Raisin Focaccia {focaccia con uva passa}

Whether you bake along with us every month or just once, we want to inspire you to love baking your own bread one loaf at a time. We encourage you to make the recipe your own. Check out Marnely of Cooking with Books and Shulie from Food Wanderings recipe ideas for inspiration. Be creative and add your own toppings or bake it as we did.  Read all about our Breaking Bread Society adventures and let's unite in #breakingbread together:

*If you really want to make this and don't have the time to wait for the dough to rise, you could make the dough and leave it in the refrigerator over night (or place in the refrigerator in the morning and take out to bake at the end of the day). When you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator and press into your oiled or parchment lined pan and let it rise before baking it.

*As mentioned in earlier in the post, you could use your own favorite focaccia recipe if you prefer. We just would love you to bake along with us!;)

Raisin Focaccia {focaccia con uva passa}
 adapted from: How to Bake by Nick Malgieri
Copyright (c) Nick Malgieri 1995, All Rights Reserved

Ingredients:
1 ⅓ cups warm tap water (about 110 degrees)
2 ½ teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons sea salt
2 cups raisins (I used dark raisins. You could use any kind of raisins)

Topping:
2-3 tbsp. turbinado sugar (coarse sugar)
one 101/2 x 151/2-inch jelly roll an or a 14-inch round pan (for my round one, I used a 9-inch cake pan and it was very fluffy.

It is a dough that is elastic and a little moist.

Form the dough into a ball and place into an oiled bowl (when I put the dough in the bowl I swish the dough around the bottom of the bowl and then flip it over so all of the dough is covered in a light film of oil). Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size (about 1-1 ½ hours)

When the dough has doubled in size, remove the plastic wrap. Dimple the surface of the risen focaccia using your fingertips (if it's too sticky, dip your fingers in olive oil before dimpling the bread).

Brush on the remaining olive oil to the surface of the dough. Sprinkle on the turbinado sugar.

Bake the focaccia for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Lift the focaccia from the pan with the parchment paper edges onto a cutting board. You're supposed to let it cool a little on a rack before serving. That never happens over here. Cut and serve.

Happy focaccia baking! Thank you for your #breakingbread support and comments.