Belokranjska Pogaca (Bread, Focaccia) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 kg white 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)

Preparation

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).
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.
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.
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.
Take a knife and carve squares half deep into the dough.
Dampen the surface with a mixture of 1 beaten egg and a tablespoon milk - use a brush.
Sprinkle with salt and cumin.
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.
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).