Honey & Caraway Focaccia
I had a craving for an Ethiopian bread called Himbasha. My friend would bring in freshly made loaves she would get from a family friend, and it genuinely was the highlight of the week growing up.
Her version was slighlty softer than the traditional, the dough spiked with cardamom and slightly sweetened. I don’t know whether my mind is playing tricks on me, but I feel like it was studded with some kind of fragrant seed - so, I made something, inspired by my memory of it. And I landed on a slightly sweet, chewy spiced focaccia.
It’s not sweet like bioche, so the bread is still very verstile. You can have it plain, dipped in chai or coffee, or spread over some butter, jam, even cheese.
Here I used it to make a sandwich - the filling was a miso bean mixture, with sugar snap peas, lettuce and Mama Yu Original Chilli oil.
The base focaccia recipe is from Ben Lippet’s rosemary focaccia recipe which is the best I’ve made, on par with the Dusty Knuckles famous one.
Notes: I would highly recommend keeping the cardamom in, but you can always switch out the caraway for other spices- nigella, sesame… or simply omit, if you don’t like the taste.
Prep/baking time:1hr +proofing time
Ingredients
450g Water
10g Honey
1 Tsp Ground Cardamom
10g Caraway Seeds
5g Dried Yeast
500g Bread Flour
15 Olive Oil
10g Sea Salt
For the garnish:
20g Olive Oil
20g Honey
Smoked Sea Salt or Flaky Salt
Method:
1. Add the water, honey, cardamom and caraway into a large bowl. Stir the yeast and flour through. Using your hands, bring together until no dry lumps of flour are left. Cover and let the dough hydrate for 1 hour.
2. Pour the olive oil and salt over the hydrated dough. Use your hands to squish them in. Mix together until the dough comes back together and the salt has dissolved. Cup your hand, lift and slap the dough into the bowl over and over again for 1 minute - this is to work the gluten.
3. Let the dough relax, covered, for 30 minutes. With wet hands, gently grab the edge of the dough, lift it up and fold it over the opposite side, turn 90° and fold again until all the 4 edges have been done. Cover, let it rest for another 30 minutes, and do another fold - do this process a total of 4 times. Then cover and let proof for 1.5-2 hours.
4. Line a non-stick baking tray (roughly 22x35cm) with baking paper. Add a glug of olive oil into it and evenly coat the bottom and sides. Add the dough into the tray and gently stretch it to almost fill the tray (try to keep as much air in the dough as possible). Cover and leave to proof until the dough is giggly and super puffy again, 45 mins-1.5 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 230°C.
7. Use oiled fingers to dimple it all over (start from the middle and go out, for a more even finish). Slide into the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Turn the heat down to 190°C, place foil on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
8. Mix the olive oil and honey together, brush it onto the hot focaccia and sprinkle with smoked sea salt or flaky salt. Let it cool before slicing.
