough can take anything up to 24 hours to rise but will be less in warmer days. If the dough has tripled in size before you are ready for the next stage, place the bowl in the fridge to slow the process down, though do consider that the dough will need to return to room temperature before it can be proved for the second time.
Store
  • Best eaten on the day made but will keep up to 3 days, if stored in an airtight tin in a cool place.
  • Can be frozen before baking. Defrost and return to room temperature before cook as above.