Olive & Rosemary Wholemeal Focaccia
Making pizza dough is a regular Friday night activity around here, but sometimes it's fun to mix things up a little, and use the same simple recipe to make a focaccia. Especially delicious if it's studded with black olives and fresh rosemary sprigs.
One of the best things about this recipe is the speed - so if you suddenly need bread to go with dinner, you can make a heavenly-scented loaf in under 2 hours.
Olive & Rosemary
Wholemeal Foccacia
You can use the same recipe to make a very good pizza dough - simply omit the sugar in that case. (The sugar is eaten by the yeast as it proves, which creates a fluffier dough for focaccia. It won't taste sweet, because it is simply an energy source for the living yeast dough. For pizza though, we skip the sugar to create a crispy, flatter crust.)
Served warm from the oven, this focaccia is fluffy and chewy - achieved by the combination of spelt and wheat flours.
The combination of flours results in a really delicious texture, but you can alternatively use whatever flours you have in your pantry. Spelt flour creates a very short texture, while the stronger baker's flour makes it chewy and creamy. We love this combination and use it for a lot of our yeast baking, but we've also got good results from using just baker's flour if we've run out of spelt.
And instead of rosemary, you could use fresh thyme or oregano - and omit the olives if you don't like them. If omitting the olives, sprinkle a little flaked salt on top instead. (We use the pink River Murray salt in all our cooking.)
Happy Baking, xV
Based on my grandmother’s recipe, these Anzac biscuits have a much higher ratio of oats than most modern versions. As an oat-lover, that’s a very yummy thing!