I’m still trying to savour the wild garlic season, and I love baking it into bread. You can freeze the bread and use it in the months to come so further preserve the flavour of it.
For more information about making sourdough and the various stages visit my page on sourdough bread.
Makes 2 x 9″ square tins, but you could bake one large, or make a very deep focaccia
Ingredients
- 150g levain, refreshed 8-12 hours earlier
- 15ml extra virgin olive oil plus extra for later
- 150g wholemeal bread flour
- 600g white bread flour
- 12g salt plus extra to top
- A big bunch of wild garlic, roughly chopped – the more you put in the more garlicky the flavour
- A few sprigs of rosemary (optional)
Method
- Mix the levain, 500ml water and 15ml olive oil together before adding the flours and mixing to make a shaggy dough. Leave for 30 minutes covered.
- Mix 12g of salt with 75ml water till dissolved, and pour over the dough, scrunching the dough with your hand to mix it in. The dough should look very rough and almost broken into small pieces. Cover and leave for 45 minutes.
- Over the next few hours complete 4 sets of coil folds, adding the wild garlic in during the 2nd coil fold, allowing the dough to rest for 45-60 minute between each fold.
- Grease two non-stick baking trays with olive oil (if not using non-stick line with baking parchment and add olive oil to the parchment). Tip out don’t the work surface and divide the dough into two. Gently transfer to the baking tray and push the dough over the surface so it reaches the corners as best you can – there will be some resistance so don’t force it.
- Cover the dough and leave in the fridge to slowly rise overnight – anywhere between 8-24 hours depending on your schedule
- The next day preheat your oven to maximum temperature, add a small empty tray to the bottom of the oven for steam later, and remove the focaccia from the fridge.
- Once the oven is up to temperature, uncover the dough and drizzle with a little olive oil. Using wet fingers, press your fingertips through the surface of the dough to create plenty of dimples. Add rosemary to the dimples, sprinkle with a little extra salt and then flick water over the surface of your dough with your fingertips. Adding extra moisture will give a softer crust, so if you want a very crispy top omit this step along with the steam.
- Place the focaccia in the oven, adding water into the hot tray to create steam, closing the door as quickly as possible to trap the steam in, and reduce the oven temperature to 225°C fan/ 245°C convection for 20 minutes.
- Remove the tray with water and bake for another 5 minutes* till the crust is golden.
- Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
*if baking a thicker focaccia you may need an extra 5-10 minutes to fully cook the dough.