A Cautionary Tale

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From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...One of these days I'll learn to follow my own advice. Last week, I had bad luck with a recipe that came from a well-respected publication. I was in a hurry, and while I carefully read the recipe, I bypassed the comments of readers who actually had made the bread. As a result, I ended up with focaccia that was worse than awful, it was a resolute failure. It did not rise and it stuck to the pan in which it baked. The comments, all of them, alluded to these problems, and had I bothered to read them, I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation. Now, it is not my intention to trash anyone, so I'm not going to name the source from which the recipe came. I just want to emphasize how important those comments can be to cooks who surf for recipes. The topping on this focaccia is what drew me to the recipe in the first place. I wanted to salvage something from this venture, so I decided to use it on top of some pizza dough I had purchased at the supermarket. This is an effortless preparation that makes a nice focaciia bread. I hope you'll try it next time you are pressed for time. Here's the recipe.

Rosemary and Onion Focaccia...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1 batch white bread dough (purchased or homemade)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1) Brush a large rimmed baking sheet with 2 tablespoons oil. Stretch and press dough on sheet into a rectangle slightly smaller than the sheet. Brush dough with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm, draft-free area until dough has almost doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3) Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap and dimple dough with your fingertips. Scatter onion, rosemary, and oregano over dough; season with salt and pepper. Bake focaccia until golden brown, 10–15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before slicing. Yield: 8 to 12 servings.

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