I always enjoy eating Focaccia bread during the holiday season. The best thing about it is that you can change its flavor as per your taste. Sometimes I make it with Jalapeno, sometimes I like Garlic & Herbs, and sometimes I prefer Lemon & Sage ones. Focaccia Bread is so amazingly flavorful that I love eating it with soup or stew. It also goes great with some seasoned Olive Oil. I also sometimes like to add some thinly sliced tomatoes, lemons too in the recipe. Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread, popularly know as flatbread and similar in style and texture to pizza dough. I use Focaccia as a side dish to many meals or as sandwich bread. It usually serves as an antipasto, snack, appetizer, or table bread. It can be prepared savory or sweet in taste. Usually, it takes a lot of time to poof bread. If it is a hot day, then dough can be raised easily. But during cold weather, the dough can take longer. An easy way to raise/poof the dough is to use an Instant Pot. Firstly, with the Instant Pot, you don’t need to knead the dough using a stand mixer. Just add all the ingredients in an Instant Pot and lightly knead the dough. Secondly, the dough can be puffed in 30-40 minutes, and hence whole bread can be prepared in less than an hour. Focaccia Bread should have a crispy crust with a soft interior texture. I use my Cast Iron Skillet to bake the bread, and it gives the bread an overall nice crispy crust. Cast Iron gets hot really fast, so baking in the skillet gives a nice crust & also saves time. I like cooking in Cast Iron a lot, so I will recommend using a cast-iron skillet for this recipe. But you can also bake the bread in any baking tray too.
FLOUR: You can make with any flour but I like making with bread flour. I have also made it using whole wheat flour and the bread turned out great. SUGAR: Earlier, sugar was added to make yeast more active. Now we use active yeast. But adding sugar is still recommended. SALT: A little bit is added to balance the flavor and for taste too. YEAST: Yeast is added to make bread puff. For making bread, you always need yeast. Sometimes, I also use yogurt in some recipes. WATER: Always use warm water while making the bread. Adding warm water helps in raising the yeast faster as compared to cold water. OIL: Oil is added so that nothing sticks at the bottom. TOPPING: You can add any topping of your choice. You can add oranges, lemons, tomatoes, onions, olives, etc. Lately, people are making many artistic varieties of Focaccia Bread, check it out. SEASONING: You also add seasoning in the bread like rosemary, lemon pepper, or Italian seasoning, etc.
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1- WARM MILK: Add Milk and Butter to the inner pot of Instant Pot. When the butter starts to melt, cancel saute. Let it sit there for a few minutes until the milk is warm but not hot. Yeast won’t work if the milk temperature is hot, it will only work when Milk is warm. STEP 2 - ADD YEAST: Add yeast and let it sit for a few 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the yeast and milk mixture will be foamy & bubbly. Then add the rest of the ingredients (Flour, Salt, Sugar, Rosemary or Italian Seasoning, and Salt). STEP 3 - MIX INGREDIENTS: Mix all the ingredients together, until it starts to form like a dough. You can use a food processor or you can knead it with your hands. STEP 4: Close the lid and press the Yogurt button and set the timer for 1 hour until the dough rises and doubles in size. STEP 5 - TRANSFER IN SKILLET - After 1-hour, the dough will be at least double in size. Transfer in the cast iron skillet or a baking tray. Make indentations on the dough using your finger. STEP 6 - ADD TOPPING: Add topping that you like. You can add sliced lemons, oranges, tomatoes, or anything you feel like. Also, you can also sprinkle some herbs too. Then spread all over on the top and on the edges. STEP 7 - BAKE: Preheat oven at 400 degrees and let the bread sit for 15-20 minutes. Then bake for 20 minutes until the crust is crispy & a little brown in color.
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📖 RECIPE CARD
