Foccacia Bread

I am normally not big on bread. However, when we were in Italy, we had the most amazing foccacia for breakfast in the morning. It was nice and soft, yet crunchy on the outside, and it had ribbons of olive oil running through it. Yummmmmmmmmm...

I set out to make my own foccacia today. It is REALLY easy. It's as easy as making pizza crust dough. I made two batches: plain, which is in the freezer; and cheese and rosemary stuffed, which is sitting, half eaten, on my counter.

Here is the recipe, which makes two batches:
3.5 c. all purpose flour
1.5 tsp. salt
2 packets active yeast
1.5 c. warm water
1/4 c. olive oil

Light oil 2 8 inch square pans (glass or metal, doesn't matter)

In a food processor, pulse the dry ingredients a few times to blend.
Add the warm water and olive oil and pulse until the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out into a lightly oiled bowl. Place the bowl somewhere dark and warmish and let rise (I usually put it inside the microwave, power off obviously). The dough will double in size, give it about an hour.

For the plain foccacia:
Divide the dough into 2 balls
Simply stretch and pat each ball of dough into the two pans.
Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt
Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

For the cheese-rosemary foccacia:
Divide the dough into 4 balls.
Stretch and press 2 of the balls into each of the two pans.
Sprinkle with dried or chopped fresh rosemary
Top with thinly sliced white mild cheese (mozz, provolone, jack, etc.) - Leave a half inch border from the edge.
Stretch the remaning two balls into 8 inch squares. Place one over the top of the cheese in each pan, pinch top and bottom layers together.
Let rise again for about an hour.
Bake as described above.