Homemade Rosemary Foccacia

    I will preface this post with an update: those herbs that I planted for Earth Day are (mostly) alive!!  The cilantro died of unknown causes (it didn't suffer I promise), but everything else is still kicking.  I've been using the basil like it's going out of style and coming up with all sorts of ways to use the sage, but the rosemary was getting kind of neglected which I was surprised by because I looove rosemary.  I think it's because I picture rosemary going with roasted chicken dishes and that's certainly not what we're eating in this heat.  It's grilling season, baby!

    In all honesty, the reason I landed on making foccacia is that I'm lazy.  You see, I was making sandwiches for our 4th of July picnic and needed bread.  The store was all out of the ciabatta rolls which were part of my initial plan, so I left thinking I'd just figure it out.  I was too lazy to check out another store, so the next morning I just decided to make homemade foccacia.  Yes I realize this makes no sense, but I can't be the only person that thinks like this.  I adapted a recipe that I found here and the results were so delicious.  This was my first-ever attempt at breadmaking.

Rosemary Foccacia Recipe
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant or fast acting dried yeast*
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
3/4 to 1 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
coarse sea salt to taste 
     *active dry yeast can be used if 1 1/4 teaspoons are used and activated with warm water prior to mixing into the flour

Mix flour, salt, sugar, yeast, chopped garlic, rosemary into bowl of an upright mixer with dough hook attached. Add oil, followed by the water. Start with 3/4 cup water and adjust upward accordingly. Mix to form a soft dough. 

Flour both hands and make the dough into a round ball. Place dough on a lightly floured surface, cover with a lightly oiled bowl, and leave to rise for about 1 hour until it doubles in bulk. 

Punch down the dough, and knead it lightly. Press dough onto a baking tray (about 12 x 10 inches, greased). Cover with a damp cloth and let rise, about 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using index finger, press into the risen dough to make dimples in the dough. Press rosemary sprigs into the dimples. Sprinkle with sea salt, drizzle with olive oil and 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove bread from baking tray and drizzle with a little extra olive oil. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

*Linking up today:
Taste of Tuesday with Ashley of Let's Get Bananas and Jessica of Blissfully Miller