Stuffed Focaccia

Stuffed Focaccia is made with stuffing of cheese, corn and sundried tomatoes. The best dish this side of planet! It is mouthful of all things Italian and goodness.

Check more focaccia recipes here like beetroot focaccia, basil focaccia.

I love Focaccia, but never knew one day I would be making it at home. I can’t believe I’ve reached here in my endeavors to eat home made food. Not to mention, V is enjoying and putting on inches but loving every moment of my journey – from a below average cook of dal, roti to confusion cook who is willing to try new horizons.

Again Focaccia is from my anniversary menu – I’m traveling & didn’t want to disappear from the scene after one post on Eggless Tiramisu, hence I made my menu into scheduled drafts. I follow DK’s blog for international cuisines a lot as she really makes them simple & appealing at the same time. This one is again a crowd winner and in my case husband winner. As the adage goes – A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach ;)

When I started, it was going to be a simply baked focaccia as I had planned to make stuffed crust pizza for the dinner, however I didn’t get string cheese in all the (supposed) fine foods shop and had to scrap it. But by then I had already bought the mozzarella cheese and didn’t want to waste it. So decided on making Stuffed Cheese Focaccia instead. :) I quickly chopped cheese, chopped onion & boiled corn for the filling and I was ready.

Baking focaccia was the most chaotic of dishes I have ever done. I dissolved the yeast first and forgot to pit & chop olives. In this race against time (may be I am exaggerating) I managed to pit & chop before water got cold. It was only after I had put the dough in the sun for half an hour, that I realized I had forgotten to add sugar. :( I immediately googled and came across reviews that bread won’t brown, will be dense, dough will not rise etc etc. (sob, sob). Someone suggested adding it by dissolving in little water & leave it again for rising. and that’s what I did.

But I guess my Focaccia had decided not to be perfect. Even after rectifying my earlier mistakes, the dough didn’t rise. It was the first time I was using yeast, so I had no idea what to look for, so then again I hit panic button on google & found that in most such cases, yeast is already dead. I quickly did the yeast check (as advised on google) and my worst fear became a reality, the yeast was indeed DEAD! some more sob :(

I didn’t had the time or patience to buy new yeast and start afresh, so I decided to go ahead with it. Though the focaccia didn’t turn out as spongy as it should be. But the crust baked well & tasted fine. Obviously not the best! I guess I can get out of this one by telling myself (and everyone) that this is my first time. V consoled me by saying that this has become more like a thin crust pizza with stuffing. (ha ha) I guess I need to learn to see humor in this debacle.

For the focaccia dough, I skipped rosemary & substituted pesto & sun-dried tomatoes with sun-dried tomato pesto.

I served with my Spaghetti in al’arabiata Sauce. Every cheesy bite reminded me of on-the-go snacks/ meals eaten at Cafe Coffee Day during my years in job. Loving it!

After the anniversary dinner, V refused to even budge from his place & went off to sleep by 8 pm, which is like a miracle. I guess a full stomach speaks all. :)

Print Recipe

Stuffed Focaccia

Stuffed Focaccia is made with stuffing of cheese, corn and sundried tomatoes. The best dish this side of planet! It is mouthful of all things Italian and goodness.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Proofing Time2 hours hrs

Total Time2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Baking, Bread, Side Dish

Cuisine: Italian, Vegetarian

Keyword: Bakery, eggless

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

for the dough

• 3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp salt
• a pinch sugar granulated
• ¼ tsp black pepper freshly ground
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1¼ cups lukewarm water

for the filling

• ⅔ cup pitted black olives chopped
• 4 tbsp sun-dried tomato pesto
• ¼ cup boiled corn
• 1 onion chopped
• ½ cup mozzarella cheese chopped

Instructions

for the filling

• Mix all the ingredients together. Set aside.

for the dough

• Sift the flour, salt & pepper in a bowl.
• Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water as per instructions on the pack.
• Add sugar to the flour. Now make a well in the center & add yeast water with olives & sun-dried tomato pesto.
• Mix it into a soft dough, adding little water if necessary.
• Transfer the dough onto a floured platform and knead well till elastic & smooth.
• Store it in a well oiled bowl & cover in a plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour or till it has risen in double the volume. The dough is ready when you can push a finger or two into it and not have it spring back.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it again gently for a minute. Divide the dough into half.
• Round each half into loose ball and allow them to rest covered in a film for 10-15 mins.
• Pre-heat the oven at 425 °F/220 °C.
• Roll one ball into a 10-12″ circle and place on the greased baking pan.
• Now spread filling mixture evenly on the circle, leaving 1 inch around the edges.
• Roll second ball into the same size circle & place atop the filling.
• Press the edges of the dough together firmly to seal the 2 circles.
• Oil the surface of the dough with olive oil using a pastry brush.
• Sprinkle salt on top.
• Bake for 20-25 mins or till done. Transfer to a wire rack.
• Cut into small loaves using pizza cutter & and serve warm.