Lazy woman's bread part 2: focciaca

Wow I didn't mean to wait so long to continue this post.  I have been baking I just have not had time to post.  I love to blog but it is so time consuming.  I was hoping the winter months would make some more time to post but so far that has not been the case.  So if you made your dough I am sorry I have failed to show you the correct way to use it. 

So artisan bread, it is free formed loaves.  No loaf pans needed.  What you will need: A baking stone, extra flour, a rolling pin, olive oil and herbs of choice.  (you may be able to bake on something other than a stone but I have not personally tried it and from my baking experience there is nothing better than a stone to bake on.)

Focciaca bread is what we make for all of our pizzas.  We have homemade pizza at lease once a week.  Easy and cheap!  Even Jack's frozen pizza will cost you more and well, shouldn't even be placed in the same catagory as far as food.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Once you have your surface ready, I roll it directly on my stone using a silicone pot holder underneath to keep it from sliding.  Pull off a piece of dough about the size of a large orange.

Use your hands to roll dough over the top and under.  It forms a smooth surface on the top and almost into a ball.  Put onto floured surface and begin to roll it out.  I use the combination of a rolling pin and...

Practice your pizzaria skills buy using your hands and even tossing it into the air!  It can be fun!  Though I must warn you each time I toss it flour proceeds to spin off the dough into my face...lol.

I am not nearly as graceful at it as you see on tv.

You end up with something looking similar to this.  Remember this is artisan bread the whole idea is that it is imperfect shapes.  So striving for that perfect circle might be frustrating.

 

                    Then do with it as you please.  I sliced some garlic and put it into olive oil.
                                       

Then brushed it on the dough.

 A little oregano, basil and parsly sprinkled on.

Poke it with a fork to avoid bubbling and bake for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees.  And it will look something like this...

Then do with it what you will.  The options are endless and can be what ever is in your fridge/freezer.  BBQ Chicken or Buffalo chicken are quite yummy along with the more traditional.  On this one we fried up some italian sausage, sliced tomatoes, garlic stuffed olives and my homemade spaghetti sauce.
                                   
Put it all together and....

Pop it back into the oven for 7 minutes or so and....

Viola!!!  Gourmet homemade pizza!!!

For our family of 5 good eaters we make two and that is plenty.  So far from our dough 2 pizza crusts/focciaca breads.