Bloom the yeast. In your warm-to-hot water, stir in the yeast and brown sugar. Let it sit 5-10 minutes until it's active. Add your oil to this mixture — it doesn't matter if you mix it in now or later, just get it in there.

Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk your flour and coarse salt together. Keeping the salt in the flour, not dumped straight into the wet mixture, matters here.

Combine and knead. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and bring it together. Once it's shaggy, start kneading — with oil on your hands, not flour. Every time the dough starts sticking to you, add a little more oil to your palms, not more flour to the bowl. Keep working it until it's smooth and elastic.

Rest. Cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours. I usually go 3-4 hours, sometimes longer. If you want to save some for later, portion it, refrigerate or freeze it — just bring it fully back to room temperature before you shape anything with it. Remember cold dough doesn't rise when cooking.

Shape it. Oil your hands generously. For focaccia-style texture, stab your fingers into the dough all over — think playing the piano, but angry about it. That's genuinely the technique. Once it's dimpled, sprinkle over your oregano and chopped rosemary (whole sprigs pressed in if you want it to look pretty for pictures).