Christmas Wreath Focaccia

This Christmas wreath focaccia is fun to decorate and even more fun to eat. 

 

To decorate it, I used large flat leaf parsley (which I had growing in a pot on my patio), scallions, cherry tomatoes, mini pepperonis, mini sweet peppers, and, to add flavor, mini fresh mozzarella pearls. 

You don't have to limit yourself to the ingredients I used. Use whatever you have on hand, including rosemary, sage, basil, roasted garlic, sliced red onions, chives, prosciutto, salami, or kale. 

You can even knead some greens into the dough before baking. 

I think it would be so fun to make this focaccia with kids. The recipe makes two 10 inch rounds, and you could make the dough through the second rise and then let the kids go to town decorating them.

I think I sort of under decorated this focaccia and probably could have doubled the amount of parsley that I used. It looked super full before baking, but as the parsley wilted, it looked a bit more sparse. 

Regardless, the beauty of this focaccia is its flavor, no matter how you top it. 

This focaccia begins with a "sponge" that you let rise overnight. After that, you mix the dough and let it rise, stretching and folding it after it doubles and letting it rise a second time. 

After that, you divide the dough and spread it out into a ten inch cake pan that has been spread with good olive oil. The flavor is amazing and the crust is super crispy. 

 

This dough is super hydrated. You will need to use wet or oiled hands to work with it, but once you get used to working with wet dough, you'll really love the light and airy results. 

You will need two 10 inch cake pans, which are super reasonably priced and you can easily find at any craft store. 

In addition, you will need a stand mixer for mixing the dough. The dough is just too wet to knead by hand. 

This focaccia can be served warm from the oven, cut into wedges. Leftovers are delicious re-warmed in a 350 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. Wrap it loosely in foil before heating. 

More Delicious Focaccia Recipes:

Roasted pepper and chile focaccia

BLT focaccia

Potato rosemary focaccia

Spinach and olive focaccia

Fruit focaccia

Herb Oil Focaccia

More Decorated Bread Recipes:

Panini al Pomodoro

Piglet Buns

Dim Sum Pandas

This is about the lightest focaccia ever! It's tear apart delicious and amazing dipped in your favorite tomato basil sauce. 

To keep the greens in the wreath green, spray them with water just before baking, and then spray them one more time abount half way through baking. This will help keep them from turning brown. 

This month the Bread Bakers, hosted by Kelly of Passion Kneaded, are creating bread art. We have shaped bread, decorative bread scoring, and sculpted bread! 

• A Christmas Partridge for my True Love from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Christmas Wreath Focaccia from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mini Fougasse from Ambrosia
• Roasted Garlic Focaccia Wheel from Magical Ingredients
• Rudolph Reindeer Sourdough Bread from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Santa Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Shekerbura from A Messy Kitchen
• Sunflower Bread from Making Miracles
• Wool Roll Bread With Cranberries from Sneha's Recipe

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Christmas Wreath Focaccia

Yield: 16 slices

Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories

Prep time: 1 HourCook time: 40 MinInactive time: 15 HourTotal time: 16 H & 40 M

This Christmas wreath focaccia is fun to decorate and even more fun to eat.

Ingredients

For the Sponge

• 1/16 teaspoon instant yeast
• 105 grams water
• 86 grams bread flour

Dough

• 312 grams (11.04 ounces) water
• Scant 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 16 grams (.56 ounces) whole rye flour
• 425 to 466 ounces (15 to 16.45 ounces) bread flour
• 12 grams (.39 ounces) kosher salt (1 tablespoon if it's Diamond Crystal)
• 1/2 cup olive oil for pans

To Decorate and Finish the Focaccias

• 24 fresh mozzarella pearls (small balls of mozzarella cheese)
• 6 to 8 scallions, sliced lengthwise
• 2 large handfuls of flat leaf parsley
• 8 to 10 cherry tomatoes
• Slices of mini sweet red peppers
• Slices of pepperoni
• Water
• Olive oil
• Crushed red peppers
• Sea salt

Instructions

To Make the Sponge

1. In a small glass bowl, mix the yeast, water, the bread flour and stir with a spoon until combined.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. The sponge should be very bubbly.

To Make the Focaccia

1. Begin about 3 to 3 1/2 hours prior to baking time.
2. Add the water, 1 T of oil, the sponge, the yeast, rye flour, and 425 grams/15 ounces of flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with a spoon or dough whisk, then mix with the dough hook of your mixer on low for about 2 minutes.
3. Continue to run the mixer, and add the salt slowly.
4. Increase the mixer speed to medium, and mix the dough until it is smooth and is beginning to pull away from the bowl. This should take about 6 to 8 minutes. Add additional flour in teaspoons if it is not pulling away from the bowl. Note: this dough is sticky, and will not pull away from the bowl like bread dough, so be very careful about adding too much flour. I added only 1 heaping tsp.
5. Lightly oil a large bowl or dough rising bucket with olive oil, and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled, about 60 to 90 minutes.
6. Pulling from underneath the dough, fold the four "sides" of the dough to the top center to deflate.
7. Turn the dough over so the folded side is down, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature until doubled, about an hour.
8. Place 1/4 C of the olive oil (infused or not) into each of the two cake pans and tilt the pans to spread the oil evenly.
9. Lightly flour the work surface and turn the dough out gently. Be careful not to deflate it. Cut it into two equal pieces and place each piece into an oiled pan.
10. Gently urge the dough into a round shape with your fingers, and cover the pans with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

To Decorate and Bake the Focaccia

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F with a rack on the middle level.
2. Once the dough has rested in the pans for 30 minutes, gently press your fingertips into the rounds 5 times to push the edges out.
3. Press the balls of cheese into the dough one at a time while pressing toward the rim of the pan. The cheese should be flush with the dough.
4. Decorate the dough with the scallions and parsley in a circle (see photo).
5. Press the tomatoes into the dough using the same method as the cheese.
6. Decorate with the red peppers and pepperoni.
7. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes, until puffy.
8. Spray the greens lightly with water and bake until golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes, re-spraying the greens after about 20 minutes of baking.
9. Move the pan to the floor of the oven to crisp the bottom, about 2 to 5 minutes.
10. Remove the pan and move the focaccia to a cooling rack by slipping a fork underneath and sliding it carefully out of the pan.
11. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with crushed red peppers and sea salt. Let cool a few minutes.
12. Cut into wedges and eat!!!!

Nutrition Facts

Calories

138.48

Fat (grams)

9.10 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

1.42 g

Carbs (grams)

12.25 g

Fiber (grams)

1.02 g

Net carbs

11.23

Sugar (grams)

0.79 g

Protein (grams)

2.37 g

Sodium (milligrams)

487 mg

Cholesterol (grams)

1.26 g

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2021/12/christmas-wreath-focaccia-breadbakers.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

bread, focaccia

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