Foccacia con Olive, Pomodoro, Aglio e le Erbe

This is one bread that I really love baking and eating straight out of the oven. I was quite intrigued when I first heard the name and then when I saw it my first reaction was ' Oh, this is pizza without the tomato sauce and cheese!'

Foccacia is really easy to make and I've given a simple recipe below, I got the basic recipe from Jamie Oliver and it makes a good bread.

Step 1

Take 400gm Maida ( refined flour) in a large mixing bowl
 add 100gm Atta ( whole wheat flour)
 to the flour add a pinch of salt and leave aside.

Step 2

Take 100ml of water, stir in 1/2 teaspoon sugar and add a tablespoon of  baker's yeast. Leave this undisturbed for 15 minutes, you'll soon get a frothy, beer smelling liquid.

Step 3

Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the frothy yeast water and begin to bring it all together with your fingers. Also add a tablespoon of olive oil and more lukewarm water to make a soft springy dough. This will take about 5-7 minutes of kneading.

After kneading the dough, roll it into a ball and take some olive oil in your hands and gently coat the ball.

Step 4

Cover the bowl with dough in it with cling film or a clean moist cloth and leave in a warm place for the yeast to do its magic. This will take around and hour and the dough will rise to double its size.

Step 5

Remove the dough from the bowl, 'knock back'  - this is fancy bakery terminology for punching the carbon dioxide out of the dough. Grease a baking tray with cooking oil and spread out the dough with your fingers into a flat cake.

Step 6

Take sliced tomatoes,  peeled garlic cloves, whole pitted olives, rosemary, fresh basil leaves and decorate the dough. Take care to push these items into the dough as the rising dough can push them back out :-) , use your fingers to make indentations for the olive oil you're going to pour on in a short while.

You could grate some mozzarella on top or any other flavourful cheese, I haven't tried feta but my guess is it could be quite nice. Sprinkle salt and grind some fresh pepper onto the dough and drizzle  olive oil generously on top. For a spice kick you could sprinkle some chili flakes like I did!

Step 7

Leave the decorated dough to rise again for 25 minutes and in the meantime heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Bake the bread for 20 minutes till you get a crisp golden brown crust.

Step 8

Remove the bread from the oven, let it cool for just a bit if you can, otherwise break into chunks, dip into olive oil and balsamic vinegar and eat with olives and chunks of cheese. Yum Yum Yum :-)