Unbelievable Gluten Free Focaccia

Recipe

This Unbelievable Gluten Free Focaccia is the bread of your dreams. The golden crust is crisp and chewy with the flavour of olive oil, and the centre is dreamily soft with a slight bounce. Topped with herbs or something more substantial, you'll wonder how you survived without it all this time!

This recipe is one of the ones I'm most proud of. That's partly because I'm a massive focaccia fan, and partly because (and remember, this is coming from a gluten-eater) it is genuinely delicious. Because I'm lucky enough to be able to eat whatever I want (within reason, of course) I'm always a bit grumpy (ok, very grumpy) when a recipe tastes or looks gluten free, but this focaccia never puts me in a bad mood!

This bread looks like focaccia with a golden crust and bouncy interior full of air holes. It tastes like focaccia and you can top it it whatever you want - simple herbs like I have here, or cheese, meat and vegetables. Finally, and most importantly, it has the texture of focaccia. The crust is crisp from the olive oil and the crumb is soft and just the right amount of chewy...

Ingredients for Unbelievable Gluten Free Focaccia

Let's talk a bit more about what to expect from this recipe. It's pretty simple to put together and pretty foolproof as long as you have a few specific ingredients.

Gluten Free Plain Flour

I use a flour blend made by White Wings. It's ingredient list is relatively very simple, with just maize flour, rice flour, tapioca starch and thickeners including xanthan gum. I've tested this recipe using other flour blends and while you'll still get an acceptable result the additional ingredients used in many blends can interfere with the taste and texture of the bread. If you can't get White Wings where you are try to use the simplest blend you can find.

Sorghum Flour

Sorghum flour is the closest in terms of flavour and texture to wheat flour that I've come across. It helps to give the bread a great flavour overall and to override any after taste from the store bought flour blend. If you don't have access to sorghum flour my second choice would be brown rice flour.

Tapioca and Potato Starches

These help to keep the bread really light and fluffy and also add a little bit of chewiness to the texture.

Psyllium Husk

Sometimes used as a dietary fibre supplement. I use the whole husks as opposed to the powder. This is what allows us to work with the dough and helps give the bread it's chewy texture. It can be a bit gross while you're working with it but persevere, it's worth it!

Olive Oil

And a LOT of it. Focaccia get's it's flavour and crisp texture from the oil in the bottom of the pan and drizzled on top - don't be shy!

This bread dough is very wet, which is typical of traditional focaccia recipes as well. That wetness is vital to get the best result, so to knead this dough it's important to use oil instead of flour to stop it from sticking to your surface. If you added more flour the bread would be dense and dry in comparison.

The world is your oyster when it comes to topping your focaccia. I love simple herbs when I want to serve the focaccia with other things like pesto and cheese, but a combination like chunks of cooked potato and chorizo, or roast veggies are fantastic and make the focaccia a meal in itself. My only tip is to not go tooooo overboard - we don't want to weigh the dough down and stop it from cooking properly!

Whatever you top it with this focaccia is a winner every time, and makes a show-stealing addition to lunch spreads, antipasti, charcuterie, and any other excuse you can think of to make it!