Tomato foccacia

Roughly chop 400 g green olives.

Cut 400 g preserved tomatoes into small pieces and add to the olives.

Cut 200 g Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano) into small dice and tip in with the tomatoes, scatter the herbes de Provence over and mix well.

In bread-making, the water temperature is always important. It's not a fixed value, but related to 3 other temperatures: 1) the temperature of your flour, 2) the room temperature in your kitchen, and 3) the basic temperature of this recipe, which is 52-56°C.

You can calculate the temperature of the water for this recipe in one click, using this small calculator.

Put into a food mixer bowl: 900 g flour, 125 g instant mashed-potato powder, 700 ml water, 18 g salt, 25 g yeast and 200 g Soured dough.

Knead on slow speed for 10 minutes.

Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.

Towards the end of kneading, trickle in 75 g olive oil.

Finish by tipping in the olives, tomatoes and parmesan. Knead again just until these are mixed in.

Gather the dough into a ball, transfer to a large bowl, cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 1 hour 30 minutes.

After this, weigh out 700g chunks and shape into balls.

Cover the dough with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Flatten the dough out by hand to expel the gas...

...then reshape into balls.

Put into bread rising baskets (bannetons).

Cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rest for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 240°C (460°F).

Slash the tops of the foccacias...

And bake for about 25 minutes.



Note: As when baking any bread, you should ensure that the oven is filled with steam for the first 15 minutes of baking. This page shows you how; it really is the secret of golden-brown, crusty loaves..