Easy Focaccia

Olive oil, sea salt, rosemary and flour combine for the most mouthwatering bread you’ll ever bake. An Italian classic made with an abundance of olive oil to create a mouthwatering pillowy bread. Topped with a generous helping of sea salt and fresh rosemary, this bread won’t stick around long. After visiting Philleigh Way for a breadmaking course, they taught us how to make this surprisingly easy bake, and I’ve been making it ever since. Full credit to Rupert Cooper for teaching us and sharing with us this easy focaccia recipe, which I would love to share with you here.

For this easy focaccia recipe you’ll need:

• 500g strong white flour

• 7g sachet of yeast (or 15g fresh yeast)

• 50ml olive oil (this is a reference – you can use less or more), plus extra for drizzling

• 370ml warm water

• 10g sea salt (I always opt for Cornish Sea Salt)

• Rosemary

To start with, in a large bowl, add the flour, salt, yeast, olive oil and 370ml of water. Make sure that you keep the yeast and salt separate from each other so the salt doesn’t kill the yeast.

Stir everything together with a wooden spoon to begin, and then you can get stuck in with your hands to form a dough. This can also be done with a mixer and dough hook if you prefer/have one. Once you have your dough, scrape out onto a lightly oiled surface.

This next step is the key component we learnt at the course: how to “walk” the dough, and how to stretch it out to create a smooth and elastic dough.

“Walk” your dough with a dough blade by scooping the blade under the dough, moving it around and forwards – scraping, spinning and tucking. Keep the bottom of the dough ball at the bottom, rather than rolling it around over itself. The idea is the create a tight ball by tucking it under, moving and twisting it around. It should become more smooth and elastic as you do this.

Next, pick your dough up with your fingertips (not your whole hands). and slap and fold to knead the dough. Lift it up and back over itself in an arc to trap the air, stretching it by slapping it back onto the surface. Do this five more times, and then go back to walking your dough.

As you do this, the dough will start to come together, feeling more and more elastic as you continue. Keep working on it until it looks smooth and silky, and comes cleanly away from the work surface.

Place the dough back into your bowl, and drizzle with olive oil. Cover and leave to prove until doubled in size (45-60 minutes). Interestingly, Rupert explained that it is ideal to leave your dough to rise overnight in the fridge if possible.

Now the dough is doubled in size, prepare and line a large baking tray with baking paper, and drizzle with more olive oil.

Tip the dough into the baking tray, making sure to keep the bottom at the bottom. Press the dough into the corners and create dimples with your fingers (wet your fingers to make soft chewy dimples). Cover and allow to prove again for 45-60 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 220°C or 200°C fan and when ready, agitate the focaccia again with wet fingers (don’t be gentle!), drizzle with more oil, sprinkle with sea salt, top with rosemary and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

The wonderful thing with focaccia is that you can experiment with all sorts of toppings, from sundried tomatoes and roasted garlic, to olives, chilli…

Serve straight out of the oven, or leave to cool down a little and enjoy!