Tasty Pastry: Whole Wheat Goodness

I love Focaccia, who doesn't right? A long time ago I had an Italian boyfriend for many years. Great guy, just not for me, anywayssssss,,, his mother got a hold of this Focaccia recipe and we would make it all the time, I just love it. The Focaccia is thick and crisp on the outside while soft in the center. Olive oil, salt and Rosmarino (Rosemary) are what top this delicate bread and give it a wonderful smell and taste. Here in Costa Rica, people are used to the flat Focaccia, you know more of a flat bread than a thick bread. I like them both but I believe I prefer the thick one.

Seeing as how I had no regular flour at hand and am in sort of a health kick at the moment, I used whole wheat flour, I said, what the hell, let's try to make it whole wheat and see what we get, it can't be that bad.

It came out really good actually, I mean, it's the same recipe, you're just substituting the type of flour right? I like whole wheat and I thought this Focaccia was really good, the texture may be better with regular all purpose flour but this option is somewhat better for you.

500 grs. whole wheat flour (or use regular that's ok and yes, Italians use grams, not cups)
1 small glass of warm water ( this is how I got the instructions, I'm just passing them along)
3 teaspoons and a little bit of dry active yeast
salt
Olive oil
Rosemary

Pour flour and salt in a bowl, mix to combine. Dissolve the yeast in the water until there are no lumps. Add to the flour and salt, stir until a uniform dough is formed that no longer sticks to your hands. Form into a ball, cover and let rise. This takes about one hour, but the more it rises the better the end result.

When the dough has at least doubled in size, grease a pan with oil, using your hands. That's right, pour some oil into a pan and spread it all out with your hands. Now take the dough and spread it out onto the pan. I like mine kind of square, I don't know where it says that by law they have to be round. But you can spread it out any way you like, hell, make a star shape if you want, as long as you spread it out. Poke holes into the dough with a fork or knife. Sprinkle Rosemary, salt and drizzle top with olive oil.

Now the dough is ready for baking, that's right, you don't need to let it rise again, goes straight into the oven.

As for the temperature, my instructions were, have your oven as high as it goes. Ok, what temperature? As high as it goes. My oven goes to 550 F, so that's what I had it on. It sounds scary I know, but trust me, just turn that sucker on to the max setting and pop the Focaccia right in. It usually takes about 20 minutes for it to be done, but be sure to check it. Mine was done really fast like 15 min this time, maybe it was the whole wheat flour huh. I suggest you check after 10 minutes, just be sure that the bottom is golden and crisp. Take it out and enjoy!!!!