Focaccia Recipe with Kalamata Olives, cherry tomatoes and red onions 

Guest Recipe - Sue Stoneman has been at it again, baking delicious focaccia bread using our olives! She made the most amazing focaccia at Devon County Show using our NEW Hot Honey olives. 

This is a perfect loaf for eating alfresco, just to nibble on, dip in oil or to eat with your summer BBQ feasts and salads.

It’s lovely & light. Focaccia is a fairly wet dough and once your electric stand mixer has done all the mixing and kneading, it’s just a matter of being patient and letting the dough rise.  The results are well worth the wait.

You can also adapt this recipe and use any flavour olives, pick your favourite West Country Olive flavour or make it more than once and try different flavours in each loaf. 

Our Kalamata olives still have the stone so you just need to cut in half and remove the stone, alternatively you could use our Classic Blend olives which is a mix of green and Kalamata olives both pitted. 

Ingredients

For the dough

250g strong white bread flour

4g salt

5g dried yeast

15ml olive oil

185ml water

For the topping

75ml olive oil

Kalamata Black Olives 

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

A quarter of red onion, finely sliced

Tablespoon of fresh rosemary

Sea salt

Method

1.Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and if using an electric stand mixer, slowly add the water and using the dough hook, mix for 8 minutes. If mixing by hand, turn out onto an oiled surface and knead for ten minutes. The dough is fairly wet.

 2. Place into a clean, oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave in a warm place for at least 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

3. Line your baking dish with parchment paper and oil it well.

4. Carefully tip the dough (there is no ‘knocking back’ when making focaccia) into the baking dish and gently ease it into the corners.  Pour some olive oil over the top of the dough and make indentations with your fingertips pressing right down to the bottom of the dish.

5. Cover with cling film and leave to prove again for at least 90 minutes.

6. Turn your oven on at 180C.

7. Remove the clingfilm and press into the dough the tomatoes, pitted olives (I cut them in half) and spread over the sliced red onion and sprinkle with rosemary. Pour over the remainder of the olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. It should be a lovely light golden colour. Drizzle over a little more olive oil.

9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. Remove from the dish after about five minutes to allow the steam to escape, removing the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack.