2025 February 10
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups of warm water
- 1.25 tsp of sea salt (didn't have table salt)
- 1 packet of instant yeast (Fleischmann's)
- ~3ish tbsp of olive oil (dough)
- much more drizzled olive oil for the toppings
- a few sprigs of rosemary
- a little italian seasoning
Mix the salt, yeast, flour, olive oil together. Then add the warm water, mix very aggressively with a spatula if you don't want to bother cleaning a mixer, and pour into a 9x13 pan (parchment paper lined, grease with olive oil). Cover it, not airtight, and see if it rises in an hour. If you want to speed up the rising process, preheat your oven halfway through and set it on the warming burner/surface of your stove from the oven. Then, poke the fluffy dough all over with a wet finger and press sprigs or leaves of rosemary into it, dust with a layer of salt and pepper and italian seasonings. Recipe says bake for 25-30, my oven is famously finicky so I started to babysit it at 20. At 20 it was undercooked, 25 it was starting to brown, 30 was starting to turn gold, and I think I left it on for like 3 more minutes just to make it a little more toasty on top.
Mostly followed this recipe. Had to modify because a series of events occurred that almost made this a Failcoccia... first I forgot to mix the yeast into the dough after I had already mixed everything and made it sticky, so I was frantically slapping yeast in and trying to distribute it into the dough ball. Then I ran out of olive oil somehow and had to go back to the store for the second time that day ON SUPERBOWL SUNDAY. Then the dough didn't rise until I transferred it to the warmest burner on my stove after preheating the oven, and then it started to rise a little. Then I baked for like... 30, 35 minutes? And it turned out pretty good. It was a big hit in all of my meetings.
I think this recipe would be really easy were it not for the mishaps occurring specifically for me, and will be making it again next time I need a savory baked good that most people that are vegan/vegetarian or have dairy/egg allergies can have. I'd like to experiment with toppings next. This was my first time making bread and probably as far as I go on this bread adventure (sourdough and anything requiring proofing or more complex oven goods seems... a bit much for me, who doesn't really eat much bread). But this is a great one to start with.
