How to make a Sourdough “Focaccia Garden”

My recipe or process how to make a Sourdough “Focaccia Garden” is a creative and easy way to make and bake a fabulous centrepiece for any social gathering.

My recipe or process how to make a Sourdough “Focaccia Garden” was borne of a slight obsession I have with all the amazingly creative and artistic decorated bread loaves you see on Instagram and other social media platforms. So, one rainy summer day I decided to join the Focaccia Garden trend and make one for myself. Eh voila, as they say down my way, I present my latest sourdough recipe for my Sourdough “Focaccia Garden”.

I used my Classic Sourdough made Easy recipe as the base for this decorated focaccia bread, and then in the manner of a garden elf or fairy, I went foraging for the decoration ingredients from my herb garden and potager, with a brief foray into the pantry for any veggies that we don’t grow. Sourdough is such a great vehicle for focaccia, as this light sand airy Italian bread needs holes in it, which a well-bred sourdough will give you.

All you need to make this stunning Focaccia Garden is 500g of proved bread dough, preferably sourdough, lots of olive oil, herbs, vegetables, spices, salt and TIME! I have shared all the ingredients I used when making this particular Focaccia Garden in the recipe card, but you must let your creative side take over and use any seasonal ingredients that are available locally.

I have suggested, as I used them in today’s recipe, the following herbs, edible flowers, vegetables and spices:

• Garlic
• Black Olives
• Large Yellow Heritage Tomato
• Yellow Pepper (Bell Pepper)
• Sweet Red Pepper
• Sun-Dried Cherry Tomatoes
• Red Onion
• Lovage
• Chives
• Bay Leaves

• Salad Burnet
• Rosemary
• Wild Garlic
• Chive Flowers
• Buttercups
• Lavender
• Sea Salt
• Nigella Seeds (Black Onion Seeds; Kalonji)

This recipe is easily made using what you have to hand, treat the basic bread as a blank canvas, (excuse the pun!) and use any of these other ingredients to make your own Sourdough Art, or Focaccia Art for today’s recipe for Sourdough “Focaccia Garden”.

1. Use any herbs and vegetables you have to hand. Other herbs that work well are: Thyme, Oregano and Basil.
2. You can add meat if you wish, such as Parma ham to make roses, or scatter lardons (chopped bacon) on the base of the focaccia for the earth/ground.
3. Other vegetable ideas are artichokes in oil, peppers in oil, assorted and multi-coloured cherry tomatoes or spring onions.
4. Other edible flower ideas are pansies, marigolds, nasturtiums or roses.
5. The recipe is easily halved, use between 250g and 350g of basic bread dough. Baking time will be reduced.
6. This recipe serves 12 people as an accompaniment or as a light snack. Or, between 4 and 6 people as a main meal with salad and dips etc.

I have shared my recipe for Sourdough “Focaccia Garden” below, in a printable recipe card, as well as sharing the step-by-step process of making this with helpful photos. I HOPE you will try this recipe, and if you do, PLEASE let me know by leaving a comment below.

Any other comments abut what you think of my recipe for Sourdough “Focaccia Garden” are also welcome, maybe we can have a decorating brainstorm session, where we can all share our ideas for future focaccia art baking! HAVE FUN if you make this, and PLEASE tag me on my social media channels here: Instagram; Twitter; Pinterest; Facebook and LinkedIn Bye for now, Karen

You’ll find the full and printable recipe at the end of this post.

• If making this recipe with sourdough, then start the process off the night before you want to bake the focaccia. See my recipe for Classic Sourdough Made Easy. If you are making this recipe with standard yeast dough, make sure it has had one prove after mixing and kneading, and is well risen before proceeding with step 2 below.

• Take a large baking sheet/tray and cover it with baking paper. I used a 30cm (12″) x 20cm (8″) baking tray when I made this recipe. Drizzle generously with olive oil over the baking paper.
• Gently ease the bread dough onto the oiled baking tray, using a scraper or spatula, being careful not to knock the air bubbles out of the dough. Turn the dough over so it is covered both sides in olive oil.

• Then, gently stretch it to a rectangular shape. It WON’T fill the baking tray at this stage, so don’t worry, but it will rose and spread after its final prove/rise.
• Cover with a plastic bag or some cling film and set to one side for 2 hours for its final prove and rise before baking.

• Whilst the bread dough is proving, prepare and assemble all of your decoration ingredients together. Make sure they are all washed, trimmed, peeled and sliced as mentioned in the ingredients list. I find it easy to place them all together on a large dinner plate, almost like an artist’s paint palette!

• Pre-heat the oven to 220C (Fan 200C)/450F/Gas mark 7.
• Once the dough has almost doubled in size, gently pull it to fill the baking tray if necessary and make dimples in the dough using your fingertips.
• Drizzle over more olive oil and press the garlic slices into the dimples.

• Decorating the Focaccia: Now starts the creative fun! Start to make your garden. Start from the bottom of one of the narrow sides, using the longer herbs add them to make the greenery for the flowers. Add some chive stems for the flowers. Then add the sliced yellow peppers at the top of a chive stem, with an olive in the centre. Do this with the red onion slices and the yellow tomato, to make flowers. You can then add the chive flowers to some chive stems too – don’t use the chive flower stem as it will be too tough.
• Add the sun-dried cherry tomatoes to the smaller green herbs at the bottom and the middle of the garden. Add the buttercups and lavender flowers to the bottom of the garden. Add the wild agaric leave if using.

• Don’t be scared to crowd all of your herbs, leaves and flowers together, as once baked, some will shrink and as the dough expands you will have more space between the garden greenery etc.
• Arrange some olives at the foot of the focaccia to represent the earth or the ground. You can also use seeds for this too.
• Drizzle more olive oil over the top, sprinkle some seas salt over and then scatter the Nigella seeds over the dough too.

• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown and well risen, turning the heat down to 200C (Fan 180C)/400C/Gas mark 6 after 5 minutes of baking. NB: If you oven has a hot spot or has uneven heat distribution, turn the focaccia around half way through baking.
• Remove from the oven and gently slide onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

• Serving ideas: Serve with sliced ham, cheese, olives, dips and salad.

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