Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
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Ingredients
500g strong white flour
1½ tsp fine sea salt
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
8 tbsp olive oil
For the topping
175g Pomodorino tomatoes, halved
½ x 20g pack rosemary, small sprigs picked
1 x 225g pack halloumi, diced
100g pitted mixed olives
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Prep to the end of step 3 the day before, chill overnight. Best served freshly baked but can be reheated to refresh next day, wrapped in foil.
Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, followed by 400ml lukewarm water. Mix with a wooden spoon until you don’t have any pockets of dry flour; it will look sticky and shaggy. Cover and leave to stand for 15 minutes.
Uncover then drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil around the edges of the bowl. Push your fingers down between one side of the bowl and the dough, letting the oil trickle down as you pull the dough up from the bottom and fold it over itself into the centre. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the fold and turn three more times. The dough will become smooth and stretchy, forming a loose ball. Flip the ball of dough over, cover again and leave for 30 minutes, then repeat the folding process (no need for more oil though). Rest for a further 30 minutes, then fold again.
Brush a rectangular box or dish (about 20cm x 30cm) with 1 tablespoon of oil. Transfer the dough, stretching it to roughly fit. Cover and leave to rise for an hour until roughly doubled in size; this helps to pre-shape the dough (you can chill it overnight at this point, see left).
Use another tablespoon of oil to grease a large baking tray, about 25cm x 35cm. Carefully tip the spongey focaccia into the tray. Use oiled fingers to stretch it out gently – it will try and spring back, but persevere, without squashing out too much air. Cover and leave to prove for 45-60 minutes (or up to 1½ hours if chilled overnight).
Preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Use your fingertips to make deep indentations in the dough. Scatter with the tomatoes and rosemary, and drizzle with another 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes then scatter over the halloumi and olives. Bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden, with a crisp base.
Transfer from the baking tray to a wire rack. The focaccia is particularly delicious warm from the oven, but in any event should be eaten within 24 hours.
Serve with
Balsamic courgette, pine nuts and Parmesan salad Porcini mushroom arancini Tomato and peach salad
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Because it creates the kind of focaccia that I like, light and fluffy instead of fine crumbed and cakey. Focaccia is all about olive oil, on the dough, in the dough, in the topping, and finally a little drizzle when it comes out off the oven nice and hot. It may SEEM like a lot but it's a big bread we're making here!
Once rested, perform a stretch-and-fold by grabbing a corner of the dough in the bowl, lift straight up to stretch the dough as high as it will go without tearing, and fold over to the other side. Rotate the bowl and perform three more reps of stretch-and-folds.
If you want to, you should be able to cold-ferment this dough for up to 48 hours in the fridge, for even better flavor development. If you leave it longer than that, you risk it over proofing, which means the dough won't rise in the oven and support big bubbles as it bakes.
Don't over-knead your dough– In the first step, make sure the dough has come together enough that it's sticky but not smooth, this will help to make the much desired air bubbles.
Traditionally Tuscan focaccia is medium thick and medium soft but crispy on the outside. Salt and rosemary are its usual companions. However, throughout Tuscany you can also find a thin and crispy version as well thick and very soft. Tuscan panini with cheese and cold cuts often use focaccia for a base.
Oven temperature: If the oven is too cold, it can lead to dense bread as it doesn't heat the gases in the dough enough to make them expand and rise. Preheat the oven and don't leave the door open too long when placing focaccia inside. This ensures the oven is nice and hot.
Olive oil - Olive oil is arguably the most important ingredient you'll need other than yeast. Olive oil gives the focaccia that crispy outer texture, moisture, and flavor. You might think that there is too much olive oil in this recipe. But you have to trust me, you need it!
No-knead bread is a method of bread baking that uses a very long fermentation (rising) time instead of kneading to form the gluten strands that give the bread its texture. It is characterized by a low yeast content and a very wet dough.
A failure to knead dough (unless you're working with a no-knead recipe) can lead to: Poor gluten development: When you don't knead bread, the gluten won't form properly. This can result in a lack of elasticity and strength, meaning your final product is likely to come out of the oven dense and heavy.
Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.
If you forget to dimple your dough and bake it, the dough will collapse when the bubbles burst, resulting in sad focaccia and a sad baker. To dimple your dough, oil your fingers or the end of a wooden spoon handle and gently poke the dough.
Introduction: My name is Francesca Jacobs Ret, I am a innocent, super, beautiful, charming, lucky, gentle, clever person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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Prep time: 25 mins
