Chilli and Olive Foccacia

Chilli and Olive Foccacia

This is a great big flavoursome bread that used up a jar of olives that I have had hanging about for a while and some pimento peppers to add a bit of zing. The key ingredient is the oil that the olives had been stored in, rather than just using olive oil using the herbed oil that the olives were preserved in.

Ingredients

500g Organic White Bread Flour
one sachet of dried fast action yeast
18 de-stoned olives
12 pimento peppers
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 dried bay leaves
50ml herbed oil (from the olive jar)
1 teaspoon sea salt
300ml warm water

Method

mix the flour, salt, oregano, bay leaves and fast action yeast in a bowl then

Mix the olives, 6 of the pimentos and herbed oil into the bowl then gradually add the water bringing the flour mix around it until a dough has formed.

Kneed the dough on an oiled surface until the dough is elastic in texture.

Place the dough mix into a round flan dish and cover with a damp tea towel in a warm place for 45 minutes. The focaccia should rise. Dust with oregano and the rest of the pimento peppers. Place in a warm oven (200 degrees C) for about 30 minutes.

Turn out into a wire rack and let cool.

I served this with a chorizo butter bean stew (see separate post).