Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Kalamata Olive and Rosemary Focaccia

I have been making a lot of soups lately!! They make a great evening meal with a slice of good bread, a  salad, or a even small serving of pasta!! Last night I had made a hearty Tuscan style Ribollita, and it seemed a no-brainer to make a rich crusty focaccia to go with it.


I have made focaccia in the past, in fact I make a rather moreish whole wheat version of it every so often. But yesterday I wanted to make a focaccia with olives and rosemary - perfect for dunking into the soup and wiping it clean off the plate!!

Ingredients:
21/2 cups whole wheat flour
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
21/2 cups water (divided)
21/2 tsp dried yeast
11/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved
1 tsp dried rosemary
Olive oil
1 tbsp cornmeal

Method:
  1. Sift both the flours with the salt in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Warm half cup water, add the sugar, and then sprinkle the yeast. Cover and allow to proof for about 3-5 minutes.
  3. When ready, pour into the flour, mix in. Using the remaining water, make a soft dough. Knead to remove any lumps. If the dough is too sticky, add some more flour. 
  4. Set the dough aside for 10 minutes. Knead again for 10 minutes. 
  5. Use olive oil to grease a large bowl. Place the dough into the bowl. Cover with cling film. Leave to proof for about an hour.
  6. Prepare a baking sheet by greasing it with some oil, and then sprinkling the cornmeal onto it.
  7. Punch down the dough, knead a bit. roll and place onto the baking sheet. Cover and set aside for 45 minutes. The dough should have risen well by now.
  8. Pour about two tablespoons of olive oil onto the surface of the dough. gently pat the halved olives onto the dough. and sprinkle with rosemary.
  9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 35 minutes.
Serve this delicious focaccia warm in large chunks with flavoured dipping oil or dunk into your favourite soup. Mine is Ribollita, a minestrone style soup with loads of tomatoes and fresh vegetables.

I am sending a big slice of this bread to Sandy @ At the Baker's Bench who runs a monthly baking event around breads: Bake your own Bread. A slice also goes to Yeastspotting hosted by Wild Yeast.

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

6 comments:

  1. Looks great Apu. My first time here. Great blog. Please do visit mine :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi foccacia looks great...must be very flavorful with the olives and rosemary...nice clicks :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for stopping by! Wow, Focaccia has always looked too intimidating to me, you seem to have mastered it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks 4 dropping in...
    It was Gr8 visiting ur Blog 4 the 1st time ...Gr8 recipe collection...Adding u 2 my blogroll...Keep Going !!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Focaccia looks prefect and very flavourful with olives and rosemary..

    ReplyDelete
  6. This focaccia looks perfect for sopping up soup! I love the toppings.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to Annarasa! I hope you enjoyed visiting my virtual kitchen. As you savour your taste tour, leave me a note, post a query, share your thoughts. I will do my best to respond to every comment :)

Apu @ Annarasa