Potato Focaccia

 

For some reason I have always been a afraid of making breads.  But really they are not all that hard.

Back when I lived in Germany, Brad and I went to a friends for dinner.  She made a new recipe which was potato focaccia and was delicious.  I never asked her for the recipe, much to my dismay.  I finally realized I could try one from online.  Now, this focaccia was excellent.  It was not as good as I remember hers being, but it was great!  My mom and dad were here and both enjoyed it as well.  It has a nice olive oil taste and the salt, tomato and cheese, made it in my opinion.  Hers was sweeter than this, so maybe if I added some honey or sugar to it?  But, this one was a very traditional focaccia flavor and not that difficult.


The recipe calls for 1 cup of mashed potatoes. A few days before I made it,  I used 2 med. sized white potatoes and boiled them with some salt, and mashed them up with some butter and milk and it was the perfect amount.  This recipe is adapted from Ward Street Bistro. 


POTATO FOCACCIA


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup mashed potato
• 3 cups AP flour
• 1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 1 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 TBSP EVOO, divided
• coarse sea salt.
• 1/4 c. shredded mozzerella
• Italian seasoning
• 1-2 vine ripened tomatoes

 DIRECTIONS:

Put yeast into large mixing bowl and add warm water to yeast in thin stream.  Mix with wooden spoon and let sit for a few minutes.

Add mashed potato to yeast mixture and whisk to combine. Mix in 2TBSP olive oil.  Add in flour and table salt and stir with wooden spoon to combine.  Knead in bowl for 5-7 min until smooth and elastic, adding a tad more flour if becomes too sticky.

Coat bowl with oil and put dough in making sure dough is also coated.  Cover with kitchen towel and place in warm place to rise for 1 hour.

Lightly oil a 9x13 and after 1st rise, stretch dough  and place in prepared pan.  Cover and let rise another hour.

Preheat oven to 425 (400 if using glass pan).  When dough is done with second rise, make indentations into the dough with finger.  Brush 1 Tbsp olive oil (I drizzled, then brushed) over top of dough allowing it to pool in dents.  Sprinkle with coarse salt, Italian spices (I used grinder of spices) and sliced tomato and cheese.   Bake for 30-35 min until golden brown.  Let cool for 20 min before serving.  (I didn't, oops!)  Cut into big squares of strips.  Makes 8-12 serving depending on slices.