‘The more you praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate’
Mr. B is Italian and so loves bread, all things dough really. So for his birthday instead of making him a cake (don’t worry I made him a vegan chocolate cake later in the week) i made him this focaccia. It was semi healthy as for every bite he took there was an olive with a full garlic clove.
I manually kneaded the bread but you can do it in a standing mixer if you have one. It takes a lot of muscle to do it by hand but i like it as it makes me appreciate the older generation more and allows me to work out some of that built up stress at the same time.
For an extra treat brush some garlic and rosemary infused oil on the bread just before serving
Ingredients
- 500g flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 1.5 tsp. fast-action dried yeast
- 100g pitted olives (I used garlic stuffed olives)
- 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
- Sea salt
Method
- Add the flour, sugar, yeast and salt to a large mixing bowl
- Mix everything together and form a well in the middle and add 300ml tepid water and 3 tbsp. oil
- Mix together and then transfer to a floured surface
- Knead for at least 10 minutes
- Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea cloth, leave to rest for at least an hour
- When the dough is ready it will have doubled in size, tip it out and punch the air out
- Oil a baking tray and then spread the dough out on it, cover for 30 minutes and leave to rest
- After 30 minutes, punch holes in the dough one inch apart and push the olives to the bottom
- Place some garlic powder, the rosemary and a little oil in a bowl and then brush them over the bread
- Bake in a preheated oven for c. 20 minutes or until lightly golden on top
- Remove from the oven and serve hot
