Foccacia with bruschetta

This is like the perfect summer food. Ever. This summer has been weird in the fact that I haven't baked that much bread. So with a couple extra hours to blow, I make focaccia from the bread bible. This bread was pretty easy except for a couple things. First off, I needed to add more flour and some vital wheat gluten to get the dough to form a loose ball. this is like the most wet dough in the whole book. You have to beat it for 20 min (thank you Mr bread machine). It is supposed to develop the gluten structure so it can develop bigger holes or something like that. So after that, your basically home free. You let it rise for 4 hours! It gets so bubbly! Mine like quadrupled in size.But all of your hard work will yield amazing results. I would definitly make this bread again and again because of how great it turned out. There were huge holes in it, and it had a really nice crisp crust. Paired with bruschetta. . .perfect.

Bruschetta

• Three large ripe tomatoes
  
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a couple of leaves of basil, chopped
  
• 2-3 tbs olive oil
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the nasty seeds. Fine dice the tomatoes and combine with the oregano, basil, oil, cheese, salt, and pepper.


Focaccia
The bread Bible, with adaptations

• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 2 tsp vital wheat gluten (if you dont have this, you can substitute with more flour)
• 1/2 tsp yeast
• 2 cups minus 2 tbs water
• 3/4 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbs plus 2 tsp olive oil divided
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

In a mixer, combine 1 3/4 cup flour, yeast, and water. Mix until dough just comes together. Beat dough for 20 min on med untill it is transformed into a shiny ball. If that didn't happen to you, like it didnt for me, add the 1/4 cup of flour and 2 tsp vital wheat gluten. Keep beating till a very loose ball sorta forms.

Scrape into an oiled bowl and let rise for 4 hours, or at least until it is doubled.

Cover a sheet pan with a tbs of oil. Pour dough onto the sheet and stretch the dough as much as you can w/o tearing it. If the dough is being difficult, let it rest for 10 min.

Cover pan with greased plastic wrap, and let rise untill 1 1/2 the original volume, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Uncover the dough and sprinkle with remaining olive oil, rosemary, and salt. Place on bottom rack of the oven and bake for 12-13 min until golden brown

Enjoy!