It all started with focaccia bread, LoL.
My grandmother and my mom make the best focaccia bread and when I tried a few times, it wasn’t as delicious as theirs, so I gave up. Then I saw so many focaccia art bread ideas I got inspired again.
So, I decided to attempt the perfect focaccia bread and I really wanted it to be perfect. Since this wasn’t inspired by any other recipes and it comes straight from my Moms kitchen – I decided to keep trying until I get it right. I was just playing with the quantity and trying to follow my intuition.
Ok, so this time I said I’ll do it again and then Richard, my husband said “what if you’ll do for Canada Day because the date is close”, I did think it’s a great idea, but guess what? I still was a bit hesitant that it may not turn out the way I want.
But I just let my mind wonder a little bit, and followed my intuition.
First time making it was a great success, and the second time I made it into a video.
My boys loved it so much they asked me to forums double the size, so if you are new to making bread make this recipe as it is, but if you aren’t, then I’ll suggest to double the recipe, but keep it in the same rectangular size 12x8in.
I can promise you, it’s going to come out so delicious you’ll want to finish everything in one sitting as we all did.
The Ingredients you’ll need for Focaccia:
All-purpose flour
Active Yeast
Sugar
Salt
Water
Red bell pepper
Feta cheese or white vegan cheese
Instructions:
In a small bowl add
½ tsp yeast
½ tsp sugar, I use cane sugar
1 tbsp lukewarm water
Mix and let it activate
In a big bowl add
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
Mix well
Make a crater in the middle, then add
Active Yeast and start slowly mixing with your wooden spoon, then add slowly ¾ cup of water while mixing.
When you don’t see any more water, now it’s time kneading the dough with your hands.
Knead the dough until there is no more flour around.
Cover the bowl and let it rise for about 30-40 minutes.
When ready, sprinkle flour and knead again just so it won’t be too sticky, for about a minute.
Flour the surface and take out the dough, start to flatten it with a roller, and shape it into rectangular. (12 x 8 inch, that’s the size of the baking pan I used)
Place it into your baking pan, (I converted my pan with parchment paper), spread oil all over the bread, and then poke all around the surface with the fork.
Dice, as small as you can red bell peppers (around 1 or 2, depends how dense you prefer the red)
Take a cookie cutter Canada leaf shape (if you don’t have, print the leaf and cut it out).
Press it in the middle of the bread (with the paper trace it with the knife)
And now add the diced peppers, and press a little bit, just so it can hold its shape.
On the sides of the bread trace with the knife the size of your line, wide or narrow, and then add in diced peppers and press again, just a little bit.
When you done with bell peppers, now cover the rest of the area with crumbled feta cheese.
Take out the cookie cutter, and preheat the oven at 350F.
Bake until the edges are browned, for around 40 to 50 minutes.
Gluten Free Loaf
We are mainly gluten free family, so I mainly bake and cook with gluten free ingredients.
So I really wanted to create gluten free bread with Canada’s flag too .
This recipe came out so amazingly fluffy and similiar to a regular bread, if not better, LoL.
The texture is soft and very tasty.
The ingredients you’ll need for Gluten Free Loaf:
Plant base milk
Salt
Baking powder
Oat flour
Arrowroot starch/flour or tapioca starch
Brown rice
Psyllium husk powder
Red bell peppers
Feta cheese or white vegan cheese
Instructions:
In a bowl add all the dry ingredients
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup oat flour
1 cup arrowroot starch/flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup psyllium husk powder
Mix it very well, until no lumps left
Then add
2 cups of milk, I used almond milk
Mix all well, and place it into loaf baking pan, but first cover the pan with parchment paper if you don’t want it to get stick and stuck.
Even it out with your hands and decorate with diced red bell peppers & feta cheese.
Dice, as small as you can red bell peppers (around 1 or 2, depends how dense you prefer the red)
Take a cookie cutter Canada leaf shape (if you don’t have, print the leaf and cut it out).
Press it in the middle of the bread (with the paper trace it with the knife)
And now add the diced peppers, and press a little bit, just so it can hold its shape.
On the sides of the bread trace with the knife the size of your line, wide or narrow, and then add in diced peppers and press again, just a little bit.
When you done with bell peppers, now cover the rest of the area with crumbled feta cheese.
Take out the cookie-cutter, and preheat the oven at 350F.
Bake until the edges are browned, for around 40 to 50 minutes.
Ingredients
- The Ingredients you'll need for Focaccia:
- All-purpose flour
- Active Yeast
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
- Red bell pepper
- Feta cheese or white vegan cheese
- The ingredients you'll need for Gluten Free Loaf:
- Plant base milk
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Oat flour
- Arrowroot starch/flour or tapioca starch
- Brown rice
- Psyllium husk powder
- Red bell peppers
- Feta cheese or white vegan cheese
Instructions
Instructions (Focaccia):
6-8 servings
In a small bowl add
½ tsp yeast
½ tsp sugar, I use cane sugar
1 tbsp lukewarm water
Mix and let it activate
In a big bowl add
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
Mix well
Make a crater in the middle, then add
Active Yeast and start slowly mixing with your wooden spoon, then add slowly ¾ cup of water while mixing.
When you don't see any more water, now it's time kneading the dough with your hands.
Knead the dough until there is no more flour around.
Cover the bowl and let it rise for about 30-40 minutes.
When ready, sprinkle flour and knead again just so it won't be too sticky, for about a minute.
Flour the surface and take out the dough, start to flatten it with a roller, and shape it into rectangular. (12 x 8 inch, that's the size of the baking pan I used)
Place it into your baking pan, (I converted my pan with parchment paper), spread oil all over the bread, and then poke all around the surface with the fork.
Bake until the edges are browned, for around 40 to 50 minutes.
Canada Flag Decoration 👇
Instructions (Gluten Free Loaf):
6-8 servings
In a bowl add all the dry ingredients
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup oat flour
1 cup arrowroot starch/flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup psyllium husk powder
Mix it very well, until no lumps left
Then add
2 cups of milk, I used almond milk
Mix all well, and place it into loaf baking pan, but first cover the pan with parchment paper if you don't want it to get stick and stuck.
Even it out with your hands and decorate with diced red bell peppers & feta cheese.
Bake until the edges are browned, for around 40 to 50 minutes.
Canada Flag Decoration:
Dice, as small as you can red bell peppers (around 1 or 2, depends how dense you prefer the red)
Take a cookie cutter Canada leaf shape (if you don't have, print the leaf and cut it out).
Press it in the middle of the bread (with the paper trace it with the knife)
And now add the diced peppers, and press a little bit, just so it can hold its shape.
On the sides of the bread trace with the knife the size of your line, wide or narrow, and then add in diced peppers and press again, just a little bit.
When you done with bell peppers, now cover the rest of the area with crumbled feta cheese.
Take out the cookie cutter, and preheat the oven at 350F.