HDL Focaccia

Nik and I are pigs, I will admit. Perhaps not moreso than anyone else, but certainly no less. And, I fear, I am not referring to our eating or grooming habits. I am talking about our "with/without" classification system. Years ago, and I don't remember why or who, we determined/agreed that there are two types of people in the general public...the withs and the withouts. No, this is not a 1920's-style description of a person's socioeconomic status. It refers, in our personal vernacular, I am ashamed to say, to a person's physique..as in "That person looks better with clothes" vs "That person probably looks better without clothes." In context, we abbreviate the entire conversation so it consists simply of a directional head nod, some sort of meaningful eyebrow movement, and either the word with or without. Please, this is not as disgusting and superficial as it seems, though really it is disgusting and superficial.

And I make this horrible admission only because I, a former fat kid, fall into the with category. And that was okay; it was a fact I was happy to live with, given the reality that most people join me on this side of the mirror. (If you have ever been to a nude beach, you will whole-heartedly agree that most people look better with...please, sir, put some clothes on.) Yes, I am tall and thin, I am genetically blessed with a narrow waist, and I have worn the same size pants for the past ten years - somedays I wear the actual pants that I have worn for the past ten years...and I was fine living with these irrelevant details in my clueless charade of health...until recently, when Dr. M mailed me the results of my apparently long-overdue bloodwork. Guess who has high cholesterol!

I'm not being drammatic...well, yes, I am being drammatic, in that my cholesterol was not really so high as to be deadly, but it was high...higher than it should have been. Ok, it wasn't even high enough for Dr. M to call - he sent me a note in the mail. But it was higher than normal and I think it should be lower...and I'll tell you why. Because even though I fully admit to being a with - I have always wanted to be a without. And that three digit LDL number was a deeper-than-skin-deep alert that I was not heading in the right direction for achieving that juvenile-but-honest goal.

So...and again I must be honest...I poured another glass of wine, watched The Biggest Loser on TV, and flipped through the BREAD file until I found a focaccia recipe. No butter and lots of olive oil (the good fat). Yes, I know...it takes diet AND exercise to lower the number. But you gotta start somewhere. And here's where I started...

Focaccia

Yeast............................2 1/4 tsp

Sugar............................1 tsp

Water...........................2 3/4 cup

Bread Flour.....................5 1/2

Salt..............................1 tsp

Olive Oil........................5 Tbl

Kosher Salt.....................1 Tbl

Rosemary.......................3 Tbl, coarsely chopped

Garlic...........................4 cloves

Olive Oil........................1/3 cup

1. Combine water, yeast, sugar in mixer bowl. Let stand until foamy/creamy.

2. Add flour, 1 tsp salt, and 3 Tbl olive oil. Mix with dough hook until soft and slightly sticky (2 minutes).

3. Form into ball, transfer to oiled bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours/until doubled in bulk. (May be made up to this point and refrigerated overnight. Return to room temperature before proceding.)

4. While dough is rising, simmer garlic in 1/3 cup olive oil. Let cool. Discard garlic,or use for another purpose.

5. Press dough into oiled 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 inch pan. Let rise, covered loosely, for 1 hour, until almost doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400.

6. Dimple dough with fingertips. Pour on garlic oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt and rosemary. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan.

*What I didn't do: I used a half sheet pan, so this focaccia isn't as thick as I wanted it to be (I couldn't find my jelly roll pan). Also...I did not rotate the pan front to back midway through baking -- hence the two-tone look to it. And, I used all of the garlic oil, but for the smaller size pan, you might have some leftover. Perhaps enough to use as dipping oil when you are enjoying the bread.