First Time Focaccia - Red Onion, Taleggio & Rosemary.

If there's a more enjoyable isolation, Saturday afternoon activity I'm yet to find it. Once again inspired by TellTaleFood on Instagram, I set about to make my first focaccia. Now usually I'll just go head first into a recipe, winging it and going with my gut. But this was different. Good bread is an art, measurements need to be precise, steps followed meticulously and I wanted to ensure I didn't miss anything out, any golden nuggets of advice. So I spent the morning trawling articles, recipe books, pages seemingly dedicated to the religion of focaccia until I was happy with a bastardised, patch-work recipe and that more importantly I had the ingredients for! I have to say I was really happy with the outcome, crispy and chewy on the base, pillowy and soft in the middle and the toppings were perfect. Let's just hope this flour shortage in East Finchley passes soon so I can make another!

The process of making a bread dough with active yeast in it is quite different to say a pasta or a pastry dough. I found the kneading process way more fun and relaxing. It was like the dough had been injected with helium and I could just throw it around. Also seeing the transformation of the dough when you leave it to proof is honestly one of the most satisfying things to see in the kitchen, it makes me smile every time and I love checking on it's progress impatiently!

The dough goes through two proofs, each around an hour in length. So a good afternoon activity!

I chose red onions to top mine, slowly sweated down with bay leaves, thyme and whole garlic cloves to give an intensely sweet & sticky base. I had some taleggio (a soft cheese) and some fresh rosemary from the garden. But use what you have. You could use white onions gently softened with mustard seeds, sun dried tomatoes, new potatoes which rosemary and parmesan, they'll all taste good! I also think the amount of olive oil in your tray is key, the focaccia will essentially semi fry in that oil, suck it up into the base and give you the crispiest, chewiest finish. As always I am salivating while writing! In terms of the flour, having done a lot of reading there were mixed opinions. Some purists said to just use strong bread flour, others argued the case for 00 flour, typically reserved for pasta making. In the end I settled for half and half, mainly because I didn't have enough of either in the cupboard, but combined I did!

On to the recipe!

For the focaccia dough this is what I used:

• 300g strong bread flour (but just use whatever you have in the cupboard)

• 300g 00 flour

• 8g active yeast

• 30g caster sugar

• 440g warm water

• 20g fine salt

For the topping:

• 5 small red onions thinly sliced

• 2 bay leaves

• 3 whole garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 1 tsp thyme

• 50g taleggio chunked up

• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped.

Let's get cooking!

1. Start by combing all of your dough dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix well. If you have the luxury of a electric mixing bowl then you can do the same. I don't so I did it all by hand and worked just fine!

2. Make a well in the middle and slowly start to incorporate the warm water, combining with a fork.

3. Once the water is all combined you should have a sticky dough. Don't be tempted to add more flour, we want it nice and sticky and fluffy.

4. Lightly oil your work surface and then tip the dough and start to knead it for a good 10-15 mins. You may need to reapply oil to the surface to stop it sticking. If you find your dough is really, really wet then add a tiny bit of flour in and carry on kneading. But go steady on the flour.

5. Once you've finished kneading lightly oil a large mixing bowl and place your dough inside. Cover with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm to proof for 1 hour or until it's doubled in size. Take a picture before for reference, I found this useful and also cool to compare!

6. In the meantime get a medium pan on a medium heat. Add a glug of olive oil and then add in your onions, bay, garlic cloves and thyme. It's important to leave the garlic cloves in their skins to act as a natural protectant so they don't burn! Shift the heat down to low and allow to sweat down until you have a sticky, sweet delicious mess (about 15-20 mins).

7. Place your oven on to pre-heat at Gas Mark 8. It's important to have a really hot oven to begin with for bread and then reduce the heat down after.

8. Prepare a large roasting tray and pour enough olive oil in that it is about 1/2cm deep (yes really!). This is going to provide the crispy, chewy base we all love in a focaccia!

9. Remove your dough and place into the roasting tray. Using your fingers start to spread the dough out to the edges. Don't worry it won't reach just yet. Make lots of little furrows and dents in the dough with your finger tips to allow the toppings to sit in as you spread the dough out!

10. Remove the onions from the heat. Remove the bay leaves but keep the garlic cloves.

11. The garlic cloves should be nice and soft, so peel them and then slice them up nice and thin. They'll add another dimension to your topping! With your hands start to spread onions over the top of the dough in a thin layer. Spread over your garlic & taleggio. Leave the rosemary out for the time being we'll come to this at the end!

12. Leave the dough to proof again for about 1 hour until the dough has nearly reached the edges of the tray. Now it's getting excited!

13. Gently put the tray into the oven (careful not to knock it and you will remove the air which makes the focaccia so light and delicious). Shut the door and immediately turn the oven down to gas mark 7.

14. Focaccia and bread cooking in general is hard to define how long to cook for. Mine took about 30 mins bang on, with a little adjusting of the temperature up and down as I went. Yours might take longer, or slightly less, but somewhere between 30-40 mins seems to be good.

15. As soon as it's done remove from the oven, drizzle with olive oil, a good sprinkle of salt and now go straight on with your chopped rosemary. INHAIL! That smell is sooooo good! The residual heat from the oil and the oven will cook the rosemary without burning it.

16. Remove from the baking tray on to a wire rack and allow to briefly cool (if you can wait!). Slice while still warm and devour!