Focaccia Dough

Directions

To make the sponge:

In a small mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the water.

Let the bowl sit for a few minutes to let the water absorb the yeast.

With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour until all of the ingredients are mixed.

Cover the bowl tightly with a sheet of plastic wrap.

Set the bowl at room temperature about 70 degrees until the sponge becomes bubbly and thick, 12 to 24 hours.

To make the dough:

Once the sponge is ready, add the water, olive oil and sponge in a large bowl with a mixer.

With the dough hook running, over low speed, add the yeast, barley flour and 3½ cups of flour.

Mix the ingredients over low speed for 2 minutes to thoroughly combine and form the dough.

With the mixer running, slowly add the salt, then increase the speed to medium.

Keep mixing the dough until smooth and well-formed, and starts to pull away from the bowl, about 7 minutes.

If the dough is too sticky to pull away from the sides of the bowl at all, add a little more flour (a tablespoon at a time) to reach the right consistency, the dough should be still quite sticky, and it shouldn’t be completely clean the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured cutting board, well grease the mixing bowl with the cooking spray or oil.

Put the dough back into the well-greased bowl.

Wrap the dough tightly in a plastic wrap and another piece of plastic wrap to double secure the bowl.

Set the dough at room temperature until double in bulk, about about 1 hour.

Turn the dough out onto the slightly floured surface.

Fold the edges of the dough toward the center (Imagine that the dough is square with 4 edges).

Turn the dough over and return it to the bowl that’s coated with the cooking spray again, folded side down.

Cover the bowl again with the plastic wraps and leave it at room temperature until doubles again, about 1 hour.

Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into each of 8-inch cake pan, and tilt the pans to let the oil cover the bottom completely and evenly.

Transfer the dough gently onto the floured cutting board, try not to deflate the dough.

Divide the dough into two equal portions.

Place each dough in the prepared cake pan and very gently pull the edges just to almost form a round shape.

Cover each pan with a clean kitchen towel and let sit at room temperature until almost fill up the pan, about 30 minutes.

The dough is ready and time to make your favorite Foccacia.