Sunday, June 22, 2014

Yummy, Delicious Focaccia Bread....from your Pantry!




I love to use my Food Storage Staples for a Sunday meal.  With the exception of the Fruit Salad, the rest truly did come from....my Pantry and my Freezer.  For this post, I would like to focus on making Focaccia Bread.  


I love making this, because the hard work is done in my Bread Maker.  I mixed up the Little Caesar's Pizza Dough recipe in my Bread Maker on Saturday night. I put the dough into a Ziploc bag and placed it in the refrigerator overnight.


The dough is very bubbly and light.  I lined a large cookie sheet with Parchment Paper.  


Next, brush a layer of Olive Oil on the Parchment Paper.  This keeps the bread from sticking to the paper.


Essentially, you dump the dough out of the bag on to the oiled parchment paper. With your fingers, stretch the dough out evenly. This amount of dough covers about 7/8 of the sheet.  Set her timer for 5 minutes to allow the dough to rest once you have stretched it in the pan.


Press your fingertips randomly into the dough.



Drizzle more Olive Oil on top of the dough and brush it all over the top.


Although this does not look beautiful, it is actually Italian Seasoning sprinkled all over the top of the dough.


Then, sprinkle Kosher Salt over the top as well.


Lastly, I shredded Parmesan Cheese over the top of the dough.  You can you the shredded type in the jar as well.  I just love the taste of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese.


Bake the bread in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees.  Bake from between 15-20 minutes until it is done.


Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool.  Once it is cooled, slice it into generous squares.


For our meal today, I sliced the bread squares in half.


Today, I made Shredded Beef in my Crock pot. I placed some between the pieces of Fococcia Bread.....it looked great!


And with that, dinner was served.

What is the take-home message?

  • Food Storage staples do not need to be .....boring!!!!
  • I had all the ingredients for the Focaccia Bread in my Pantry of in my Freezer (yeast).
  • I made the process easy on myself by using the Bread machine.
  • You can make this bread for sandwiches or as a bread for any meal.
  • Cost comparison:  The flour cost just under a quarter, yeast is $1.28, Sugar is $.12, Honey is $.07, Olive Oil is $.23, Salt $.11 for the basic bread. Total cost is $1.81.  I had Cut enough squares for 15 Sandwiches which works out to $.12 per sandwich for the bread only.
  • You can use white flour or have white and half wheat which allows you to use your whole grains.
  • This is just for fun. I hosted a shower with a "Princess theme".  Look at how fun this was!  I cut the bread into Castle shapes!
     
Using your Food Storage Staples is convenient. I say this all the time, but I think it bears repeating. 

I encourage you to try it soon!  Let us know how it worked for you!



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