Versatility of Homemade Focaccia Bread

Home baked focaccia bread offers easy solutions for quick and nutritious breakfast, lunch, or dinners. Depending on the toppings used you will be able to create an endless menu of deliciously wholesome, family-friendly pizza-style meals, or complimentary side dishes.

Making Whole-Grain Focaccia Dough

It is easier to mix the dough in a bread-making machine, which will also allow for rising in much less time than traditional dough kneading-and-rising methods. Use a mix of whole grain flours for better nutrition, texture, and flavor, as recommended in "ABC's of Nutritious Cooking & Living a Healthier Lifestyle: A Back-to-Basics Survival Guide for Your Family".

It is simple to grind your own flour mixture in a food processer (grinding in no more than 3-minute intervals) until you are happy with the flour consistency (so you don't burn out your appliance motor). Try grinding a mixture of oats, wheat, quinoa, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, lentils, or your favorites, for maximum health and nutrition.

Use this simple Focaccia bread dough recipe added to the breadmaker in the order given.

1 cup heated water

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon granulated raw sugar

1/3 cup olive oil

3 cups bread flour (your whole-grain mixed flours) making a well in the flour (for the yeast)

1 teaspoon rapid-rise breadmaker yeast

Set your breadmaker on the dough setting, and when it's finished (about an hour and a half later) pull out the dough, and place directly onto a generously-floured round pizza pan. Flour the top of the dough and stretch to fit the pan (knowing it will shrink back all the way around). Press down finger holes to dimple the top of the bread.

Prepare Focaccia Bread Toppings

Drizzle 2 - 3 Tablespoons olive oil over the bread dough (allowing it to pool into the dimples) and add your toppings from those listed below. Use any topping combinations preferred by your family, keeping in mind the more colorful your veggie choices are, the more nutritionally balanced your bread will be.

Garlic slices

Green onion stalks

Lemon basil leaves

Sun dried tomatoes

Hard cheese shavings

Sesame or poppy seeds

Green or black olive slices

Marinated artichoke hearts

Sea salt and cracked pepper

Fresh picked or dried garden herbs

Sliced sweet, hot, and/or bell peppers

Baking Your Focaccia Bread

Bake your whole-grain focaccia bread in a preheated, 375 degree oven, for 20 to 30 minutes (or until golden brown). Remove from the oven, and allow to cool prior to serving.

As with my other bread recipes I recommend cooking 2 loaves at a time, and delivering the extra loaf to friends or neighbors who may be experiencing difficulties, or are having trouble feeding their families. Baking 2 loaves at a time brings the cost down to less than one dollar per loaf, and will make a nutritious meal for a family of 4.