Garlic Cheese Focaccia Bread

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Light and tender focaccia bread, soaked with butter, garlic, cheese and herbs. Perfect for sopping up rich marinara or the last of your soup.

This garlic cheese focaccia bread is light and tender. Soaked with butter, garlic, herbs and cheese, it’s perfect for sopping up extra marinara sauce or the tail ends of the soup in your bowl.

Be careful with this recipe. Fair warning, if you make it once you’ll probably be hooked. 

Oy vey. I’ve tried to write the post for this Garlic Cheese Focaccia bread recipe like 4 times, but nothing seems to be right. It’s been a weird week. Monday and Tuesday I had a sick kiddo home with me and that completely threw off my whole plan for the week. Then on Wednesday, I had to make an emergency trip to the orthodontist’s office with my oldest son, after which we decided to play hooky and spend the afternoon shopping. (I couldn’t have had him back in time for school anyway. Not that I have to justify our shopping spree. We just went to Aldi’s for Pete’s sake. Okay and I spent my whole paycheck at Cato. No judging, my whole paycheck is like $60 bucks.)

I’m such a creature of habit that having those 3 days completely thrown out of whack has thrown off my whole life in general. Well…and if I am being completely honest, the 6th season of Vampire Diaries went up on Netflix this week, so I’ve kind of been dead to the world. because I’ve been T-totally absorbed in that. Don’t worry, I’m a binge watcher. I only have a couple more episodes left and next week can hopefully be a normal week. Oh wait, that’s right, it can’t be a normal week. I’m going to my first blogging workshop next week! Exciting stuff people. Hopefully I don’t make a fool of myself, I usually do. The last time I tried to introduce myself at a public function I accidentally told someone I was the wrong age…and they caught me in my accidental lie. And then I realized I’d forgotten to cut the tags off my dress and had to excuse myself.  Accidental Happy Baker? Sometimes I’m accidental happy everything. Maybe I should just get to the recipe?

Or should I start a 5th draft?

This Garlic Cheese Focaccia bread has become one of my favorite yeast breads to make. It is so simple and fun. And honestly making this focaccia is the best old fashioned therapy to work out all the frustrations and tension of all the crap going on in your life. You get to knead it, beat it, and then stab holes in it. Fun!  As far as yeast breads go, it comes together pretty quickly, not as quickly as my favorite Asiago Cheese Soft Pretzels though. I’m not going to lie it does take a little bit of time, but it’s not something where you make it and then you have to wait hours and hours to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Mix it up, knead it,  give it a little rest, then pat it down onto your baking sheet, and let it rise for about half an hour. After it rises you poke a bunch of holes in the dough, spread it with butter, garlic, parsley and cheese. Bake that puppy for about half an hour and enjoy it fresh from the oven. I swear, your kitchen will smell like heaven.

I got started making this focaccia instead of regular garlic bread. Garlic bread is less work for sure, but I fell in love with this because all of the garlic and butter soaks down into those holes you poked,  so it’s there in every single bite. And it makes perfect little garlicky sauce pockets to scoop up marinara with.  This recipe is a great for this time of year because it goes well with hearty pastas and soup. That is like the number one reason that I’m excited about this weather. Bread and soup. I will have another of my other favorite bread and soup recipes on here soon. Beer bread!

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Garlic Cheese Focaccia Bread

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This garlic cheese focaccia bread is light and tender. Soaked with butter, garlic, herbs and cheese, it's perfect for sopping up extra marinara sauce or the tail ends of the soup in your bowl. 

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Ingredients

Focaccia

• 1 cup water
• 2 Tablespoons butter,  softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4- 2 2/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Topping

• 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground garlic salt
• 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/3 cup asiago, , parmesan, or romano cheese

Instructions

1. Heat water until warm (about 105-115 degrees. The way I check my water when making yeast breads is by testing the water on the inside of my wrist like you would a baby's bottle. The water should feel just warm and comfortable, not hot.
2. Pour the water into a large bowl and add yeast, stirring with a fork until it dissolves in. Add to this 2 1/4 cups flour, 2 tablespoons of very soft butter, and the salt. Mix until a soft dough forms, then turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough with a push turn method, dusting with flour when needed to keep the dough from sticking to the surface. While kneading the dough, add in additional flour about a tablespoon at a time or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. This should take about 5-10 minutes of kneading. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover greased plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 10 minutes.
3. After resting, place the dough onto a greased baking sheet. Using your hands, pat the dough into about a 12 inch circle. Cover again with greased plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size (about 30-45 minutes.)
4. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
5. When the dough has risen, using your finger tips, poke 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep holes throughout the dough, spacing the holes about an inch or 2 apart. Brush the top of the dough with the melted butter, making sure to get some on the top of the foccacia bread and down in the holes as well. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the garlic salt, parsley, and shredded cheese. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until nice and golden brown. Serve hot.

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