Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Fabulous Focaccia

I've definitely been bitten by the baking bug... sadly I haven't been bitten by the 'clean up as you go bug' or the 'don't eat everything you cook' bug. But hey, I'm working on it.

I tend to only bake sweet things so figured it was about time I gave something savoury a whirl, and I was so happy with the result that I think this will become a standard brunch around these parts - well, if I ever had people over for brunch that is.

I raided the cupboard and used what I already had on hand and threw it all in to see what would happen - which for a control freak like me is really strange, but seems to be working well so far!

Tomato, Red Onion & Thyme Focaccia
Olive, Fetta & Cumin Focaccia

Focaccia Ingredients (makes 2 focaccia)
  • 2 tsp dried yeast
  • 1 tsp raw sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups warm water
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 3/4 cups bakers flour (or plain flour)
  • 1/4 cup gluten flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp dried aniseed (optional)
  • 1/2 cup of Kellogg's All Bran Fibre Toppers (1/2 cup contains 25% of your daily iron and folate, and 33% of your daily fibre requirement)
 Toppings
  • 1/2 tomato, sliced
  • 1/4 red onion, sliced
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme (1 tsp if fresh)
  • 4 kalamatta olives, sliced
  • 25g fetta (I prefer to crumble it, but only had the harder stuff to slice)
  • 1/4 tsp dried cumin
Method
  • Combine yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of warm water and allow it to bubble up before adding the oil and remaining water, set aside
  • Sift both flours in to a large mixing bowl, add in aniseed and Fibre Toppers and make sure it's well combined
  • Add the yeast mix to the flour mix and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a dough - it will be really sticky
  • Cover with a damp teatowel and allow to rest for an hour in a warm place (I always use the back seat of my car!)
  • Dough should double in size and will still be extremely sticky so use well floured hands (or a bit of melted copha) to halve the mixture and place on to lined baking trays, shaping as you go, but not too much - keep it rustic
  • Brush with a little extra virgin olive oil and place sliced tomato, onion and thyme on one, and fetta, olives and cumin on the other
  • Allow to sit for a further 15 minutes (which I *ahem* kinda forgot to do but they still worked out, phew!)
  • Bake at 220C for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown
  • When cooked, allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack to prevent the bottom going soggy and voila!
 
  The Fibre Toppers and aniseed can be seen scattered throughout the dough

I served thin slices of both of these before a pasta dish (come back tomorrow for that one) in place of garlic bread as a healthier option. You could serve it with dip for a brunch, but there is enough flavour packed in to these that you really don't need anything else with them!

So I guess I should have a brunch now, yes? Who's coming?

Click here to see a nutritional panel I created for the base focaccia minus toppings - see that? I can make nutritional panels now!!!

This is NOT a sponsored post, but it is a competition entry for Kellogg's to win
sponsorship to BlogHer - I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

6 comments:

  1. Why, why, why did I have to check into this post today Glow? Just when I am doing so well on the 12WBT (hard diet/training torture) along comes your foccacia recipe to make me drool! A big THANKS for the nutrition info though, so I can see how TINY a piece I can allow myself in one sitting ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2.  Oh, BTW - if this isn't the most ingenoius way of incorporating the fibre toppers in a recipe, Kelloggs are FOOLS!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ooOooo nice Foccacia!!! I made mine the other week - and did a post about it! But Mine didn't fluff up as much as yours!! Think I spread it too thin!!


    Yummy! Trying your recipe this weekend!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  4.  I hope you're on the judging panel, Skyelee!!!! Hehe :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh noes! I thought I'd done something wrong when my dough was soooo sticky, so I did some googling and apparently it's the gluten flour???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now I d like the look of that - yum :-)

    ReplyDelete

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