Fab Fast Food Processor Focaccia

I was in the mood for a pizza-like object in a hurry and after a swift inventory discovered I was plumb out of pizza sauce and in fact had no tomato sauce or tomato paste either! Bummer, I thought but then decided not to let this stop me and instead to go the focaccia route. It is a cousin to pizza and I decided if I felt like sprinkling it with cheese, who would stop me?

In fact, I decided to go with tuna chunks, shredded yellow cheese, lashings of olive oil and a few grinds of salt, pepper and a sprinkle of oregano! Zaatar or rosemary would’ve been yum as well but I forebore from doing so and kept it simple.

The main trick with pizza type breads is turning your oven to 500 degrees (450 will do if your oven goes no higher) and letting it reach this temperature properly or the texture and crispiness will be lacking.

This is practically a quick bread since you don’t knead the dough- I could debate the better taste and texture of a long kneaded dough but this is a fine version. It’s less scary to a yeast dough novice since the whole shebang is done in the food processor.

First put your yeast in the bowl of the processor with some sugar and then add water

and allow to proof (bubble) so you see the yeast is viable

Then add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor

Whirl together in the food processor just till you have a nice dough

Take the dough out to rest on a piece of parchment paper

You needn’t knead the dough but if you have time let rest/rise for 1/2 an hour. If you don’t have time, you can carry on straight away.

Divide the dough in half

Next best part is you don’t have to roll out the dough- you press your fingers into it (my adult play doh) into an oblong shape

Then you get to decorate 😁😌

Drizzle your olive oil generously over the dough, using your hands, break chunks of tuna (in water or oil according to your preference) and scatter over the dough, add the grated cheese and spices

And place the whole lot by picking up the parchment paper onto a pizza pan or cookie sheet.

Bake in your piping hot oven and slice in strips or just dive in nose first 😊!

Fab Fast Food Processor Focaccia

1 cup warm water

2 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast (or 1 American packet)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

3 cups bread flour or White Whole Wheat flour

Olive oil for drizzling

Tuna chunks from a can- in oil or water as you prefer

Grated cheese- about a generous handful

Ground pepper, ground flaked salt and oregano

Directions:

Put the yeast, sugar and warm water into the bowl of a food processor with the steel blade in place. Gently stir and allow to bubble. Add the oil, flour and salt to the bubbly mixture. Cover the processor and process just till combined and a soft and springy dough is formed.

Remove the dough and pat into a ball and place on parchment paper and let rest 1/2 an hour. If you let rest, I lightly spray with oil spray so the dough doesn’t form a crust. You can also choose to not let it rise and carry on.

Slice dough in half and pat into an oblong with finger marks as seen above. If you are a small crowd and only want one focaccia, you can prepare the second one completely except for baking it and wrap well with plastic wrap and freeze. To use, let defrost completely and bake as below. This lasts in the freezer for at least a month for another dinner or lunch for a different day.

Drizzle with olive oil, chunk the tuna and scatter on dough add grated cheese and salt and spices. Bake at 500 degrees for approximately 7-8 minutes till brown and crispy- don’t answer that phone or wander away or it’ll burn and that would be a shame. Yummy, crispy and satisfying and super easy- this will become a staple in your house!