Blue potato focaccia

I’ve done some savoury baking again and there will be more of it getting closer to Christmas. I got some marvellous blue potatoes from a local shop, so I made this focaccia with them to showcase them properly. They would add a nice splash of colour to any dish. This was just a fluffy focaccia with pre-cooked blue potatoes, onion slices and garlic.

Your VegHog

 

Shallot focaccia

 

I’ve had a nice holiday week so far. It has been very relaxing, just as I intended. I started today with a swim in the harbour, which is so refreshing and really wakes you up. We’ve visited some museums and local marketplaces, had a few beers in beer gardens and just read books. I’ve also done some watercolour painting. I’m not a good painter, but I like it.

Here is yet another focaccia bread that I’ve made. It’s a simple focaccia with pink shallots. It goes well with those autumnal soups or even on its own.

 Have a nice rest of the week!

Your VegHog

 

Decorated focaccia - Sunflowers

I made another decorated focaccia, because making the first one was so much fun. I was inspired by Vincent van Gogh this time and followed a sunflower theme. The bell peppers were also nice on the focaccia and I’m already thinking about my next theme. Do you have any suggestions or have you made a decorated focaccia?

We will go to the seaside in a minute and will just have a relaxing Sunday picnic there. I hope you’ll have a great day!

Your VegHog

Decorated focaccia

I’ve had a lovely week travelling in Denmark visiting many beautiful places on the shore and several museums. But above all, I’ve been taking it easy trying not to think about work, and it has been great. The government has a summer scheme and one part of that is that museum tickets are half price. I will go to one more museum today, as it’s the perfect timing for it now. The weather hasn’t been the greatest, a bit cloudy all the time, but that’s actually a good walking weather. Today seems to be a bit sunnier.

I’ve been admiring this trend of beautiful decorated focaccia breads for a while now and now I got experimenting myself. My bread is of course not nearly as beautiful as some of the creations I’ve seen online, but it turned alright. Such a bread would be really nice to offer to some guests. I will be practising more to make better ones. The bread dough was alright, I just made my basic pizza dough with a little addition of sugar and made it a bit softer. It was rising well and made a fluffy focaccia. The toppings were heirloom tomatoes, basil, fresh onion stalks, shallots and green olives with addition of sea salt and olive oil.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog

Balsamic onion and roasted pepper focaccia

I found these wonderful balsamic infused onions in the shop and had to try them. They were very good indeed and added a perfect flavour to my homemade focaccia. I paired the onions with some antipasti roasted peppers. This was a very nice bread as a side dish or a snack.

My focaccia recipe is so very easy and it can be made with many different toppings. This time I even added a bit of spelt flour into it to have a slightly darker bread. There's hardly any kneading and shaping in this recipe, the focaccia almost makes itself.

Ingredients

300 ml wheat flour

200 ml spelt flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

200 ml lukewarm water

2 tbsp olive oil

Balsamic infused onions

Roasted peppers

20g grated vegetarian pasta cheese

Sea salt

Method

Mix the dry ingredients together, add the lukewarm water and olive oil and mix into a dough.

Stretch the dough onto a baking tray and let rise under a tea towel for about one hour.

Press lightly the halved balsamic infused onions and sliced roasted peppers into the dough and sprinkle some sea salt and grated vegetarian pasta cheese on the top.

Bake the focaccia at 220C for about 20 minutes.

And it's all done!

Your VegHog

Potato and rosemary focaccia

I have baked loads of things with potatoes lately, potato pizza and potato pies, and now I've done it again. Now I baked potato and rosemary focaccias with lovely red ruby gem potatoes. I love the taste of these local potatoes and purchase them quite often. I used mainly spelt flour in the dough, which I haven't done before in focaccias.

Here is how I made these focaccias. The recipe makes four focaccias or one large one.

