Focaccia Rolls

We love bread in this house. I made a batch of these on Wednesday morning and they were gone this morning; so I made another batch today. These are super simple to make and though we've only used them for sandwiches or eaten them by themselves so far, I think they would go well with pretty much any meal. For the dough, I just used my basic pizza dough recipe.




Dough:
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 TBS salt
2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 TBS Olive Oil

Topping:
1 clove garlic
2 TBS olive oil
salt
rosemary

Proof the yeast in the warm water. You want the water around 110 degrees F. Too hot and you'll kill the yeast.

I use a stand mixer, but you can do the mixing and kneading by hand if you want to. I use the dough hook attachment for my KitchenAid. Mix everything except the water/yeast mixture in the bowl, then add the water/yeast mixture. Combine them on medium speed, about 4. As soon as a ball starts to form,  switch it down to 1. Set a timer, and let it go for 10 minutes. Unless you have one VERY large bowl, find two large bowls, and grease them well with olive oil.

After the dough is nice and kneaded, place it onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal parts. Form each one into a nice, tight ball and place in the bowls seam side down. Brush the tops with more olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Put them in a warm, draft-free place to rise for about 45 minutes. I use my oven for this.

After the dough is nice and risen, punch it down. Lightly flour your work surface, sprinkle flour on each side on the dough. I actually just drop each piece into my flour bin. Then place the dough on your work surface and pat or roll out into about a 10-12 inch circle/oval shape. Cut into four equal pieces. I just cut it in half vertically and again horizontally. Place on greased baking sheet. Do this for both dough rounds. Note: this is the size I used for sandwich buns, and they are pretty large. When I made them today, I cut one ball into 8 pieces, which would be more appropriate for a dinner roll. I also recommend using 2 baking sheets, as these rise quite a bit.

Using a microplane-type grater, grate the garlic into a small dish, stir in the olive oil. Brush this mixture over all of the rolls, then sprinkle with rosemary and salt. I didn't put rosemary on half of these since I wanted to use them for Cuban sandwiches.

 Let the rolls rise again for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and bake for 18-20 minutes.