Belokranjska Pogaca (bread, Focaccia)

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 kg flour (mix of soft and hard, durum flour preferably)
• 35 g yeast (or sour dough if available)
• 2 -3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 -2 teaspoon salt
• some cumin (carum carvi)

Recipe

• 1 mix yeast with 1-2 teaspoons of honey and 0.1l lukewarm water and a teaspoon or two of flour. wait untill it rises (about 10 minutes).
• 2 mix the risen yeast with flour and add 1-2 beaten eggs, salt and water as needed to make a nice medium firm silky textured dough (for special occasions water can be replaced with mixture of sour cream and milk - be careful that either water or cream/milk mixture isn't cold or hot). i also suggest that you dissolve the salt in a little water before adding.
• 3 leave it to rise in a warm place (but not too warm) for aprox. half an hour, sometimes more. if you add more oil or cream or eggs the time to rise the dough prolongs. as i make it it usually takes about 45 minutes.
• 4 put the risen dough on a floured surface and gently beat it to fit the baking plate. you should get a 1.5 -2 cm thick dough. if you have a smaller oven or baking plate it will probably make two pogaca breads. traditionally it is round shaped, but you can adapt it to your baking plate.
• 5 take a knife and carve squares half deep into the dough.
• 6 dampen the surface with a mixture of 1 beaten egg and a tablespoon milk - use a brush.
• 7 sprinkle with salt and cumin.
• 8 leave it for up to 10 minutes if you want the bread to be a little bit higher or bake it immediately in the oven at 200c for about 20 - 30 minutes untill nice golden brown.
• 9 on different occasions you can enrich the belokranjska pogaca with cheese (sprinkle small dices on top instead of cumin) or some dry meat (smoked ham -- ). the pogaca is also sometimes made with onions which are cut in small, fried untill brown, cooled down then mixed into the dough (step 2).