Sweet Pepper & Sundried Tomato Focaccia

Following on from last week's marbled focaccia; last night I had a go at a sundried tomato one.

One thing that I've not appreciated before is that a lot of the nice flavour in this bread comes from the pepper, and that just using slices of raw pepper doesn't allow it to hit that sweet and lovely taste. This time round I made a paste of sundried tomato and sweet red pepper, as well as using whole pieces of each. I also used the basil oil I made (see last post) to inject some extra flavour.

The result? I'm pretty pleased. I've not hit perfection yet, but I'd happily eat it again. The main mistake I made was to use pieces of tomato sold in a bag. I've used ones in oil in the dough before and it makes it too oily. What I didn't realise was that the tomatoes that come in a bag are preserved in salt and need to be washed first. Yuck! Thus I'm recommending anyone who tries this recipe that they use the type in oil, but just try to really dry them off and remove as much oil as possible before adding.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp fast acting dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 350g White Bread Flour
• Basil Oil
• 210ml Water
• 120g Sundried Tomatoes
• 1 Sweet Red Pepper

Again I made the dough using a bread machine. Place the yeast, sugar, salt, flour, water and 1 tbsp of unstrained basil oil in the pan in the order specified by the manufacturer and set on an italian/pizza dough cycle (45 min on mine). I used table salt this time round because the sea salt used last time didn't give it enough of a kick.

Once the dough has come together (5 minutes or so) add 60g of chopped sundried tomatoes to it, removing as much excess oil as possible with kitchen tissue first.

Cut a sweet red pepper (the long pointy type) into slithers and lightly fry in some sunflower oil to soften. Blend half of the cooked pepper with the other 60g of the sundried tomatoes in a food processor, to create a paste.

When the dough has finished it's cycle roll it out on a floured board, spread the paste over it and top with the remaining pepper. Fold the dough up several times in a random fashion, adjusting the direction of each to marble the paste through it. I found this worked better than last week's twisting.

Place the dough in an oiled 9" springform tin, push it into a circle with your fingers and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. When risen, use your fingers to poke holes in the dough and fill them with strained basil oil (see first photo). Leave to rise again for 15 minutes, then cook at 200^oc for 20 minutes, until the top is golden and oil absorbed. Allow the bread to cool completely before serving, to fully develop its texture and flavour.

Black Olive Marbled Focaccia

Focaccia is wheatylicious. And yes, we do have a chaise longue in the kitchen. You'll also notice that I like my focaccia deep, not thin like it is traditionally made.

There is a reason for this. The best focaccia I've ever had the pleasure of tasting is that formally sold by Waitrose, in a pack of 3 called Focaccia Trio. It to was in this format, with 3 breads each making up a third: black olive, herb+seed and tomato+pepper. I wasn't fussed by the herb, but the tomato was divine. The olive wasn't as nice, but pretty damn good. Waitrose sold it for years and was vegan according to their website. It was popular and always selling out. Then, one day, they replaced it with some rubbish with milk powder in. Since when did Italian bakers use milk powder?

I attempted to recreate it but failed - all focaccias I tried (including those in Carol Field's focaccia book) weren't up to scratch. I'm guessing the Waitrose one wasn't traditional and that Field does actually know what she's talking about, but anyway. The thing that set it aside was that it wasn't simply stuffed, the flavour was marbled through the dough and fully infused within it. Every mouth full was perfect loveliness.

I've not made focaccia for a while, and when I do make it these days I tend to go for caramelised red onion, garlic and rosemary. I decided this weekend however to try a black olive one instead. The results were pretty good I have to say (almost all of it got eaten between us within minutes of photographing), but it's not focaccia perfection yet. My criticism: could take more seasoning/flavour and due to it's height was ever so slightly doughy. I'm going to go for a slightly larger pan next time and use more salt. I'm blogging what I made this time round however and will revisit it another time.

Dough ingredients:

• 1 tsp fast acting dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 350g White Bread Flour
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 210ml Water

Place the above ingredients in your bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer. Put on an italian/pizza dough cycle (45 mins on my machine).

Meanwhile, blend 15 fresh pitted black olives (not the preserved type that come in brine) with 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 tsp dried thyme and 1 tsp minced garlic in a food processor.

When the dough is complete turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for a minute. Roll it out and spread with the olive paste.

Fold the dough over several times then take the ends and twist the whole thing. This is to try and get the marbled effect and evenly distribute the paste throughout the dough.

Move the dough to a 25cm oiled loose bottomed tin, cover and place in a warm place for 20 minutes. After the dough has risen make holes with your finger tips and pour extra virgin olive oil into them. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise again for 15 minutes, top with chopped olives and bake in a 200^oc oven for 25 minutes, or until the top goes golden and starts to crack.

Wait until it has cooled before removing from the tin and cutting. I don't know how long it lasts but it's best eaten fresh.

Update: The small amount that was left the morning after tasted better. I think next time I'll make slightly thinner, use no garlic, more salt and infuse the EV oil somehow with olive before using.