Shockingly Easy No-Knead Focaccia

I've never made bread before {unless you count banana bread} so with all the Instagram posts of people making bread during quarantine and remembering I have several packets of {coveted} yeast in my pantry, I decided to give it a go with Bon Appetit's Shockingly Easy No Knead Focaccia for Easter dinner.  The bread is deceptively easy with just a few simple {yet hard to get lately} ingredients, and even though there is a wait time {I started making it Saturday afternoon for Sunday dinner} the active steps are so easy it'll make you wonder why you'd ever buy a loaf of bread in the first place {ok, not entirely true, but it was really easy - follow along in the link for step by step videos if you'd like}.  While it wasn't the prettiest pan of focaccia, it was fluffy and tasted deliciously salty and was the perfect snack to munch on while waiting for the rest of dinner to cook.  I froze what was left into sandwich size pieces and they are perfect heated up for a few minutes in a 300 degree oven to use for sandwiches or just snacking.  If you have some packets of yeast and lots of flour lying around, I'd highly recommend trying this - but beware you'll want to eat the entire pan in one sitting :)

Shockingly Easy No-Knead Focaccia

Ingredients
1-1/4oz envelope active dry yeast {about 2 1/4 tsp}
2 tsp honey
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tblsp Morton kosher salt
6 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for hands
Flaky sea salt

Instructions
1. Whisk yeast, honey, and 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water in medium bowl and let sit 5 minutes.  It should foam or at least get creamy - if it doesn't your yeast is dead and you should start again.
2. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until a shaggy dough forms and no dry streaks remain.
3. Pour 4 Tblsp olive oil into big bowl that will fit in your refrigerator {make sure it's bigger than the dough you have now - it's gonna rise!}.  Transfer dough to bowl and turn to coat in oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill until dough is doubled in size {it should look very bubbly and alive}, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.  
4. Generously butter 13x9 baking pan {for thicker bread} or 18x13 rimmed baking sheet {for thinner, snacking bread}.  Pour 1 Tblsp olive oil in center of pan.  Keeping dough in the bowl and using a fork in each hand, gather up edges of dough farthest from you and lift up and over the center of the bowl.  Give bowl a quarter turn and repeat process 3 more times.  You want to deflate the dough while you form it into a rough ball.  Transfer dough to prepared pan.  Pour any oil left in bowl over and turn dough to coat in oil.  Let rise, uncovered, in dry, warm spot {in front of a sunny window, on top of a preheating oven, etc} until doubled in size, at least 1.5 hours and up to 4 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 450.  To see if dough is ready, poke with finger.  It should spring back slowly, leaving a small visible indent.  Lightly oil your hands.  Gently stretch out dough to fill pan or sheet.  Dimple focaccia all over with your fingers, like you're aggressively playing the piano, creating deep depressions in the dough.  Drizzle remaining 1 Tblsp olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.  
6. Bake focaccia until puffed and golden brown all over, 20-30 minutes.

adapted from bon appetit

let it rise!

xoxo,
stephanie marie