Focaccia Bread Art
Focaccia Bread Art is a really fun way to decorate bread with vegetables. Today I made a beautiful Focaccia Garden and I think you are going to like my Gluten-Free Focaccia Bread Recipe.
Today is the first day of spring! What better way to celebrate than with a spring garden. I have seen focaccia art all over Pinterest and thought today was the perfect day to give this a try.
If you are intimidated by yeast bread, this is a great one to start with as it’s easy and fun, and very forgiving.
I have been converting all of my recipes to Gluten-Free and did the same with this one too. You can still have yummy bread, even if you are gluten-free.
If you want to make this in the traditional style, simply use regular all-purpose flour instead of the substitution that I made.
Focaccia Bread
Focaccia bread is a traditional Italian yeast flatbread that was baked on the open hearth. Today, focaccia bread is made in a sheet pan with olive oil and herbs on the bottom of the pan and baked in the oven.
You can decorate the top of the focaccia with herbs, onions, olives, cheese and then bake it. Or you can add oil and herb to the bottom of the sheet pan, and then, once baked, it can be turned out of the pan so that the golden and herbed bottom is on top.
I know you will not be surprised by this, but I changed this up a bit. I used the olive oil and herbs in the bottom of the pan, and also decorated the top of the focaccia with vegetables to create a spring garden.
This was the fun part, slicing vegetables into different shapes to create the garden scene. Use what you like, and if you dislike olives like I do, don’t use them!
If you love olives, they make great rocks or flower centers. Use what you have in the fridge so you don’t need to make a special trip to the market.
Once you get started, it is literally like painting a picture! A little more of this, a little less of that. Be creative and have fun, because there are no rules. And I love that!
If you have any vegetable leftovers, make a stir-fry!
Vegetable Ideas for Decorating
- Thinly sliced red onions can look like flowers
- Mini bell peppers sliced into rounds also look like small flowers
- Thinly sliced large bell peppers look like flower petals (sunflowers)
- Thin stalked asparagus looks like flower stems or vines
- Thinly sliced green onions look like white flowers on a stem
- Basil or Rosemary for leaves
- Chives look like grass or stems
- Parsley makes great leaves
- Cherry tomatoes for flower centers
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How to Make Focaccia Bread
The ingredients for Focaccia Bread are very basic.
It’s important to use a hand (preferable) or stand mixer as the dough is hard to mix.
When you put the dough in a cookie sheet, be sure to use flour on your hands because the dough is very sticky!
Dimple the dough with your fingers before you start to “decorate”.
How to Make Focaccia Bread Art
Select and cut the vegetables you think you will want to use.
I started with red onions because I love how when cut through the center stem, they look like flowers.
Next, I sliced some green onions thin and used them as stems.
I sliced some yellow peppers and cut made some flowers and added tomatoes as centers. I also added some smaller sliced yellow peppers and used chives as the stems. I added rosemary as leaves.
To add some color, I added some thinly sliced red peppers and made a tulip shape. I also added basil as leaves.
My best friend made one too. She made flowers from sliced red and yellow peppers. Her stems are asparagus and chives and the leaves are basil. The flower centers are cherry tomatoes.
I am always nervous when I bake something if it looks really great before it is cooked. So often, it doesn’t look that great after it is baked.
With the Focaccia Bread Art, it was the exact opposite. I love how it turned out. Wow.
Isn’t this just perfect?
It tastes delicious too.
Focaccia Bread Art
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ Cups Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour (Measure for Measure is important)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 ¼ tsp salt
- 1 TBL sugar
- 2 ¼ tsp instant yeast
- 1 ½ cups luke warm water
- 3 TBL+ olive oil
- Topping:
- 3 TBL olive oil
- Coarse sea salt (optional)
- Vegetables for decorating, ideas below:
- Thinly sliced red onions can look like flowers
- Mini bell peppers sliced into rounds also look like small flowers
- Thinly sliced large bell peppers look like flower petals (sunflowers)
- Thin stalked asparagus looks like flower stems or vines
- Thinly sliced green onions look like white flowers on a stem
- Basil for leaves
- Chives look like grass or stems
- Parsley makes great leaves
- Cherry tomatoes for flower centers
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients (except yeast)
- In a separate bowl, mix warm water, olive oil, yeast, and about a cup of the mixed dry ingredients. Mix until combined, a little bit lumpy is OK. Set aside for the yeast to activate, become bubbly, and smell yeasty for about 30 minutes.
- Add the bubbly yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and beat in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until thick and very sticky, about 4 minutes. Note: It won't feel like regular yeast dough. It's hard to do this by hand, as it won't mix well enough.
- Cover and move to a warm spot to let dough rest/rise, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375
- Lightly grease a sheet pan (9x13). Add 1 TBL olive oil to the pan and coat (this helps give the bottom of the focaccia a little crunch. Sprinkle with dried herbs
- With flour on your fingers, place the dough in the middle of the sheet pan and spread the dough out to the edges of the pan. Because the dough is sticky, start the dough in the middle and press outwards.
- Dimple the top of the dough with your finger and brush with olive oil
- Let the dough rest, uncovered for 15-30 minutes. Do this before you add vegetables so that the dough doesn’t rise over your vegetable art
- While the dough is resting, prepare your vegetables to create your focaccia art
- Here are some ideas for vegetable art (pictures)
Thinly sliced red onions can look like flowers (picture)
Mini bell peppers sliced into rounds also look like small flowers (picture)
Thinly sliced large bell peppers look like flower petals (sunflowers)
Thin stalked asparagus looks like flower stems or vines
Thinly sliced green onions look like white flowers on a stem
Basil for leaves
Chives look like grass or stems
Parsley makes great leaves
Cherry tomatoes look like roses
12.Sprinkle with sea salt to finish (optional). Brush vegetables with olive oil so that they don’t burn or dry up too much
13. Bake focaccia for 20-24 minutes or until golden brown.
14. This will save, but is best eaten on the day of. If there are leftovers, refrigerate and then reheat before serving
Notes
A couple of tips to be aware of before you start:
- The dough will be very sticky. Have extra flour for your hands so that you can press the dough into and out to the edges of the pan.
- Once the dough is spread out to the edges of the pan, use your fingertips to dimple it (think about playing piano). This will help remove any dough bubbles.
- If using gluten-free flour, your baking time may need adjustment.
- Use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, not the dough hook.
- Be sure to brush the vegetable art with olive oil so that it doesn’t burn.
Frequently Asked Questions
Focaccia is an Italian yeast bread. It has a crisp golden outside and soft inside. It is perfect for serving to dip into warm olive oil mixed with herbs, soup, or to use when making open-faced sandwiches.
Garlic, rosemary, herbs, olives, shredded parmesan cheese., and almost any vegetable. Just think of pizza without the sauce. This is where you can get really creative!
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When making this recipe, if I use gluten can I just swap out the gluten free flour for regular flour or will other ingredients need to be changed?
Thank You,
Amanda
i love this recipe leslie! thank you for sharing!! i am going to double the recipe and make one for Tessa to decorate!
Love this recipe! I gifted two of these to my sister and mother. They were thrilled and thought they looked too pretty to eat!