Autumn has truly arrived now and we’ve had a very blustery, rainy day, with overturned pots in the garden and tons of leaves from apple tree falling. The only thing to do was to draw the curtains and get busy in the kitchen. So I’ve made something nice for everyone, pancakes, tuna steak, shrimps, but also a focaccia, a very nice one, only a quarter left of it now. I looked at Paul Hollywood’s recipe and at one from my Italian cookbook and ended up kind of mixing them both. I used a bit more that 260 g of strong bread flour, 14 g of fresh yeast, which I first prepared with some flour and warm water. A tsp of salt and a tbsp of olive oil. 200 ml of water. I also added 2 ground cloves of garlic to the dough, but I have to say I can’t taste any!

Kitchen aid did all the work of kneading. It proved for almost an hour till more than doubled in size. I knocked it back and placed in a well oiled tray, pushed it to the corners nicely and proved once again for about half an hour. When beautifully risen, I sprinkled some flaky salt on top, some black olives and pieces of tomatoes went on, a dusting of dry oregano, a drizzle of olive oil and into the oven heated to 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Very difficult to keep one’s claws off it, when on the table. Excellent with a glass of red.