Picture Focaccia

 

Recipe

Makes 1 loaf

Time: 1 hour, plus proving and baking time

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 7g fast action dried yeast
• 2 tsp table salt
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

To decorate

• 1 yellow bell pepper
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• Fresh basil leaves
• Fresh chives
• A handful of peas
• 3 tsp black sesame seeds
• A few leaves of flat leaf parsley
• 50g feta cheese

Method

1. Put the flour, yeast and salt into a large mixing bowl (make sure not to put the yeast directly on top of the salt or it could deactivate). Mix everything together.
2. Add 2tbsp of the oil and 350-400ml water. Mix everything together until you have a sticky dough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a worktop and knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth and stretchy.
4. Lightly oil a bowl and tip the dough into it. Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
5. Oil a shallow 25x35cm tin. Tip the dough into the tin and press it out to fill it in an even sheet. Cover with cling film and leave to prove for another 30 minutes.
6. Now prepare the fillings. You can have fun with this so let your imagination run wild, however this is what I did…
7. De-seed and then slice the yellow peppers into batons. Halve the cherry tomatoes and then pop all your other toppings into bowls or on plates so you can access them easily.
8. Arrange your yellow peppers over the bread in little flowers, leaving a small circle in the middle to be filled with black sesame seeds.
9. Place your long herbs (e.g chives) to look like the stems of the flowers. Arrange the tomatoes, peas and basil leaves to look like leaves and seeds climbing up the stems. Then fill in the gaps with parsley leaves and some crumbled feta. (Make sure whatever topping you put on you press into the dough enough that it wont fall off once baked)
10. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Mix together 1tbsp of the olive oil with 1tbsp of the water and drizzle it oven the risen and decorated bread. Sprinkle over the sea salt and then bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x