Ingredients

(Makes a 25cm skillet size focaccia)

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tsp dried yeast

3 cups flour

2 tsp salt

8 small vine tomatoes (not to be confused with cherry tomatoes although you could use)

1-2 tsp flaky sea salt (depending on the fiend that you are)

200g buffalo mozzarella

A handful of fresh basil leaves

Lots of good quality olive oil

Prep It

Place warm water in a large bowl and sprinkle in yeast. Set aside for about 10 minutes to let the yeast do its thing. It should go frothy. Sometimes it doesn’t, just check the use by date before you use it and you should be fine.

Add flour and salt and mix with a spoon, until it forms a kind of shaggy dough. Set aside covered with a tea towel for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes we need to perform the first set of stretch and folds. Dampen your hands with water and reach underneath one side of the dough. Lift the dough up stretching it up and fold it over top of the dough in the bowl. Give the bowl a quarter turn and stretch and fold it again. Repeat this process, until you make it all the way round the bowl (4 times).

Cover the dough again and leave it to rest for 1 hour before stretching and folding the dough again. Let it sit for an hour, stretch and fold once more and then she’s ready to go into the fridge.

Drizzle a good amount of olive oil over and around the dough. Cover and pop it in the fridge over night.

Finish It

Preheat oven to 250°C.

Grab your baking vessel. I used a 25cm skillet but you could use a similar size baking dish or cake pan. It just needs high sides. Line it with baking paper and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I use baking paper to start because this dough is quite wet it gets very sticky and I have butchered many a focaccia trying to scrape it out of the baking dish. We remove the paper later to crisp the bottom so all good.

Get your dough out of the fridge and perform 1 last set of stretch and folds. Place the dough, seam side down in your baking vessel and allow to rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes press the dough out to the edges of the dish. If it springs back leave it to rest for a little longer. Rest for a further 30 minutes.

Meanwhile,

Get your buffalo mozzarella out of the fridge as this cheese should be served room temp for best flavour! Use scissors to separate your tomatoes vines (leave the vines attached for that Instagram prettiness).

Bake It

Back to the dough, oil your fingers and press down and into the focaccia to create the dimple effect. Press tomatoes down into the bread so they are about just coming out of the dough. Drizzle with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and sprinkle over sea salt.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove from oven and carefully slide the paper out and away. Return the focaccia to the oven but on the bottom shelf now and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, until bread is oh so golden brown on the top and bottom and cooked through.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before topping with the buff mozz, basil and yes, more olive oil!

Eat It!