Poppyseed Focaccia

If you’d like to give bread making a go, focaccia is a great recipe to start with. You have to wait for the dough to prove twice, so it’s not a quick recipe, but the effort involved is minimal and the results are delicious.

This recipe has been developed from a Paul Hollywood focaccia recipe, but I’ve obviously pimped it up Pesky-style. Focaccia is normally made using strong white bread flour, and you can use that too if you like. But I much prefer brown bread to white so I’ve used strong brown bread flour instead. It gives it a lovely homemade, farmhouse style flavour and the smell as it’s cooking is wonderful.

This focaccia is great served with pasta or soup, or warm it through and have it with cheese and salad.

Ready in 4hrs 15mins (10mins prep, 10mins kneading, 3.5hrs proving, 25mins bake) – serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 500g of strong wholemeal bread flour
• 10g of dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt + extra for sprinkling
• 30mls of good quality olive oil + extra for drizzling
• 370mls of water
• 1 teaspoon of rosemary
• Half a small red onion, finely sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of poppyseeds

Method:

• Put the flour, yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt, 30mls of olive oil and 370mls of water into a large bowl. Mix together, then knead on a machine with a dough hook, or with your hands on a lightly floured surface for about 10mins, or until the dough is soft and elastic.

• Put the dough in a warm place to prove, covered with a lint-free towel for 2hrs, or until doubled in size.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, grease a baking tray with olive oil and tip the dough into it.

• Use your hands to mix the rosemary, onion and garlic into the dough.
• Then spread the dough out into the corners of the baking tray.
• Sprinkle with the poppyseeds, a good pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

• Cover with a lint-free cloth and allow to prove again in a warm place for 1.5hrs, or until doubled in size.

• Preheat your oven to 210c / 190c fan / gas mark 6.
• Bake for 20-25mins, turning the tray 180 degrees half way through to ensure an even bake.

If you liked this recipe, you might also like:

Pumpkin and Sage Rigatoni

Easy Garlic and Herb Roast Potatoes

Cheese and Poppy Seed Twists