Garlic Cheese Focaccia

Previously I had posted the recipe of herb focaccia bread. I love to bake focaccia bread, it’s one of my favorite Italian bread and I couldn’t wait to get started on this bread (Bye Bye Summer). The best part of this bread is it is easy to make and you can use your favorite topping. The changes I made this time were instead of all purpose flour I used bread flour and added cheese on top.

INGREDIENTS:

• Bread flour 1 ½ cup
• Whole wheat flour 1 ½ cup
• Instant yeast 2tsp
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Roasted garlic 4 cloves finely chopped
• Dried basil 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds 1 tsp
• Roasted cumin powder 1 tsp
• Olive oil 2 tbsp
• Red chili flakes 1tsp
• Mozzarella cheese shredded 1 tbsp
• Salt

METHOD:

1. In a large bowl mix flour, yeast, sugar, olive oil and salt.
2. Add cumin powder, fennel seeds, roasted garlic and red chili flakes to the flour mixture.
3. Using warm water mix together and start kneading the dough by hand until it is relatively smooth. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel.
4. Let the dough rest for 2 hours.
5. Coat the cookie sheet with 1 tsp olive oil.
6. Punch down the dough and spread it evenly over the sheet.
7. Press down the dough with finger tips so that the dough is evenly dimples.
8. Brush the remaining oil on top.
9. Let the dough rise the second time for 30 mins.
10. Add dried basil and mozzarella cheese on top and bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 20 mins or until the top is golden brown.
11. Slice and enjoy with a bowl of soup.