The Best Focaccia Bread you'll ever taste

It's national bread week and so I thought I would share with you my favourite bread recipe...focaccia! A lot of shop bought versions are heavy and dry which is the complete opposite to what focaccia should be....it should almost melt in the mouth and be very light. Here is the perfect recipe for focaccia, once you've tried this recipe you certainly won't eat shop bought again :)

Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia

This recipe produces quite a wet sticky dough and although it can be done by hand, it is a lot easier with a stand mixer. Of course if you choose to do it by hand the best way to work with a wet sticky dough is to oil the work surface and also your hands, makes handling the dough much easier, a lot easier than with flour...trust me :))

500g/1lb 2oz strong white bread flour
10g salt
10g fast action yeast yeast
100ml olive oil
40ml garlic olive oil
1-2 tbsp dried or fresh rosemary
360ml tepid water
olive oil, for drizzling
Salt to season

Place the flour, salt, yeast, rosemary and olive oil into a bowl (make sure you put the yeast on one side and salt on the other). Add in three quarters of the water and mix, then add in the rest of the water until you get a sticky dough. Knead for about 5-10 minutes.
Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.
Line two large baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Tip the dough out onto an oiled work surface making sure not to knock back the dough, handle carefully and divide into two portions and place onto each baking sheet, cover with oiled cling film and then leave to prove for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 220C/200c. Drizzle the loaves with oil, sprinkle with fine sea salt then bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden in colour.

Adapted from a Paul Hollywood recipe

Rosemary and Walnut Shortbread and Orange and Cardamom Shortbread

As promised here is another recipe I did today...

Rosemary and Walnut Shortbread

325g plain flour
200g salted butter
125g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp rosemary , finely chopped
100g walnuts , chopped

Put the flour and butter in a food processor and whizz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, egg yolks and rosemary and whizz to a dough. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead in the walnuts. Shape into a log about 5cm across. Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour.
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160/gas 4. Slice the dough into biscuits and arrange on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes then cool.

To do the Orange and Cardamom, replace the rosemary and walnuts with the zest of one orange and 5 cardamom pod seeds crushed in a pestle and mortar.

A very summery dinner :)

Well as the sun is shining, I made a very summery dinner and wow was it nice and I must say, I almost forgot it was still just above freezing outside :)) I love it when food can do that!

Wild Mushroom, Spinach and Manchego cheese tart with a Walnut Pastry

Walnut pastry
60g walnut
250g plain flour
125g butter
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp water chilled

Filling
300g wild mushrooms - mixture
Good handful of spinach
100g Manchego cheese grated
300ml double cream
3 eggs
Salt and Pepper

Olive oil for frying

Make up the pastry
First of all toast the walnuts in the oven for about 5 minutes and allow to cool
Add the walnuts and half the flour to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until walnuts are broken up.
Add the remaining flour, butter and pinch of salt and blitz until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency.
Add the egg yolk and blitz. Add a tbsp of water at a time until the dough comes together.
Tip onto a floured work surface and gently work to form a smooth ball (the trick is not to over work as you don't want it to be tough)
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll out the dough and fill a tart tin. Blind bake at 200/190 fan for 20 minutes and remove baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Reduce the oven temp to 190/180 fan
Slice the mushrooms and fry for a couple of minutes until they just start to go soft.
Fill the pastry case with the spinach, top with the mushrooms and then the grated Manchego cheese.
Mix together the double cream and eggs and some seasoning and pour this over the other ingredients in the pastry case
Place in a pre heated oven for 30-35 minutes. Serve warm


Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Aubergine with rosemary, garlic and cannellini beans
(Of course feel free to substitute the beans to butter beans or flageolet beans if you wanted)

10 Cherry tomatoes
1 Aubergine cut into cubes
Rosemary
4 Garlic cloves
5 tbsp Garlic oil
1 tin of cannellini beans

Add all the ingredients to a roasting tray and add to a pre heated oven (180/170 fan) and roast for 15-20 minutes
The cannellini beans will go soft so if you prefer yours harder then please feel free to either add them in the last 5 minutes of cooking or add just before serving. (This is a large side dish so reduce if only serving to a few people)

All served with a rocket salad with peppers, tomatoes, roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts and walnut and seeded soda bread