If you’re going to bake bread during lockdown, then bake great bread. Flour continues to be in short supply, so if you can get hold of strong bread or 00 flour then please, put it to good use; you won’t have any problems buying a loaf of regular sliced sandwich bread from the shops anymore, so push the boat out and bake something special. Like, focaccia:
Ingredients
- 250g strong bread flour
- 125g polenta
- 125g 00 flour
- 310 ml water
- 10g salt
- 80g olive oil
- 7g sachet yeast or 14g fresh yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
Method
- Place the flours, salt, yeast, olive oil into a large bowl and then add 310ml of the water bit by bit. Gently stir with your hand or a wooden spoon to form a dough, then leave to stand for 5-10mins. This just allows the water to be absorbed.
- Then, knead the dough in the bowl for five minutes
- Stretch the dough by hand in the bowl, tuck the sides into the centre, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat the process for about five minutes.
- Tip the dough onto a well-oiled work surface and continue kneading for five more minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave to rise until it’s doubled in size.
- Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Tip the dough out of the bowl and flatten the dough onto the prepared tray, pushing to the corners. Cover with a large plastic bag, making sure it does not touch the top of the dough, then leave to prove for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
- Drizzle the loaves with oil, sprinkle with fine sea salt. At this point, you can stud your loaf with rosemary and/or garlic, should you wish.
Then use your fingers to poke some indentations in the top of the loaf, and pour a little bit of water over the loaf to create a bit more steam and give a nice crisp top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. When cooked, drizzle your focaccia with a little more olive oil and serve hot or warm.
If you’re enjoying baking bread and wish to expand your repertoire, then when we’re out the other side of lockdown and it’s safe and sensible to run our cookery courses again, why not join us for one of our Bread and Baking courses?