Ingredients

For the dough:

300 ml spelt flour

200 ml wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

200 ml lukewarm water

2 tbsp olive oil

For the filling:

250 g small potatoes

Rosemary

Sea salt

20g grated mature Cheddar

Method

Mix the dry ingredients for the dough (flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt) and then add the lukewarm water and olive oil and knead to a dough. Let the dough rise for about 40 minutes under a teatowel.

In the meanwhile boil the potatoes until they are soft. Let them cool and cut them into chunky bits. I cut one small potato into 2-3 pieces. Mix the pieces in a bowl with a little olive oil, rosemary and sea salt.

Shape small round focaccias from the dough and place the potato pieces on them. Sprinkle grated cheddar on the top and some more sea salt and rosemary if you prefer.

Bake at 220 C for about 20 minutes and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Tomato focaccia

I got The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson for my hog birthday (old in snuffler years). The Forest Feast is a unique blend between an artbook and a cookbook as Erin puts it herself. It's full of wonderful recipe ideas and beautiful illustrations and photos. It's also rare for me to have an American cookbook, so I'm very excited about it.

When I saw the picture of the “Polka-dot Focaccia” in the book (p. 40-41), I was instantly inspired. In the end I made the focaccia according to my own recipe, but the look is similar.

This is my tomato focaccia recipe, try it!

Ingredients

Selected small colourful tomatoes

500 ml wheat flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

200 ml lukewarm water

2 tbsp olive oil

Dried wild rosemary

Sea salt

Method 

Mix the flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt, and then add the lukewarm water and olive oil. Knead to a dough. Stretch the dough on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and let rise for about 40 minutes under a teatowel.

Place the tomatoes on the dough and press them down gently. Sprinkle the sea salt and dried rosemary on the top.

Bake the focaccia at 220C for about 20 minutes and serve fresh. The focaccia is perfectly good on its own, but also great dipped into basil infused olive oil.

This is very easily done and makes a good addition to a summery serving table. I'm again full of hope for the summer as it has been warm here in England for a few days now!

Your VegHog

Olive focaccia

I'm pretty tired today (again!), so I'm only going to share a quick bread recipe with you. Having freshly baked bread is always great, and there's something about a fluffy, easy focaccia. I seasoned this one with green olives and rosemary for a nice Mediterranean feel. Have a look how easy it is!

All you need is:

500ml wheat flour

1tbsp dry yeast

1tsp sugar

1tsp salt

200ml water

2tbsp olive oil

200g green olives

20g grated Emmental

Rosemary

Sea salt

Chilli flakes

And this is how it's done:

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt) and then add the lukewarm water and olive oil and knead to a dough.

Spread the dough on a baking parchment and let it rise for about 40 minutes under a teatowel.

Press the whole green olives into the dough. Then sprinkle a little grated Emmental cheese, rosemary, sea salt and chilli flakes on the top.

Bake the focaccia at 220C for about 20 minutes and it's done!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Chanterelle focaccia

Focaccia is a fine style of bread, quick to make and only your imagination limits what to top it with. I made a chanterelle mushroom variation, which is slightly different to the typical ones, but it worked very well. I had to use dried chanterelles, but do use fresh ones whenever you can get any, as they are much better. Their distinctive flavour is present in the dried mushrooms, but it's just not the same.

10g dried chanterelles

500ml wheat flour

1tbsp dry yeast

200ml water

1tsp sugar

1tsp salt

2tbsp olive oil

20g grated emmental

Rosemary

Thyme

Sea salt

Mix the flour and yeast, then add the lukewarm water, sugar, salt and olive oil. Knead the dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes under a tea towel.

Soak the mushrooms for about 10 minutes, drain and cook briefly in a pan until the excess liquid has evaporated.

Hand-stretch the dough on a baking tin lined with baking parchment.

Sprinkle the grated cheese, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and chanterelles on the top.

Bake at 220C for about 20 minutes.

Serve with a salad, soup or stew, or just on its own.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog