Black Olive and Cherry Tomato Focaccia

This classic focaccia recipe is flavoured with salty black olives, sweet cherry tomatoes and earthy rosemary. Get the recipe below.

Italian bread at its best

For someone who is obsessed with sourdough I’m not really a big bread eater. You won’t find me eating sandwiches at lunch and I will rarely tuck into the bread basket when I’m eating out. That being said there is one bread that I LOVE, and that’s focaccia. I don’t know whether it’s the light, spongy texture, the little dimples, or the fact that its often topped with some of my favourite ingredients but I could happily sit and eat a whole loaf. Despite my love for focaccia it wasn’t the easiest to perfect. Jon is without a doubt the bread baker in this house but I wanted to learn how to make focaccia so that I could have it whenever I wanted! After a few sub-par loaves I’ve finally cracked it. This recipe has not failed me yet and I am obsessed.

It seems that focaccia is “in right now” and there are tonnes of Instagram accounts that make beautiful focaccia artwork. If you make this recipe and can make it look beautiful then I’d love to see your photos! I went super classic and just dotted the olives and tomatoes on top with a sprinkling of rosemary. If I’d have been feeling a bit more creative I could’ve turned it into a scene from nature. Maybe next time… Even though this isn’t the prettiest focaccia ever it is possibly the tastiest. It has the perfect light and fluffy crumb – almost cake like. There is a slightly chewy crust thanks to the hot baking tray and semolina on the base. But best of all the flavour is rich with good olive oil. The sweet tomatoes, salty olives and earthy rosemary round it off perfectly.

The recipe

Print

Black Olive and Cherry Tomato Focaccia

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Keyword black olive, cherry tomato, rosemary, white bread flour, yeast

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

• 375 grams white bread flour
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 3.5 grams fast action dried yeast
• 100 millilitres olive oil 75ml for the dough, 25ml for the top
• 175 millilitres water 150ml for the dough, 25ml for the top
• 2 tbsp semolina
• 7 cherry tomatoes
• 3 tbsp black olives pitted and sliced
• 2 sprigs rosemary

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and yeast.

2. Pour in the olive oil and water and mix to combine - if it's not coming together in one ball add in a little more water until it does. You want to be left with a slightly "tacky" ball of dough.

3. Knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. When poked it should be springy to the touch. This will take roughly 10 minutes kneading by hand or 5 minutes using a food processor with a dough hook.

4. Lightly oil a bowl or baking tray so that the dough does not stick. Place the dough on the bowl or baking tray cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to prove for 60 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl/baking try and shape by knocking back then stretching/pressing out into a rectangle creating dimples in its surface.

6. Sprinkle the baking tray with semolina and place your rectangle of dough on top.

7. Push the cherry tomato halves, sliced olives and leaves from one sprig of rosemary into the dimples of the dough.

8. Whisk together the remaining 25ml of water and 25ml of olive oil and brush over the top of the bread. Again, cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for another 60 minutes or until doubled in size.

9. Towards the end of the proving period, pre-heat your oven to 220C / 425F / gas mark 7.

10. Remove the clingfilm and place the baking tray into the centre of the oven and bake the focaccia for 25 minutes or until a golden shade of brown.

11. Let the focaccia cool slightly before enjoy warm with an extra sprinkling of sea salt and the remaining rosemary.