Focaccia

Focaccia bread are the pizzas of northern Italy they are usually baked in sheet pans and are around 1 inch thick. This is a high hydration dough that is usually topped with simple ingredients like onions, rosemary, and olives. You can top it with what ever you like. This recipe is from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" cookbook.

Ingredients:
4 c. hard red or hard white flour (510g)
1 1/4 tsp. salt (10g)
1 1/4 tsp. instant yeast (4g)
2 c. +2 T. water (482g) warm water
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1 1/2 T. olive oil (21g)

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients in your mixing bowl except the olive oil. Mix for 2-3 minutes on low speed. The dough will be very sticky but smooth, if needed add a bit extra flour.
2. Now add the olive oil and mix another 15 seconds, long enough to just coat the dough. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. At this point the dough should have some structure not batter like. If it is still too wet and feels like batter add more flour and mix again. The dough should pass the window pane test.
3. Prepare a 17 x 12 inch sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper and oiling it with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
   
4. Grease your hands with olive oil and dump the dough onto the parchment paper in the pan and spread the dough out. It might be difficult to spread and will only cover about half the pan that is fine. Cover with plastic and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. It will raise slightly overnight.
5. The next day remove the pan from the refrigerator about 4 hours before you plan to bake it. Remove the plastic and drizzle 1-2 tsp olive oil over the top. Now with your fingertips press out the dough, starting from the center of the pan moving out to all the corners. This will create dimples as you press. You may have to stop several times and let the dough rest about 10-20 minutes and continue stretching it out.
   
6. Once the dough is stretched out loosely cover the dough with plastic and let it rest at room temperature for about 2-3 hours depending on the room temperature. 
7. Prepare you toppings, Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees. Once you have it in the oven reduce the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 15 minutes. Add any cheeses at the last 3 minutes of baking
8. Remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before slicing. If you want a crisp crust remove the parchment paper and put the slices on a screen to crisp up the bottom crust. If you like a soft crust leave it too cool on the parchment paper.