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You are here: Home / Anna Olson / Anna Olson’s Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Anna Olson’s Rosemary Onion Focaccia

November 14, 2016 by Suzie the Foodie 4 Comments

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

This recipe comes from the cookbook Bake with Anna Olson: More than 125 Simple, Scrumptious and Sensational Recipes to Make You a Better Baker. I got the book and an autograph by Anna Olson when I went to her book signing at The Gourmet Warehouse the other day.

I chose it because I have never made a focaccia I like and in the intro to the recipe Anna writes, “This dough is easy to mix and knead and produces consistently delicious results.” In Anna, I trust. So I made it over the weekend.

Please note: this dough requires THREE rising times so it is going to take all day to make. Also, this recipe makes TWO batches of focaccia. 

The Ingredients

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

You will need 2 1/2 cups warm water, 2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup semolina flour, 5 to 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tbsp coarse sea salt, 1/2 sliced medium red onion, 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary and a little more olive oil and sea salt.

I went to Killarney Market to look for the semolina flour and they had it! It had the word “semola” on the front but it was in fact, semolina! I should have gotten some coarse sea salt though…

Making the Dough

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

First you want to mix the water with the yeast in a large mixing bowl. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Then add the oil and semolina with a wooden spoon until blended. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

You are going to gradually add the flour to the dough until it becomes too hard to incorporate the flour with a wooden spoon. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

The recipe says it could take up to 5 1/2 cups of all purpose flour but I was done at 4 1/2 cups.

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Then add the salt. 

OK, this confused me. You just sprinkle it with salt? I only had fine salt and used half of what was called for because, well, there would be more of it than coarse salt. Make your life easy… Use coarse salt and knead it into the dough.

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Knead by hand until all the flour has been worked in and the dough is smooth and elastic. This takes about 10 minutes and she was right, this did not hurt my hands, the dough is so crazy-soft!

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Let it double in size on the counter for 90 minutes. Woah!!! Did it ever double in size!

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Divide the dough into two. You can go ahead and make two batches but I froze one of the doughs instead.

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Roll out the dough to 15 x 10″ and line baking try with parchment paper. Sprinkle with semolina. 

Lift dough onto pan, cover with tea towel and let rise 45 minutes. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Remove tea towel and use your fingers to dimple the dough. Cover and let rise 45 minutes. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Toss red onion and rosemary with olive oil to coat.

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Preheat oven to 400F and sprinkle onion evenly over the dough. Sprinkle with sea salt. I also added some more olive oil to the top. 

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Bake focaccia for 25 minutes, until golden in colour.

Foodie Results

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

This is a beautiful focaccia! I should have been more generous with the salt than I was for it to be perfect but next time… Live and learn!

Anna Olson's Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Anna was right. This was an easy dough to make, even my weak and sensitive hands did just fine kneading the dough together. The hard part was how much time it took so make sure you can start early enough in the day to make this without being time crunched. There was very little light left by the time mine was done so I took it outside and photographed it on my deck.

Thank you Anna! You have given me confidence to set aside my mixer and bread maker and make homemade bread from scratch all by myself. that is a foodie miracle. I give this recipe five out of five wooden spoons.

[yumprint-recipe id=’75’]Suzie the Foodie's Panzanella Salad

Have leftovers? Why not make my Panzanella Salad?

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Filed Under: Anna Olson, baking, bread, recipe Tagged With: Anna Olson, baking, Baking With Anna Olson, bread, cookbook, focaccia, onion, rosemary, Suzie the Foodie

Comments

  1. wayner says

    November 14, 2016 at 10:39 pm

    I really wish I had a nickel for all the pans (and I mean full size sheet pans) of focaccia I made during my years as a prep cook in Whistler. We used it for the cheese fondues we sold in the winter at the restaurant i worked at. You are right the dough is intoxicatingly soft and incredibly forgiving.
    So far as the salt goes, years ago I switched to using Kosher Salt for almost all my cooking and it works incredibly well when used in baking as you need here. The salt to me has almost a sweet taste when compared to regular salt (even a lot of sea salts) and it is relatively free of any chemicals except an anti caking agent .
    Your results look spectacular and I have Anna’s recipe in my chest and am inspired to make a batch (well maybe a half batch) the next time I go on an Italian recipe jag.

    Reply
    • Suzie the Foodie says

      November 15, 2016 at 7:05 pm

      Wow, you were such a pro at it Wayne, nice! Yes, it would be perfect for fondues. I just made mega croutons out of them for a panzanella salad. You know, I should have gone with the kosher salt, I had a coarse one and I like it too. Thank you! I’m so glad you think I did a good job and it’s amazing, my photo looks a lot like the one in her cookbook so that’s high praise.

      Reply
  2. Barb says

    December 9, 2021 at 3:42 pm

    This is amazing! Everyone loved it! Most requested bread I make!

    Reply
  3. Barbara says

    January 11, 2022 at 7:32 pm

    This is the easiest and by far best tasting focaccia I have ever made! I make this every week for my family, most requested item I make!

    Reply

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