Baking | Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia … bread of life

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”
Robert Browning

This Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia is bursting with flavour, topped with everything I love and more. To get an even heartier bread, you could even double the toppings, maybe knead in some extra walnuts, olive and cheese through the dough after the first rise. These are thoughts that race through my head as I write, things I would definitely consider doing for my next artisan loaf. I know that will be sooner than later!

That’s just how good this bread was. As you might have noticed, I’ve been baking a lot more artisan bread of late. The recent Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche is another great bread, almost similar flavours, though that was cheesy good to the core! Then of course another favourite, the Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread, rustic, moorish, earthy and wholegrain. While kneading dough is therapeutic and a lot of fun, I think I’ve become a little lazy.

I find myself turning to the trusted stalwart on my counter, the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. That paired with the great quality bakeware they offer makes the whole process so pleasing, so fuss free. Baking bread  is something I’m doing more and more, often wholegrain, sometimes part wholegrain. With dough making sorted out, the mixer kneading in the background, I reach out to flavours my bread might like.It’s often fresh herbs as they grow in my little patch, especially rosemary, as long as it lasts. This past harsh summer killed one of my two precious little plants; the second is kind of surviving. The other thing I like to add is nuts, walnuts in particular. Drizzled with olive oil, they toast up quite beautifully on top of the bread. The rest is pretty optional, whatever catches my eye really. Olives, sun dried tomatoes, mature cheddar, garlic, garlic greens, finely sliced mushrooms, sunflower seeds etc.Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this. I think a sweet version with saffron and pistachio might work great here too. Maybe a grape foccacia. The recipe  results in a light, airy, easy to form bread, a dough which behaves beautifully if kept in the fridge overnight as well. Plenty of good quality extra virgin olive oil is key for a Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia like this.

Nothing like  a bowl of salad and a crust of artisan bread. Once the weather gets cooler, maybe some soup to complete the meal. Until then, we’re just happy to keep it light with the Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia & a Roasted Beet, Chickpea, Red Onion, Walnut Salad.

Note: The beautiful ceramic ware is from a local ceramic artist, Anumita Jain, from Delhi. You can find her at A Clay Story. I think you’ll see a lot more of her art in my frames now, like in the Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies featured above {recipe coming soon}. Her pottery is very inspiring.

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Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia

Nothing better than fresh home baked bread, and this Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia is bursting with flavour. The Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and their great quality bake-ware make baking breads so therapeutic, so fuss free. Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this.

Course Appetiser, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings 2 loaves

Ingredients

Starter

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp dried active yeast

Garlic Rosemary Dough

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
• 2 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp rock salt

Topping

• 1/2 cup walnut halves roughly broken
• 1/4 cup green olives/ sliced
• Few sprigs fresh rosemary
• Himalayan pink rock salt
• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over

Instructions

Starter

• Place warm water, honey and yeast in bowl of stand mixer. Stir and leave for 5-10 minutes.

Garlic Rosemary Dough

• Add remaining ingredients to bowl of KA stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Stir to mix on speed 2, then knead for 5-7 minutes on speed 4 until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add a few spoons of wholewheat flour if the dough is too wet, or a tbsp or two of water if too dense. We are looking for a soft dough.
• Form into a ball, drizzle over with a little olive oil, cover the bowl with cling-wrap or a wet kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm, draft free place for an hour or two until doubled.
• Preheat oven to 200C.
• Divide dough into 2, knock back a little and make 2 balls. Flatten gently into the base of a lightly oiled round baking tin. I used the Kitchen Aid non stick 9" pie pan. All their bakeware is excellent.

Topping

• Make indents into the surface, generously pour over extra virgin olive oil, allowing it to get into the indents.
• Scatter fresh rosemary, walnuts, olives and Himalayan pink rock salt over the top.
• Drizzle a little more extra virgin olive oil over.
• Leave covered with a kitchen towel until the oven preheats.
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and done. Serve warm or at room temperature.