Macaroni Grill Focaccia Bread

If you've ever been to Macaroni Grill, you've probably started your meal with their focaccia bread. Any time I went there I looked forward to eating this bread. I came across a recipe online a few years ago and have made it several times since then. Everyone always loves it and it accompanies many meals well. I tried another focaccia bread recipe recently (also with rosemary and sea salt) and I still like this one more by far. Some focaccia bread recipes are very flat breads (like the other one that I tried), and this is not which is something that I like about it. Of course, you can always use a larger pan and make it flatter if you wish, or use a round pan. I use a 9"x9" CorningWare dish and that works very well for me. I think I will start to use this focaccia recipe as a base and play around with substituting the rosemary for other ingredients (olives, caramelized onions, roasted peppers, etc.). This recipe is also very simple to make. If you use a mixer with the dough attachment, you don't have to knead it by hand and that makes it even easier.

Macaroni Grill Focaccia Bread

Serve this as they do at Macaroni Grill. Pour some olive oil into a saucer.  Freshly grate black pepper on top.  Tear off pieces of the focaccia and dip in the oil.

9 Tablespoons olive oil (divided use)

3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

¾ cup unsifted semolina flour

½ teaspoon salt (divided)

1½ Tablespoons quick-rising dry yeast

1½ cups hot (between 120 and 130°F) milk

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Pour a scant tablespoon of the olive oil into a 9” square cake pan; spread evenly to cover bottom and sides. Place all-purpose flour, semolina flour, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, ¼ teaspoon of the salt and all of the yeast in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. (The mixing can be done by hand as well). Blend ingredients on medium speed. Reduce speed to low and slowly add hot milk. Raise the speed to medium and continue mixing for 5 minutes (or knead about 8 to 10 minutes by hand).

Sprinkle bottom of cake pan with a little flour. Remove dough from bowl and spread out evenly in pan. Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Remove towel. Brush dough with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sprinkle top with additional ¼ teaspoon salt and rosemary. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle with remaining 5-6 tablespoons of olive oil.

Makes 6 - 8 servings.

Bread dough spread in pan before rising

Bread dough after rising for 30 minutes

Dough with olive oil, rosemary and sea salt on top

Fresh out of the oven!

Half of the bread

Photos by JoJo

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