Tomato And Olive Focaccia + BBC Maestro Review

Tomato and olive focaccia - This delicious focaccia bread is soft, tender, chewy and full of flavour.

It is easy to make and is great as a side dish, served with dips or for making sandwiches. Naturally vegan/dairy-free. (Ad).

Focaccia is one of my all-time favourite breads to bake. It is easy to make, doesn’t require any complicated shaping and it tastes so good!

This tomato and olive focaccia is adapted from a recipe by renowned master bread baker Richard Bertinet.

I was gifted Bertinet's BBC Maestro bread making course to try out, it is a fantastic resource for anyone who is interested in bread making. If you are a beginner it will cover everything you need to know, and even as a relatively experienced bread maker it still taught me some new techniques for handling and shaping dough.

While not all of the recipes are vegan, many of them are, and the techniques Bertinet teaches also apply to vegan bread baking.

He goes into great detail to help you get confident with handling dough and learning to judge when it is ready. The video format makes it easy to learn and follow along, and his obvious passion for the subject makes it fun and engaging to watch; it is almost like having a one to one lesson with Bertinet.

All of the recipes covered in the videos are also included in the extensive course notes so that you can easily apply the skills you have gained. This course really will give you all the knowledge you need to make great bread!

I adapted one of the recipes from the course - a salt and rosemary focaccia, to make this fantastic tomato and olive version. It is a wonderful bread for sharing, it tastes incredible and it is pretty straightforward to make too!

What Do I Need To Make Tomato And Olive Focaccia?:

Bread flour: You need to use white bread flour (called strong white bread flour in the UK). Plain/all-purpose flour has too low a protein content and won't give you the right texture. Do not use gluten-free flour or wholemeal flour.

Yeast: I always prefer to use instant yeast when making bread as it can just be added straight to the flour and doesn’t need to be activated first. See below for instructions if you only have active dry yeast.

Olive oil: Use a good quality olive oil for the best flavour; though do feel free to use a mild flavoured one if you aren’t keen on a strong olive oil flavour. I tend to use a mild olive oil in the dough then an extra virgin one for drizzling on top.

Salt: Salt is important in bread making for the flavour, colour and crust. I use fine sea salt or table salt in the dough, then sprinkle the focaccia with flaky sea salt just before baking. The extra sprinkle of salt is optional, the salt in the dough is not.

Olives: You can use whatever kind of pitted olives you prefer. I like to use garlic stuffed halkidiki olives which I slice myself, but pre-sliced ones are fine too.

Tomatoes: Either cherry tomatoes or baby plum tomatoes work well. You could also use semi-dried sunblush tomatoes instead.

Herbs: Use whichever herbs you prefer. I like fresh rosemary and thyme and a sprinkle of dried oregano.

How To Make Tomato And Olive Focaccia:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Place the water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the flour and yeast and mix on a low speed for about 4 minutes, until it forms a dough.

With the mixer running, drizzle in the olive oil. Keep mixing at a low speed for about 7 minutes. The dough will slide around at first and it will take a while to absorb all of the oil but it will get there eventually.

Turn the speed up to medium for about 3 minutes, then add the salt. Continue to mix on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto an unfloured surface and use a dough scraper to skim it across the surface, this will shape it into a ball with a shiny top.

This technique can't really be explained well in writing, so I recommend buying Bertinet's course to learn properly! If in doubt, just use oiled hands to shape the dough into a ball.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and set aside to rise for 1 ½ - 2 hours, until about doubled in size and full of big air bubbles.

Scrape the risen dough onto an oiled surface. Gently stretch it out into a rough rectangle. Flip the dough over onto an oiled baking sheet.

Scatter over the sliced olives and arrange the halved tomatoes cut side up.

Scatter with rosemary and thyme leaves and a few big pinches of dried oregano.

With oiled fingers, use your hands like claws to gently prod the toppings down into the dough.

Loosely cover and set aside to rise for 20-30 minutes until bubbly.

Drizzle the surface of the dough with a little more olive oil and dimple it again with your fingers, pressing all the way to the tray.

Sprinkle over a little flaky sea salt if you like, then bake for 20 minutes, until well browned.

Top Tips:

For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.

Focaccia dough should be quite wet and sticky; this in combination with a hot oven is what creates the chewy, holey structure. Don’t be tempted to add more flour!

If you are lucky enough to have a stand mixer then you should definitely use it to knead the dough as it is a very sticky job to do by hand! If you do have to knead by hand then a dough scraper will come in very handy!

If you want, you can give the dough it’s first rise overnight in the fridge rather than at room temperature. This breaks up the workload and gives the bread an even better flavour.

Make sure that your yeast isn’t out of date! Old yeast can lead to bread that doesn’t rise.

The rising time of the dough will vary depending on how warm it is; on hot days it will rise much faster than on cold ones.

What Kind Of Yeast?:

I always use instant yeast (also called easy bake yeast) when I am baking bread as it doesn’t need to be activated in liquid first, you can just add it straight to the flour. I highly recommend buying instant yeast if possible.

If you are only able to get active dry yeast then you can still use it but the method will be a little different.

Use 10g (3 tsp) of active dry yeast. Use lukewarm water rather than cool and stir in the yeast. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes until it has become bubbly then proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.

Can I Bake It In Advance?:

Unfortunately focaccia goes stale quite quickly so I don’t recommend making it in advance. It ideally needs to be eaten on the day it is baked. It will still be good the next day, but will be a little drier and less soft.

Any leftovers can be frozen in an airtight container for up to three months (freeze on the day it is baked to retain freshness). Allow to defrost at room temperature then warm through before serving.

More Vegan Sharing Bread Recipes:

• Herby vegan breadsticks
• Sun dried tomato breadsticks
• Vegan garlic dough balls
• Vegan pretzel bites
• Vegan garlic pull apart bread
• Vegan pesto bread
• Vegan beer pretzels
• Sea salt and rosemary focaccia
• Vegan naan bread
• Easy flatbreads

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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I was gifted the BBC Maestro course to review but I was not paid to write this post and all opinions are my own.