Skip to main content

Simple Focaccia with Rosemary and Flaked Sea Salt


In a fairly off hand way the other day, Mike commented to me that he loved bread and he didn't think he would ever want to give it up. It might've helped that at the time, he was chomping on several squares of this.

But it made me think.

Every so often, Mike and I indulge in one of our favourite little treats: a loaf of freshly baked bread. 

Purely for convenience, and because we tend to fuel this urge as it strikes, we tend to rely on our local supermarket for this (it's a great ploy to have in-store bakeries and while there are a few artisan bakeries in and around Cardiff they're, sadly, not easily accessible for us). 

Sometimes it's a simple Farmhouse loaf, sometimes it's one of those fancy flavoured breads the supermarkets have started to introduce. 


One of my favourites is a Rosemary Focaccia. Freshly baked, it's heady aroma is irresistible. 

It's on the days when I fancy something savoury, rather than sweet.

Perhaps when it's a bit wet, grey and windy, and when you just want to curl up with a bowl of something comforting.

Sometimes that's soup.

Other times (for me anyway) it could be a pasta dish, with a rich, creamy sauce.

Either way, something that's just perfect for mopping up with some ciabatta or focaccia.

I'd never thought of making Focaccia myself though.


In the past I haven't tended to make too much bread at all. But now, since learning how to make Sourdough properly last October, I have a weekend ritual of making my own. 

It's been miles better than anything I have managed to buy locally, after I have tweaked the dough and baking to fit in with my preferences.

So emboldened by this, I decided to try something else. And therefore what better to try than my own Focaccia?


This recipe is easy (especially using a stand mixer) and for bread, (I think) fairly quick. It produced a lovely loaf which disappeared faster than I had anticipated.

I think you can safely anticipate that I'm going to be experimenting some more.

Rosemary and Sea Salt Focaccia

500g strong white bread flour
7g fast action dried yeast
6 tbspns  extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
300ml warm water
2 tspns fine salt
1 tbspn coarse sea salt [I used Maldon as I love the flaky texture]
2 tbspns fresh rosemary, chopped

You'll need a large bowl and a baking tray, both brushed with a little of the oil.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, place the yeast, flour, salt 3 tbspns of the oil and the water. Turn the mixer onto slow, and gradually, as the dough comes together, increase the speed to medium-slow. Leave to knead for about 5-6 minutes, until you have a soft, smooth dough. If it's really sticky, add just a little extra flour.


Turn out the dough, and fold the edges down on themselves a few times to try and form a smooth, rounded ball. Place, seam side down in the bowl, brush with a little oil and cover the bowl with cling film. Leave to rest in a warm place (not too hot though) until doubled in size (about an hour).


Place the dough on the oiled baking tray and press out gently to flatten to about 3 cm deep, using your fingertips to make little indentations. Brush over a little oil and then cover with cling film.


Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size again (about 45 minutes). Preheat the oven to 200 Fan / 220 conventional / Gas 7.

Remove the cling film, and then using your fingertips again, press some more indentations into the dough. Sprinkle over the rosemary (tucking some small sprigs, if you have them, into the dough gives a nice touch), and then some of the sea salt. Drizzle over the remaining 3 tbspns of oil.


Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes until golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.


Serve while still warm and enjoy the simple pleasure of freshly baked, home made bread.

Susie

* Adapted from Italian Home Baking by Gino D'Acampo

Comments

  1. Mmmm I have never tried to make my own before - love it though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful loaf! You've got the oil/salt topping just how I like it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks CC - I need to have a decent amount of salt on something like this. I know that's probably not terribly healthy, but I try and cut down in other areas. So once in a while shouldn't hurt. :)

      Delete
  3. beautiful, beautiful, beautiful... I do love a nice cakey focccia... when I get home next weekend I am making this stunning loaf x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dom - I can see myself making this again and again. :)

      Delete
  4. I love proper focaccia and this looks wonderful! I do make bread occasionally but have never tried focaccia as the recipes always sound extremely complicated but your method looks fairly straightforward so I think I'll give it a go!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Katharine - I certainly was surprised by how easy it was. The only thing I'm pondering is that I understand focaccia is supposed to be a fairly open crumb, with large holes.(Paul Hollywood on GBBO is reverberating around my head). I'll be doing a little more research about that, but in the meantime will use this recipe as it did taste lovely. :)

      Delete
  5. Looks perfect! Focaccia is one of my favourite breads.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This looks great, great photos, looks better than mine! I love it with the rosemary. It is such an easy bread to make. You should have made this last month and entered this in Random Recipes which was bread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Denise - that's really kind! :)

      I've been all over the place with blogging challenges. I've just had a few months where I never know when I'm going to feel like getting into the kitchen. Hopefully, I'll get around to a few more over the next few months. :)

      Delete
  7. This looks wonderful, I love making focaccia and am always keen to try new recipes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Anna - will be trying some more myself as I can see me really getting into bread making now! :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Your comments are very much appreciated.

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Indulgent Chocolate and Walnut Brownies for the Weekly Bake Off

It's been a great couple of weeks in the Bake Off , as Amy has chosen some fantastic chocolate recipes from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes . Although I made last week's American Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake, I didn't enter it. Not because it was a disaster (it was incredibly delicious though very rich - Josh has been able to eek it out all week as he only needs a little piece to get his daily chocolate fix!), but I simply ran out of time. So this week, I decided to get my skates on and make the bake early. Particularly as it's brownies. Yes. Brownies. Those dark, fudgey, chocolatey little bites of heaven. But for me, this week was an experiment. You see, I already have a fantastic brownie recipe . It's been made countless times and been played around with to give an endless variety of treats. (Have I ever mentioned Maya Gold in brownies? Yes? Well I'll have to post about them someday soon because they are amazing - like some sort of out of body exp

Not Viennese, but Swiss Cakes for the Weekly Bake Off

One of my strongest childhood memories is the ritual of our family's Sunday Tea, which always took a certain form. My nan would put the kettle on at just before 4pm, and a pot of steaming hot tea would soon be brewed. There were sandwiches, and always, always some form of cake. Quite often, if nan and mum had had a busy weekend, it would be provided by Mr Kipling. My brother and I looked forward to this with some enthusiasm, as there were quite often French Fancies and Vienniese Whirls, which were our hands-down favourites. We could leave the Battenburg Slices, and the jam tarts were often a bit too dry  for us (definitely not as good as homemade). But the soft sweet inside of an iced French Fancy (my favourite being the lemon yellow ones), and the moistness of the Viennese Whirls were something to savour. Of course, you can still buy these. But they just don't seem to taste the same somehow. So when Amy announced this week's Bake Off challenge as the Apricot Swiss

Limoncello Cake

I really love this cake. I mean really love it. So much so, it's my new best friend. It's like sunshine on a plate. The citrussy aroma tempts you while the sultry lemony pucker hits you full in the mouth. And who can resist anything with 'Limoncello' in the title? The mere mention of the word transports you to to the Sicilian sun. It's one more reason I have to thank Random Recipes for getting me to delve into my cookbooks. This month's challenge had a bit of a twist. Dom, of Belleau Kitchen (who runs the challenge) created a Randometer thingummy-bob to test us. You had to enter how many cookbooks you owned, and then it would generate a random number. You counted along your shelf to that book, and then entered the number of pages, to generate another number and so find your Random Recipe. The gods must have been looking favourably on me this month, as I ended up with this gorgeous lemon cake, from Peggy Porschen's 'Boutique Baking