Focaccia Bread Recipe
Please rate
There is nothing better than cooking and smelling homemade bread in your own house. Sometimes cooking homemade bread can be a daunting and intimidating task, however when you get up off your butt and decide to embark on this baking journey it is ever so rewarding! My wife and I decided to do focaccia bread. The idea came when we were watching Gordon Ramsay's Cookery Course, and he made focaccia bread that looked so good. We replicated his recipe with a few additions of our own.
Sun dried tomatoes, olives, rosemary and caramelized onions topped our focaccia bread. Salty and sweet is the combination you look for with this focaccia bread so the toppings can vary
.
You can try to stuff the dough with the toppings as well, but my experience is the dough will usually push out the ingredients when cooking it. I will definitely try this next time, however I told my wife no homemade focaccia bread in our house for awhile. I have no control and usually finish all of it in one sitting.
Focaccia Bread Recipe
- 500g strong bread flour
- 1 heaped tbsp coarse semolina
- 14g sachets dried yeast
- 50ml olive oil, plus a little extra
- 75g pitted black olives, sliced
- 150g sundried tomatoes
- 2–3 rosemary sprigs, leaves only
- pinch of sugar
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 75g of caramelized onions
- Thoroughly mix the flour, semolina and yeast with a couple of generous pinches of salt and sugar. Mix 320ml warm water with the olive oil. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and gradually add the liquid. (It’s easiest to mix this together with a fork to start with and then, when it is just coming together, use your hands to make it into a ball.) Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth, elastic and springy to touch.
- Place the dough in a large floured mixing bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for 30–60 minutes until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/395°F
- Place the risen dough in an oiled baking tray (about 15 × 24cm) and sprinkle with a little salt. Grease your fingers with a little olive oil and prod out the dough to the edges of the tray.
- Press the olives and sundried tomatoes into the dough so that they are slightly poking above the surface. Season with salt and pepper and scatter over the rosemary leaves.
- Drizzle the bread with a little extra olive oil and place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until golden and cooked through.
- Turn out of the tray, then transfer to a board, top with caramelized onions, slice and serve.
Gordon Ramsay’s recipe is in the video below. It inspired me and I hope it inspires you!
