Every summer there is a moment when the farmers market tips fully into tomato season. That's when pints of cherry tomatoes in every color, red and gold and purple-black, get stacked on every table.
This is the bread we make for just that perfect time of year. Garden focaccia (you may have seen it called floral focaccia) turns a pan of dough into a canvas. Halved cherry tomatoes become flowers, herb sprigs become stems, and the whole thing bakes into an edible garden.
This is one of those projects that looks far harder than it is. The dough comes from our Garlic Herb Focaccia Baking Mix, one bag plus olive oil and warm water, so all of your effort goes into the fun part. If you can press a tomato into dough, you can be a gardener/baker for the day.
How to plant a focaccia garden
Think of the pan like a flower bed. Slice your cherry tomatoes in half and press them in cut side up, stacked in little columns so each row reads as a stem of blooms. Fresh chives make the best tall stems, sturdy sprigs of thyme and rosemary read as shrubs and leaves, and a halved mini pepper or a petal of shallot makes a fine tulip. Press everything in firmly as you go. The dough rises around your design in the oven, and toppings that are only resting on the surface will pop loose, so be firm when planting.
Watch Erica plant one in the video, then bake your own. Dust it with the garlic herb spice blend, bake until golden, and enjoy... perhaps with even more tomatoes.
Ingredients
Included Ingredients
- Focaccia Baking Mix
- Garlic Herb Spice Blend
- Baking Yeast
Additional Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- 1 Cup Warm Water
- 1 Teaspoon Sugar
For the Garden
- 1 Cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- fresh chives, thyme, and rosemary sprigs
- mini sweet peppers, halved, or thin petals of shallotoptional
Directions
- In a small bowl, mix yeast, 1 cup warm water, and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes to proof the yeast.
- In a mixing bowl add baking mix, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and proofed yeast from Step 1. Blend with your hands until a shaggy dough forms.
- Knead the dough for about 1 minute, until smooth, pliable, and soft with no dry spots. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a well oiled baking dish, flatten the dough out using your hands until it fills the corners of the dish. If the dough starts to resist, wait 5 minutes then stretch again. Dimple the top all over with your fingertips.
- Plant your garden: press halved cherry tomatoes into the dough cut side up, stacked in columns like blooms on a stem. Tuck in chives for stems and thyme or rosemary for leaves. Press everything in firmly so it holds while the dough rises in the oven.
- Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and dust the open dough with garlic herb spice. Place on the center rack and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let cool. When the bread is cool enough to handle, cut into squares and serve.
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