Fantastic Focaccia Bread

So, for the past week, I've been on a bread-baking kick. It's alot of work but as long as the bread tastes good, I guess I'm ok with it. Well, I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. It's pretty amazing.

This bread is usually flavored with rosemary or some kind of herb(s). So, I was reading one of the reviews for one of the Focaccia (foh-kah-chuh) bread recipes I was looking at and it said to try Mozzarella Cheese. Deal. Great idea. So, what I did, since this is an italian bread, is brush/drizzle Olive Oil on it and added a sprinkling of italian seasoning, garlic powder, and top with the Mozzarella Cheese.

Also, when kneading the dough, make sure it's not too dry, leaving it quite airy-like and a little sticky, but not enough that it'll stick to your hands when trying to shape it into a ball before letting it rise the 1st time.

When you shape the bread into the rectangle, just shape it in your pan with your hands. Make sure it's an even and flat surface, around 1/2 inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfectly rectangle just an even, flat surface. Before covering the bread to let it rise the 2nd time, (what I did was) poke it with your fingers. You can do the same thing after it rises, a few pokes here and there, but if you want the bread to be as thick as it rises, then don't poke it as much. This is when you would add the seasoning.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve honey and yeast in warm water (110 degrees F). Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Add 1 cup flour, salt, and 3 tablespoons olive oil to the yeast mixture. Stir until combined and then work in the last cup of flour. Knead the dough until smooth, elastic, and soft, about 7 minutes. Add only enough flour to keep the dough from being sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
3. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Place in greased 9x13 inch pan or baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Poke dimples in the bread and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

==Andersen Girlie's Tip==

To make this bread a pizza:

       After adding the Olive Oil, add Mozzarella Cheese and any other toppings that you want for a pizza. If you used a liberal ammount of cheese and liberal amounts of other toppings, you may want to add 5-10 minutes because of the weight of the toppings.

          (If the pizza is still a little dough-y after actually taking a bite, No Problem. just put it back into the oven for another 5-10 mins but this shouldnt be necessary.)

    After the pizza is done, or while it's cooking (the last 2 minutes) heat up your favorite Marinara (Spaghetti Sauce) and use it as a dip for the pizza.