First, apologies. This Friday Foto is even more tardy than the last. Blogging while traveling for the holidays proved tougher than expected. I blame it on the five article deadlines I was working on, coupled with the desire to spend some quality time with family and friends. Now we’re back in Colorado, and I’m already feeling back in my blogging groove.
Today’s FF (or should I say the FF that should have posted two days ago, when it was actually Friday…) is of a Rosemary Focaccia. The recipe is in the same spirit as the flatbread, with a few differences that make for a delicious and quite different bread. Here’s how to make it:
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups Artisan GF Flour Blend
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
dried basil and oregano
1. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water, add the yeast, stir, and set aside until the yeast is nice and foamy.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, xanthan gum, salt, rosemary).
3. Mix the egg and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil together, and add it to the yeast.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until thoroughly combined. (You can use a stand mixer for this, though I just used a fork and some elbow grease.)
5. Butter a 9×9 pan and evenly spread the dough into the pan.
6. Brush the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the dough, and sprinkle the surface with a dash of crushed sea salt, as well as dried basil and dried oregano.
7. Cover with plastic wrap, set in a warm location, and let rise for 20 minutes, or until the dough roughly doubles in size. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan.
9. Cool the bread in the pan, then slice and serve. Or, once cool, remove it whole from the pan before slicing to serve.
Enjoy!
– Pete
Mmm, I love focaccia! This one looks delish, must try it soon!!
Hey Stephanie… It was delish! The texture was just a tiny bit gummy, I thought, but I overall liked it enough not to mess with it. I might experiment with reducing the xanthan by just a tiny bit. Let me know what you think of the recipe as is.
Thanks! Pete
I made this tonite & it was probably the best tasting GF bread I’ve had in a year! Thank you for posting your recipes – it’s very generous of you.
Is there some trick I could use to make the bread thicker? I followed the recipe exactly & it was about 3/4″ thick (perfect for sandwiches!) I’m in Broomfield so I don’t think it’s an altitude issue.
Next week I’m on to gnocchi!
Hi Marilyn… I’m so glad you enjoyed the focaccia! I’m assuming that by “thicker,” you mean a bread that is taller than 3/4″? Traditionally, focaccia is a flatbread and as such is meant to be “thin.” But, if you wanted to make it thicker, you could use a pan smaller than 9×9. By default, the dough/batter would be deeper, resulting in a thicker bread.
On the other hand, if by “thicker” you mean the consistency of the dough, then you could increase the flour slightly (though this would affect the balance of other dry ingredients, such as xanthan gum.
Cheers, Pete
I have been craving a really good olive and rosemary bread so I thought I’d try this. I added chopped olives and it was as delicious as I’d hoped! I agree with the slightly ‘gummy’ texture (we noted it too – thought it was underdone) but I admit, we are really picky 🙂 so it is a very minor issue. My non-GF hubby said it was the best foccacia he recalls eating. Thanks for another great recipe!!
Michele
PS- made the cinnamon rolls for Christmas – fantastic – usurped my 11 year stand-by recipe!
Hi Michele… So glad to hear you enjoyed this focaccia recipe (with some tasty modifications!) as well as our cinnamon rolls. Happy New Year!
Cheers, Pete
Made this tonight. We all enjoyed it. I used honey vs. sugar and only added 3/4 teaspoon of x.g. (I don’t add any to your flour blend so that was the total amount used). There was still a slight chew. I don’t think it is because of the gum though, perhaps the egg? In any case, it wasn’t distracting and did not detract from the final product. 😉