One more recipe for sour dough discard! Even if you don’t have sour dough discard, you can still make this by adjusting the amounts of yeast used. You can use spinach instead of chard or silver beet. I used a Chinese cleaver to finely mince my silver beet but you can use a food processor for this.
I love making my own breads and feel so wonderful kneading the dough manually. I served it with a minestrone style soup – it is yummy on its own too.
INGREDIENTS
For the dough
325g high grade flour
25g wholemeal flour
5g salt
5g instant yeast (use 7g if no sour dough discard)
40g sour dough discard
120g silver beet finely chopped (see note above)
1 tablespoon olive oil
200ml tepid water
For the topping
3 – 4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped
5-6 olives, sliced or halved
Sea salt crystals
Olive oil as needed
1 -2 tablespoons water
METHOD
Place all ingredients for the dough into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, combine the ingredients to form a dough mass.
You can use the dough hook on your stand mixer and knead for 10 minutes giving a 30 second break every 3-4 minutes of kneading. If you are like me and prefer to knead manually, tip dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-12 minutes, resting it for 30 seconds every three minutes. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and leave in a warm place for an hour and a half to two hours to allow it to double in size.
Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper and drizzle with two tablespoons of oil. Spread oil around to grease the paper. Using the palm of your hand, flatten dough to a 20cm disc and place on prepared baking tray. Using your fingertips, press dough down, leaving fingertip impressions. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and leave to prove for half an hour.
Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius.
Stud the dough with sun dried tomato and olive pieces. Sprinkle the sea salt and make indentations with your fingertips. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle water. Bake in preheated oven for 12 -15 minutes.
Remove from oven and brush focaccia with olive oil. Place on a wire rack to cool for half an hour at least before slicing.