Decorated Focaccia

After making so many different types of bread in quarantine, I've come to realize that focaccia is probably the easiest bread I've made. It comes together with only a few simple ingredients, requires only one real rise, and can be made and eaten in the span of about two hours. And, it's delicious.

I hadn't started this blog yet when I made focaccia for the first time, so it seemed like a good idea to make it again. I also had a lot of people asking me to make artsy, decorated focaccia, which is a trend that is going around social media right now. So, of course, I had to do it.

Per the recipe, I began by making an herbed olive oil:

1 tbsp rosemary

3 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

I cut a bunch of sprigs of rosemary from my garden, and de-stemmed and chopped the rosemary. I used a lot of rosemary, in place of using both rosemary and thyme, like it suggests in the recipe. I also added an addition clove of garlic, and chopped up 3 instead of 2, because I love garlic.

I poured the olive oil into a small saucepan over low heat, and added in the rosemary, garlic, and black pepper. I let that simmer for about 5 minutes, and took it over the heat right as the garlic started to brown.

 

Then, I started working on the dough:

1 cup warm water
1 packet of yeast
1/4 teaspoon honey
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
herbed olive oil

First, I started by mixing together the water, yeast and honey. I let that sit for five minutes, until the yeast had bloomed a little bit. I then added in 1 cup of the flour and 1/4 cup of the herbed olive oil and mixed those in. I let that sit for another five minutes. Finally, I added in the rest of the flour and the salt.

I floured my surface and kneaded my dough until smooth. Focaccia dough is a pretty easy dough to work with, so it came together quickly.

 

I then oiled my mixing bowl and put the dough back in. I covered it with a damp towel and let it rest for 1 hour. After an hour, the dough had risen quite a bit and was very light and airy.

I preheated my oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I drizzled 2 tbsp of the herbed olive oil onto a 13 inch baking sheet.

Next, I dumped the dough onto the baking sheet and spread it out so it covered the entire sheet. I dimpled the dough with my fingers, and spread the last of the herbed olive oil over top.

I let my dough rest for another 20 minutes to rise while I prepped my toppings for decorating. I scoured my fridge and home garden, and came up with some good ideas!

I ended up finding pea flowers, kale flowers, broccoli, radish, tomatoes, garlic, black olives and lemons--all things that would taste great on a bread, so I was happy with my choices! After 20 minutes, it was time to decorate the dough. I decided to decorate it vertically, and I went to work.

 

This was incredibly fun. I loved being able to be creative and artistic while baking! I drizzled some extra oil over the toppings to try to ensure that they didn't burn, and popped the dough into the oven for 20 minutes.

 

When the bread came out, I was pleased with my work! Some parts of it had burned a bit, but most of it didn't. I actually liked the slight burning of some of my toppings--I felt like the edges of the garlic burning made my radish flowers look even more like flowers.

I cut myself a nice big slice of focaccia, cutting out the sun, and taste tested it. I LOVED the taste of the thinly sliced lemon on the focaccia, and even if I don't decorate the bread in the future, I think that I would really love incorporating the lemon into future renditions. The flavor went so perfectly with the bread, adding a really nice brightness and freshness to the already delicious and airy bread.

 

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project, and I'm super glad that I did it. I even think that focaccia is going to be my go-to bread now!