Italian breads seem to be a recurrent theme with the TWD group over the last couple of months. First pizza, now focaccia. Not that we are complaining. Going back to our gluten eating days, we did enjoy focaccia on occasion, in fact, while living in Montana, a local health conscious baker, built his own wood fired oven, in order to do justice making some of the old style, rustic European breads. A lot of his breads were sourdough based, and focaccia was no exception. Usually only available on a weekend, unless you placed a special order, these specialty breads would disappear as soon as they emerged from the oven. Since not everyone in our household shares our personal love for Italian food, focaccia is generally not at the top of the list, when baking bread. We do love a challenge, and never having tried focaccia gluten free before, we felt we couldn’t pass up this opportunity.
The contributing baker to the original recipe is Craig Kominiak, and he calls for two rising periods, followed by a resting period of 24-36 hours in the refrigerator. Generally, from our own humble experience, gluten free baking is not always amenable to these extra long resting periods. As a result, our own gluten free adaptation differs greatly from the original. When developing any recipe, we always cut the recipe in half, just in case it flops. This was no different. The changes we made included the preparation of a simple sponge prepared a day ahead, consisting of sorghum flour, brown rice flour and water. The remaining flour blend included brown rice, tapioca, sweet rice and potato starch, along with psyllium seed soaked in coconut milk, one egg and the addition of 1 tsp. of apple cider vinegar. Fresh thyme and rosemary, along with a couple of tablespoons of fresh Parmesan cheese were worked into the dough before rising. The dough was allowed to rise for 1-1/2 hours, during which time it nearly tripled in size. Quite a feat for any gluten free dough.
Spreading a dusting of rice flour onto a baking board, we divided the dough in half, and pressed it into rough oval shapes, about 1/2 inch thick. Using a fork we pierced holes throughout the dough, allowing it to bake evenly. We brushed the top with olive oil, sprinkled it with fresh thyme, rosemary and halved cherry tomatoes, along with salt and pepper.
The focaccia baked for about 15 minutes in a pre-heated 450°F oven. The best thing about making this recipe is how the entire house fills with the delicious aroma of fresh herbs and baking bread.
Never having made gluten free focaccia, we consider this recipe to be a great success, in both texture and flavor. We were also quite impressed how easy the dough was to work with, along with the fact that the final result mirrored the description in the Baking with Julia book, as well as our memories of regular focaccia (however faint – it is quite a while back now).
In the future, we will definitely give the “refrigerated resting time for the dough” a try, as well as experiment with a non-savory version.
Please check out all the wonderful contributions by the other TWD bakers at this link, as well as the beautiful contribution by this week’s host Sharmini of Wandering Through.
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Your photos are always so great; everything looks so appetizing!
Letizia, thanks for stopping by.
Wow, congratulations on a delicious looking focaccia! I’m sure this was quite a challenge (along with the pizza dough) and it looks you mastered it beautifully.
Janet, we had fun experimenting with these Italian recipes and were happy with the results.
I am always in awe of how you change the recipes to be gluten free. That is one lovely looking focaccia.
Thanks for baking along this week.
Again,thanks for hosting this past week Sharmini. It is fun baking alongside such a fun and enthusiastic group of bakers.
How great your foccacia turned out! I love that you used cherry tomatoes to make a cheese-less pizza!
Thank you for the kind comments. We enjoyed making this recipe and look forward to making some different variations in the future.
Gluten free and yummy looking! I too am amazed that you’re able to make it gluten free and be good. And your pics are wonderful!
Thank you Sandra.We try our best creating gluten free recipes that both look and taste good, free of any artificial ingredients. Photography is the little “dot” on the ‘i’ and the highlight of making every recipe.
I’m also amazed at your gf variety. I’m traveling to visit family out of state next week and will invite everyone to my mom’s 85th birthday dinner which I will make just for fun…but, it’s good to be reminded that I have a niece who needs gf foods. I’m not in the habit of remembering her needs as I only see her once a year. You are helping me with some good ideas…and ideas that will fit into what everyone else is eating. I appreciate your point of view and your positive approach. Thanks! Your focaccia/photos are beautiful. Very well done.
As always, glad to be of help Krissy. Let us know, if you need any help with a particular recipe. All the best to you and your Mom.
Inge and Gillian: I am impressed with your gf version of this Focaccia recipe and I really like the wonderful traditional toppings of fresh thyme, olive oil, grape tomatoes and seasonings. It is always wonderful to know that your blog is a great source of information and inspiartion that we can all refer to for gf recipes. Your photos are also just amazing too!
Have a great Thursday! And, of course, since today marks the beginning of the Carnival season around here – “Alaaf” and “Helau”!
Thanks, Andrea. Wishing you all the best and much fun during “Fasching.” Focaccia was fun to make.
I’m so impressed by your gluten free focaccia, it looks great! I sometimes make gluten free treats for a friend/colleague, so this will go on the list of recipes to try.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Have fun dabbling in the world of gluten free. Feel free to contact us, if you have any questions with your gf endeavors.
I am so impressed too with your gluten free version!!! what a good job!!
Your foccacia looks beautiful!!!
To answer your question about the flour I used it’s bread flour, in France we call it: T65.
Thanks for stopping by. Europe has so many options for the different types of flour, differentiated by the type of grind used. If you can eat gluten, using whole grain bread flour would definitely add more nutrition.
Your focaccia looks so beautiful with those cherry tomato halves. I am so impressed with your gluten free versions of the recipes and I really like how you seem so amenable to the challenge. So glad that the gluten free was as successful as the regular recipe. Lovely job!
Thank you so much, Elaine. We know that you can convert most recipes to gluten free version. It is just a matter of trial and error. Sometimes multiple trials. In the end, we were surprised how easy this focaccia recipe fell into place right away. We wish it turned out that way more often.
What lovely focaccia…I’m truly impressed by your gluten free version! I thought of topping mine with cherry tomatoes,too…now I wish I had 🙂
Thanks, Liz. We usually have cherry tomatoes in the house and they just seemed to add the extra “something” needed in this recipe. They also added just the right amount of color, enhancing the photography.
Beautiful photos as always. Your focaccia looks delicious!
Thanks, Cathleen.
Your focaccia looks great with the tomatoes. Lovely photos and I am impressed with your gluten free version.
Thanks, Renee. We enjoyed making this gluten free version of focaccia.
Your focaccia looks great, and the photos are beautiful. Having experimented a little with gluten-free baking, I’m curious about the psyllium seed soaked in coconut milk. What is its purpose?
Thanks for stopping by. We didn’t want to use the gums for binding the flour in this recipe. Psyllium seed powder in combination with either water or milk can serve as an excellent substitute.
Your bread looks wonderful- you have quite obviously become a baking pro with the gluten free recipes- good for you!
Thanks for the kind comments. Apologize for the delay in getting back.
Ladies, this is simply impressive! Love the cherry tomatoes and the rosemary topping as well. I was just reading about a gf cookie recipe that uses a very long refrigeration method.
Thanks. We love focaccia and it was well worth experimenting with this recipe.
Once again, I am impressed with your adaptation. Beautiful!
Thanks, Cher. We had fun making it.