Last year I was invited to attend an exclusive bread making experience hosted by Taste and Glacier by Sanlam. Our morning started with an amazing breakfast at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant and this was followed by learning how to make bread. For those of you who follow me on twitter you might have seen my timeline flooded with information using the #tasteglacier hashtag. There were lots of interesting tit bits handed out by Tim and Ryan Faull and we got to make rolls and focaccia. The most interesting fact I learnt was to use normal temperature tap water for bread making when using a stand mixer. There is no need to get your water to a tepid temperature as the machine warms up the dough. There is something quite sublime when making bread by hand and this is my preferred method if time allows. However, I will never say no to making bread in my bread maker. I also love the squishy feeling of rubbing oil into focaccia, and this basic recipe can be ‘dressed up’ in a variety of ways. On the day of the bread making we used olives and herbs. For this focaccia I added nothing but I will make it again using sun dried tomatoes and rosemary. You can add any toppings of your choice of course! After we made bread, lunch was served from the Limoncello food truck. This was a great experience for me, and one I repeated when Dave and I were at the Le Kap Lifestyle day. After lunch we were treated to a specialty sausage and craft beer tasting with Cure Deli and Triggerfish Brewery. I loved everything we tasted and since then I have bought pork cheeks from Cure Deli and I am thinking of a special recipe to share here on my blog. A big thank you to the entire team for an amazing day and for a stunning goody bag which included my very own bread mixing bowl.
Focaccia
Ingredients
- 1 kg bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 15 g yeast
- 750 mls water
- 25 g fine salt
- Olive oil for drizzling
Method
- Place the flour, yeast and water into a stand mixer
- Using the dough hook attachment, mix for 3 minutes on a slow speed
- Increase the speed to medium and beat for 6 minutes
- Add the salt and beat for a further 2 minutes
- Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth
- Leave to prove for 3 hours - fold over once at 45 minutes, again after an hour and a half and once more after 2 hours and 10 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 220° Celsius and if you have a baking stone, place it in the oven
- Lightly dust your work surface with flour and turn out the dough
- Divide into 2 equal portions and cover with a damp cloth and leave for 15 minutes
- Without knocking back the dough, stretch each piece to fit onto a rectangular baking sheet
- Place the dough onto your baking sheet making sure it fits into the corners
- Lightly drizzle with olive oil and use your fingertips to create dimples in the dough
- Leave to prove for 10 minutes
- Bake for 15 minutes making sure that the dough has cooked properly on the bottom before removing from the oven
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes and serve warm
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Disclosure: I was invited to attend this event and my invitation did not require me to write a blog post. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
Hi Tandy, the Focaccia recipe and photo look great. I haven’t made bread for years, but it is something I’d like to get back into especially when you can make great bread like this
It was so simple to do and so tasty! Hope you find your phone btw 🙂
Your photo has made me feel very hungry before breakfast. You certainly get to attend some really amazing events, Tandy.I can just imagine how tasty your morning was. 🙂
I am truly blessed to attend such wonderful events!
What a fun and delicious thing to make, Tandy. 🙂 I really like focaccia but have never made it. It looks very simple. 🙂
And it is very tasty as well 🙂
I love dimples on face cheeks and focaccia! It looks superb Tandy 😀
that is just where dimples belong Lorraine 🙂
You have inspired me to have a go at focaccia – looks so good!
I am so glad I have inspired you Carrie! Let me know how it works out 🙂
Your focaccia is beautiful!
Thank you Joanne 🙂
Your bread looks spectacular! And you make it sounds so simple!
It was perfectly simple 🙂
Lloks gorgeous – haven’t made focaccia in ages. Time to put that right!
Hope you find the time to make it!
I have always wanted to make focaccia bread, but I thought it would be too hard. This recipe looks relatively easy, I should really try it out soon!
It is much easier than it looks and I hope you enjoy making it 🙂
you have wounderful recepies
thank you so much for the compliment 🙂
I love home-made foccacio the most but prefer to add fresh herbs or sea salt on top!
Yum Yum Yummm!
I love adding rosemary as well 🙂
Yum! I often order focaccia bread, but have yet to make my own (and I really should). Bookmarking this recipe–thanks for sharing!
My pleasure and I hope you enjoy it when you make it 🙂
Me too or semi dried tomatoes with a herb oil! 😉 x
that is another great idea!
this looks stunning
thank you so much Usha 🙂