Fall Focaccia

Last night a friend invited us over to dinner.  He wanted to celebrate our fall harvests, and the fact that he had just harvested an elk! Hooray!  He asked me to bring something from my garden, and I thought it was the perfect time to showcase the last of my squash blossoms, as well as some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes that my mother in law had grown.  I decided to make some focaccia because it is pretty quick, easy, and a crowd pleaser. 

I think focccia is so pretty! It is a perfect dish for taking to a party. Here are the steps I took to make this simple and yummy dish.


Start with pizza dough, I used my simple pizza dough recipe, but any pizza dough would work.

Simple Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon dry active yeast
2 cups very warm water
About 5 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tablespoon Olive oil

Pour yeast into a mixing bowl and add warm water.  After it is dissolved (about 10 minutes) add 2 1/2 cups of the flour.  I use my electric mixer with the dough hook attachment for the whole process.   Mix the flour in until well combined.  Add the salt and oil and mix until combined.  Add the flour, 1/2 a cup at a time until a smooth dough is formed.  I usually end up using about 5 cups of flour.  For the foccacia I want the dough slightly sticky, so I only used a little over 4 cups.  Let the dough rise for about half an hour.  To keep it warm I set my mixing bowl in a shallow dish of hot water and cover it with a damp cloth.

My dough, after rising for thirty minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and kneed briefly. So pretty...

I split the dough in half and roll it out pretty thick for foccacia.  I have a wonderful old pizza stone that was my grandmother's.  It is seasoned and perfect.  I pre-heat the stone in the oven while it is coming to temperature. This makes a nice crispy bottom on the foccacia.  For foccacia I push dimples into the dough to make lots of nooks and crannies for the oil and other goodies to rest in.  Once the dough has a light layer of olive oil, I add my toppings!

My tomato foccacia was topped with sliced heirloom tomatoes, fresh rosemary, diced red onions, and Parmesan cheese.

The squash blossom foccacia is topped with the blossoms, chunks of feta, and fresh chives.

Both get another drizzle of oil and then pop in the oven at 475 for about 10 minutes.  Let cool, slice up and enjoy!  So pretty, and so yummy!