Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Focaccia. Sounds intimidating, right? That's what I thought at first. I mean I don't even know if I am pronouncing the name correctly. Plus, I'm not that experienced in bread baking (yet!). But, I decided to give it a try anyway and went into this hoping for the best. And I'm happy to say that besides the fact it was a little tough to get out of the pan, it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. And it tasted good too!  I love fresh herbs and the rosemary definitely gives this a nice flavor. Luckily, we still have rosemary in our herb garden that we started last year in our back yard. I love just going out back and picking the herbs instead of spending way too much on a small package at the store. I'm so ready to get our garden going again!

Ingredients
1 pkg of active dry yeast (baking aisle at grocery store)
2 tsp of sugar
1/2 cup of warm water
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp of kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling on top
2 Tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbp of olive oil, plus a little for greasing

Directions
1. Disolve yeast and sugar in water (I just put everything in a large glass measuring cup so I don't have to wash a big bowl). Let stand about 5 minutes or until it starts to foam.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, and rosemary in a large bowl. Pour in the yeast mixture and stir until combined.
3. Add about 1/4 cup of water and mix. Keep adding water little by little until dough forms (I used a little over 1/2 cup total of water). Dough will be slightly sticky.
4. Knead dough for about a minute or so until it becomes a smooth ball
5.Take dough ball out of bowl and grease bowl with just a little olive oil. Return dough to same bowl and turn to coat.
6.Cover bowl with clean kitchen towel and place in a warm dry place to let rise for about 30-45 minutes or until doubled in size.
7. Pre-heat overn to 425 F.
8. Knead the dough breifly and then press into an ungreased 8x8 pan and let sit for about 5 to 10 minutes.
9. Make a few indents in the dough using one of your fingers
10.Brush 1 Tbsp of olive oil over top and sprinkle with a little bit of kosher salt

11. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Bread will sound hollow when you tap on the top.
12. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then flip onto cooling rack. You may have to loosen it a little with a butter knife or spatula.


Source: Adapted from Food Republik