Oven-baked Italian bread made with fantastic flavours of olive oil, garlic, sundried tomato, olives and herbs, great as a side with pasta recipes to soak up the juices. Or make up extra Oil mixture and serve together to be dipped in!
Ingredients:
Olive oil mix:
120 ml of Olive oil
2 tsp Gia Garlic Puree
1 Tbsp of Gia Sundried Tomato Puree
1 Tbsp Dried mixed herbs
Black pepper to taste
Focaccia Bread mix:
300 grams of Plain Flour
2 tsp of dry yeast
1/2 tsp of Honey
Pinch of Salt
240 ml of warm water
3 sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
Black olives (cut into halves)
Method:
1. In a bowl combine the Olive oil, Gia Garlic puree, Gia Sundried Tomato puree, dried mixed herbs and black pepper and place to one side.
2. In a large mixing bowl stir the yeast, warm water and honey together and set to one side for 5 minutes.
3. Add 120 grams of flour and 4 tbsp of the oil mix to the large mixing bowl with the yeast, warm water and honey. Stir together and until all ingredients in the bowl are mixed in and place to one side for another 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the remaining flour and salt, until the dough forms together, the dough should be fairly wet and sticky at this point. Sprinkle some flour on a board and knead it for 5 minutes, only adding flour to the board if really needed. The kneading should help make it less sticky, you don't want to make it too dry with flour as it will affect the rise of the bread.
5. Place 2 tbsp of the olive oil mix into the cooking tin and spread all over the base and around the sides.
6. Place the kneaded dough in the centre of an oiled baking tin with a dampened towel over the top and let it spread and rise for 1 hour. It may need longer, keep it somewhere warm away from draughts. It will be ready when it has doubled in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 200°C /400f
8. Once the dough has doubled in size. Start to dimple the bread with your finger/thumb (put some oil on your finger/thumb to stop the bread sticking to it) when pushing into the bread push all the way down until you hit the base.
9. Drizzle 2 tbsp of oil mixture over top the of the bread, allowing it to sink into the holes. Push olives into the dimples slightly, bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
10. Remove from oven, glaze with the leftover oil mix.
11. Let sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Slice, serve & enjoy 🙂
