Filled Rosemary Foccacia

Occasionally, I'd have a foccacia craving and I'll pluck some fresh rosemary leaves from my little pot to make this delicious bread. Typically foccacias are eaten plain dipped in a little olive oil or perhaps you could turn it into some sort of a sandwich by slicing it into two and filling it. 

I thought Delia Smith's idea of a filled foccacia was really wonderful. I couldn't resist biting into a foccacia filled with delicious fillings and melted cheese! The recipe called for ham and cheese - I turned it into a vegetarian version by substituting with chopped capsicums and mushrooms. 

This bread is really easy to make because the breadmaker did all the work and all I did was roll out the dough and fill it. It made a delicious brunch on a weekend. 

This is for Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event, hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Grab the HTML Code for the event here.

This is for Herbs on Saturday hosted by London Busy Body.

This is for Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays.

This is for Bake Your Own Bread by Roxana's Home Baking. 

This is for Yeast Spotting at the Wild Yeast Blog.

Filled Foccacia (8 x8 inch)

From Delia Smith's  How to Cook Book Three

For the dough:

•  9 oz (250 g) strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for dusting
•  1 level teaspoon easy-blend dried yeast
•  1 dessertspoon (10ml) olive oil, plus a little extra for greasing
•  1 level teaspoon salt
• 150 ml water

For the filling: 

•  6 oz (175 g) sliced Parma ham
•  12 oz (350 g) Fontina (or Gruyère)
•  3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves
•  freshly milled black pepper

For the top:

•  15 small sprigs fresh rosemary
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  1 level teaspoon sea salt

Method

• Pop the ingredients for the dough  into the breadmaker in the order your manual instructs. Set it to the dough only setting (as the focaccia is going to be baked in the oven) and press the start button. The dough setting mixes for 30 mins and proofs for 1 hour. If you are using a stand mixer, follow the kneading and proofing time.
• Meanwhile, towards the end of the time, prepare the filling ingredients, separating the slices of ham and cutting the cheese into thin slices. When the dough is ready, remove it from the machine, turn it out on to a flat, lightly floured surface, divide it into two and then roll out one half to form a rough, rounded rectangle about 11 x 8 inches (28 x 20 cm). Note: I only managed to make a 8 x 8 inch.
• Then place it on a baking tray (or pizza stone) and arrange the slices of ham on top, making sure they go right up to the edge. Follow this with the cheese, right up to the edge again, then scatter over the sage. Now give it a good seasoning of freshly milled black pepper. Then roll out the remaining dough, lay it on top of the first, pinching the edges together all the way round to completely enclose the filling. Now cover it with a clean tea cloth and leave it to puff up again for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C).
• When the dough is ready, make 15 little dimples in it with your finger and press in the sprigs of rosemary. Finally, drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with the salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the dough is crisp and golden. Serve the focaccia, cut into squares or wedges, straight from the oven.