As it’s bread week on The Great British Bake Off I couldn’t let it pass without trying my hand at a new bake.

The last few weeks I’ve been going through one of my flatbread addiction phases and they have accompanied a lot of our meals but last night I fancied a change so made a foccacia.

The basic recipe is one I’ve used on numerous occasions to make a rosemary and seasalt foccacia but the beauty of this bread is that you can change it so much just by adding a few herbs or ingredients.

This is a sort of pizza flavoured foccacia with oregano and Sundried tomatoes giving a really summery vibe. I used dried herbs as I was actually feeling too lazy to go out and snip some – and it was cold last night! Fresh would take the flavour up a notch I imagine. It also has a hint of heat because I used chilli and garlic rapeseed oil:

Oregano and Sundried Tomato Foccacia

You will need:

500g of strong white bread flour
1.5 tbsp of oregano
5g of easy bake yeast
350ml of warm water
30ml of chilli & garlic rapeseed oil ( The preservation society )
5g of seasalt
1.5 tbsp of Sundried tomatoes
* some additional oil, salt and herbs for the topping

Mix your oregano, flour and salt in a large bowl. Add your yeast and warm water and make a rough dough before adding your oil and bringing it together into a very sticky dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. You need to work through the sticky stage, using floured hands and adding more flour to hands as needed. It will become less sticky and more smooth. Then add your Sundried tomatoes and knead for a few more minutes.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a teatowel. Leave until doubled in size ( about an hour to an hour and a half).
Preheat your oven to the highest heat setting.
Now knock back and shape into a rectangle on a floured work surface and place into an oiled rectangular baking tray. Cover again and leave for about 45 minutes. Now using your fingers, press deep dimples into the dough and sprinkle with herbs and salt and drizzle with oil.

Place into your oven and cook for approximately 18-20 minutes. If it’s browning too quickly you may want to reduce the heat for the last 10 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly and serve cut into strips with oil for dipping.

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