Focaccia is a pizza-esque Italian bread enriched with extra virgin olive oil and usually herb flavoured. With focaccia you can experiment with lots of flavours, stuffing & toppings. When I was thinking about baking this bread, I intended to do a plain rosemary focaccia, but then I caught sight of some leftover olives in the fridge and decided to add them for a bit of flourish.

The recipe below is really easy to follow, you should give it a go….

• 500 grams all-purpose flour
• 350 mls water
• 2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 45 mls extra virgin olive oil
• 75 grams spanish black olives chopped
• 4 sprigs rosemary(finely chop 2 sprigs, the other 2 just remove the leaves)
• Salt & extra virgin olive oil

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, yeast in a large bowl.
2. Add water & olive oil to the dry ingredients, combine to form a sticky dough.
3. Cover the bowl and set it aside for about 30 minutes, during this time autolysis happens. During autolysis the flour absorbs as much water as it can, resulting in a dough that is easier to work with and requires less kneading.
4. Lightly oil your work surface & your hands with olive oil, turn out dough on to work surface. Knead the dough until its soft & elastic, this takes about 10-15 minutes. The oil on your hands keep the dough from sticking on to it.
5. Once kneading is done, set the dough aside in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for about 120 minutes.
6. After 120 minutes knock down the dough. Turn out dough on to your work surface.
7. Add the chopped rosemary & the chopped olives on to the dough, then lightly knead for about two minutes to combine the rosemary & olives.
8. Generously oil a large baking tray with olive oil.
9. Spread the dough on to the baking tray, whilst spreading you might find the dough springing back when you try pushing it wide. Don’t worry about this.
10. Cover the baking tray and let the dough prove for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
11. After 30 minutes, dimple the dough using your fingers. On this bread I also experimented with a fork.
12. Generously spread olive oil on top of the dough, followed by a few pinches of salt, some chopped olives & rosemary leaves.
13. Place the baking tray with dough in the centre of the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes.
14. After baking, remove from tray and let bread cool on a wire rack.
15. Enjoy!