Instructions: This recipe is from "No Need to Knead" (Hyperion, 1999), in which Suzanne Dunaway writes, "This user-friendly dough is about as basic as you can get. . . . With it you can make loaves of bread, flatbreads, crisp breads, little sandwich buns (focaccette), the French ladder bread fougasse, exotic hamburger buns, bread sticks and more. You can also forget it in the refrigerator or leave it to rise a little too long and it will bounce back very easily."

If you let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator, it will acquire flavor from the slower yeast action. Dunaway notes that the shaped focaccia does not need to rise, but if you forget it for a few minutes, dont worry.

2 cups lukewarm water (85 to 95 degrees F)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 cups bread flour (divided)

2 to 3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

Measure water into large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over water and stir until dissolved. Stir in 2 cups flour and 2 to 3 teaspoons salt and stir briskly until smooth, about 2 minutes. With strong wooden spoon, stir in remaining 2 cups flour for 2 minutes longer, or until flour is incorporated.

Dough will be fairly wet and sticky, but when it pulls away from sides of bowl and forms a loose ball, youll know it has been stirred sufficiently. If it seems too sticky, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup more flour.

For same-day rising method: Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm place until doubled in volume, 30 to 40 minutes.

For overnight-rising method: Cover bowl of dough and refrigerate overnight.

Remove dough 2 hours before shaping and let stand, covered, in warm place. Dough will rise a second time.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Oil 1 or 2 nonstick 13-by-18 inch baking sheets.

Transfer dough to sheet(s), carefully scraping it from sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Brush dough with 2 teaspoons olive oil. To make traditional focaccia with indentations, dip your fingers into cold water or olive oil and press them straight down into the dough. Make holes in the dough by pulling it to the sides about 1 inch at a time. Pull the holes at random to form little craters all over, with pan showing through where you have put your fingers. As you work, stretch dough into a 1 inch-thick oval. (If using just 1 baking sheet, focaccia will cover almost the entire sheet.) Brush loaf (or loaves) with remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt.

Place pan(s) in oven and reduce temperature to 450 degrees. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until focaccia has a nice, golden-brown color mixed with a little darker brown around indented area. Cool on wire rack. Cut focaccia into wedges or rectangles and serve warm.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.