Wild garlic focaccia – Yeast or Sourdough

Wild garlic focaccia.
Pressing my fingers down into the dough, i imagined i was hitting the keys on a piano, While i hummed a tune in my head. Baking at this time is really helping to keep me calm.

There is something very satisfying about that part of the process of making a focaccia. Don’t you agree?

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I poured a good glug of olive oil over the dough and it gathered in the little dimples left by my fingers.
After wild garlic, three corner leeks and nettles that I gathered on my walk in the woods were arranged on top, before it went into the oven to turn crispy and delicious.

I make this bread every wild garlic season, and this year i experimented using sourdough.

So i have included the recipe for both my usual dried yeast version and the latest sourdough version. Both equally as delicious.

I love how the wild garlic on this focaccia goes so deliciously crispy in the oven, its a real treat.

Making bread by hand can be such a enjoyable and therapeutic task.

However this dough is very wet and sticky so i tend to opt for my stand mixer for the kneading sometimes.

Focaccia dough

I like the dough to be as wet as possible and find it really difficult and messy to knead by hand. kneading it in a stand mixer just makes things that much easier.

I like to make the dough the night before, then put it in a well oiled-lidded box to rise over night in the fridge. (For yeast)

The process of a slow rise in the fridge also takes place for the sourdough version, but for the second prove.

I love the addition of wild garlic as it turns this normal focaccia into a really delicious type of garlic bread. The punchy garlicy smell that wafts from the oven while its baking is incredible.

The leaves and flowers wilt quite a bit in the heat of the oven, but its still really beautiful.

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Wild garlic focaccia Recipe

Yeast version

Printable version at bottom

• 300g strong white bread flour
• 7g (1 sachet) fast action yeast
• 200ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/5 tbsp. olive oil
• 6 wild garlic leaves finely chopped plus more to decorate
• olive oil and salt for top

Method

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, then add the salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the opposite side of the bowl, this is so the salt doesn’t touch the yeast.

Add the olive oil, then pour in 100ml of the water and turn the mixer on, then start adding the remaining 100ml a bit at a time, add the chopped wild garlic, add 1 tbsp. of flour and turn the mixer up to high speed.

The dough will look like its going to be too wet to start with, but after 5 to 8 minutes of kneading at high speed with your stand mixer it will have built up gluten and be less sticky.

You can add more flour if your doesn’t come together well, but the wetter the dough the better. (I find that different flour brands absorb liquid differently so I giving exact quantity’s is quite difficult).

Pour some oil into a large lunch box, remove the dough from the mixer bowl with oiled hands and stretch it a few times to test the gluten.

Cover and place in the fridge to rise over night.

The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and leave it for half an hour in the oiled box to come to room temp.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and sprinkle on some course semolina, then gently tip out the dough onto it trying not to knock out too much air. Pull into shape and then leave to rise for 1 hour.

Sprinkle a little semolina on top, then using your fingers push into the dough , making lots of little indentations. (I find having oiled fingers work best)

Mix 2 tbsp. oil and 1 tsp water with 1/2 tsp of salt and pour over so there are lots of little puddles of oil in the indentations.

Then arrange wild garlic leaves on top. Add some flaked salt.

Bake for 25 minutes, until golden and it sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Let cool then slice and enjoy.

Sourdough version

Printable version can be found at the bottom of this post.

If you haven’t made a sourdough loaf before i recommend watching some video’s or reading this or a finding a book.

The process is so different to yeast dough.

I found the stories saved on kat goldins instagram highlights really helpful.

It will help you understand it a bit more, this is only the 6th sourdough i have made with my starter “burt” so i am still learning.

Ingredients

If you make a sourdough regularly you will be using a scale so that’s why i have kept the weight to grams.

• 100g active sourdough starter (check it is active by doing the float test)
• 330g strong white bread flour
• 200g water (i used a porcini stock made with 10 g dried porcini mushrooms soaked in 200ml boiling water for 30 minutes)
• 5 grams salt- plus more for the top
• 2 tbsp oil – plus more for the tray and top
• 5 wild garlic leaves- washed and finely chopped
• Wild garlic for the top (you can add nettles and herbs too)

Method

If using porcini mushroom stock as the liquid soak mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes.

Drain to remove mushrooms and weigh the remaining liquid, add more water if you need to make it up to 200g.

Chop the soaked mushrooms finely to add into bread (if using)

Wash and chop the 5 wild garlic leaves for the dough finely and set aside.

Add the porcini liquid in a large bowl then mix in the starter and oil.

Mix in the flour, so you have a shaggy dough.

Add salt and chopped garlic and mushrooms.

Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, it is easier with a stand mixer if you have one, if not use a dough scraper as it’s quite a wet dough.

Bulk fermentation

Place in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel and let it prove for 4 hours. This is the bulk fermentation stage.

During these four hours, i stretch & fold the dough once every hour to strengthen the dough. 

To do this lift up one corner of dough, stretch it upwards into the air and then fold it over itself.

Now Rotate the bowl by and stretch and fold the dough again and rotate the bowl again, do this until the bowl has come full circle.

Proving in the fridge

Line a sheet pan with baking paper and drizzle over some olive oil, tip the dough onto it and stretch it out into a rectangle.

Cover with plastic wrap, but make sure it doesn’t touch the dough and place in the fridge over night. (you can do at room temp, but it can take 5 hours sometimes longer)

Remove the tray from fridge and leave to come to room temp for 1 to 2 hours in a warm draft free place.

Preheat oven to 180c 350f.

With oiled fingers press imprints into the dough and then drizzle over oil and salt.

Place on some cleaned wild garlic leaves, and blanched nettles too if you wish.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden and it sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Let cool and slice.

Before and after

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Wild garlic recipes

If like me you love wild garlic, here are some more recipes

Ricotta and wild garlic gnudi

Wild garlic pork pies

savoury cheddar and wild garlic hot cross buns

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