Easy peasy olive and rosemary focaccia

My parents have an 'interesting' neighbour. Said neighbour has a certain fondness for feeding the birds. I'm not talking about a cute little bird feeder that attracts the occasional beautiful lorikeet, I'm talking a giant bag of corn that gets sprinkled dumped outside every other day.

There is now a neighbourhood flock of pigeons, the power lines are covered in magpies and the number of crows are reminiscent of  a freaky Halloween movie. Yesterday my poor sister had to round up a rogue magpie that had wandered into the house.

You can imagine the worst part of it all... the mess. Oh what a mess. No longer black, the street now looks like it's been painted white with paint bombs.

The latest victim was my sister's herb garden. She had it growing under a ledge and a few of the birds decided to have a party on that ledge and leave their mess all over her precious herbs.

Mum has tried reasoning with the man, calling the Council, calling every other department she can think of but to no avail. The birds are taking over.

Poor little sis won't be making bread topped with fresh herbs for a while. I might just have to bake another loaf of easy peasy olive and rosemary focaccia for her.

It's just as easy as 5 minute bread and really tasty with a nice crunchy crust. Actually it's probably easier because you just throw it in the pan, you don't even have to shape it.

Of course I made the recipe even easier than the original by making it all in the mixer. I think I tell it how much I love it daily.

Throw the flour, yeast and salt into the bowl.

Add the water and olive oil then let the mixer do the work. Using the dough hook, mix on low until everything comes together then increase the speed and knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic (it takes about 5 minutes).

If your making it without a mixer, stir everything together and then turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic.

Yet another tip I learned on Pinterest the other day - spray the baking dish on top of the dishwasher. Seeing as everything is already dirty, it saves you getting oil everywhere. Make sure you spray it really well.

Stretch the dough into the prepared dish and even out the top. It doesn't matter if it doesn't stretch to fill the whole dish, it will when it rises.

Spray some plastic wrap with oil and then cover the dish and set it aside to rise for about an hour.

It should be nice and plumb after an hour. I combined two steps into one and used rosemary infused oil to coat the bread. Spread it all over with your finger tips.

Here's the fun part - hole poking. Use your fingers to poke holes all over the top of the bread. It doesn't really matter how you do them. I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist to do them in anything other than straight lines. Pop an olive in each hole when you're done.

For the finishing touch, sprinkle the top with sea salt.

Bake the bread for 30 minutes at 200C fan-forced or until it is golden on top.

Your kitchen will smell pretty amazing by the time it gets to this stage.

Take it out of the baking dish and set it on a wire rack to cool. Mine required a serious operation to get it out of the baking dish so make sure you oil it well.

Olive and rosemary focaccia was a nice accompaniment to my Mediterranean sausage bake. Enjoy!

What about you? Do you have any interesting neighbours? Any tips for mum on how to fix the problem?

Recipe

Easy peasy olive and rosemary focaccia

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Author: Claire Cameron

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Ingredients

• ▢ 3 cups plain bakers flour
• ▢ 2 teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ 1 tablespoon dried yeast
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups lukewarm water
• ▢ 2 tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ Kalamata olives rosemary (fresh or dried), extra olive oil and sea salt for topping

Instructions

• Mix the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer.
• Add the water and half the oil then use a dough hook and mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
• Increase the speed a little and knead for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Spray a baking dish generously with oil (mine was 25 x 18cm).
• Spread the dough out in the dish making sure the top is even.
• Cover it with plastic wrap coated with olive oil to stop it sticking to the dough.
• Leave the dough to rest and rise for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 200C fan-forced.
• Use your fingers to rub the rest of the oil into the top of the bread. Use your fingers to poke holes in the dough and then top it with olives and sprinkle with rosemary and salt.
• Bake the bread for 30 minutes or until browned on the top.
• Transfer it to a wire rack to cool.

Have you made this recipe? I'd love to hear what you think. Tag me on Instagram @clairekcreations