Freshly out of the oven or dried into crackers, I love the flavour of this Olive Focaccia.

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour. 

  

Ingredients

Base

450 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

1 Egg

2 tsp Yeast

15 g Sugar for preincubating the yeast

25 g Sugar

2 tsp Salt

525 g Warm water*

30 g Olive oil in dough mix

 

Topping

40 - 100 g Olives (cut with no pips)

20 g Oil for top of dough 

 

*This amount of water includes the 100 g required for pre incubating the yeast. I made the focaccia with the lighter Bakers' Magic blend (only contains golden flaxseed flour). If you are using the blend containing brown flaxseed or a mix of brown and golden add an additional 25 - 40 g of water. 

 

Method

Warm water is ~1/4 to 1/3 of boiling water with the remaining cold water (tap). Whether you use 1/4 or 1/3 will depend on how cold your tap water is. If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast.

Pre-incubate the yeast at room temperature for approximately 5 - 8 mins in 100 g of warm water containing 15 g of sugar. Stir the mixture to dissolve the sugar & disperse the yeast. This gives the yeast a readily available food source & they can "revive" in a relatively undisturbed environment. After the allocated time the surface of the yeast mixture should be slightly frothy. This indicates the yeast are viable. 

If the yeast mixture has a frothy top or you can see bubbles proceed with bread making.

Are you going to proof the dough in your oven or in another warm spot? If proofing in your oven turn oven to ~50 C for approximately 10 mins then turn it off again.

I usually whiz all the dry ingredients in a food processor before mixing in the wet ingredients. 

Place all ingredients into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer (including pre-incubated yeast). 

Combine ingredients using the flat beater until a uniform consistency is achieved. You may need to stop the mixer and scrap down the sides.

Let the mix sit for 5 minutes in the bowl.

Mix the dough again. Leave dough in the mixing bowl to prove for approximately 30 mins in a warm moist environment. 

Oil the base of a lamington tin. My lamington tin has the dimensions ~ 27 cm x 20 cm. 

Use a spatula to deflate some of the proved dough. You want some of the air pockets to remain. Transfer dough to the lamington tin. Smooth dough to the edges of the tin. 

Let the dough proof for approximately 20 mins in a warm moist environment.

Turn oven on to 200 C (fan forced).

 

Pour approximately half of the olive oil on top of the dough. 

Scatter the olive pieces on top of the dough.

Oil your fingers and press them into the dough. It doesn't matter if some of the olive pieces are forced into the dough. 

Pour on the rest of the olive oil. 

 

Bake at 200 C for approximately 25 min. The time will vary depending on the individual oven. If your oven has a hot spot turn the tin halfway through baking.

Bring the tin out of the oven & allow to cool slightly (10 min) before eating. 

Simply enjoy!

P.S. Turn any left over focaccia into crackers by thinly slicing & drying out the pieces in the oven (100 C).