Focaccia is a traditional Italian bread that holds a special place in the hearts of many. I am an Italian cuisine lover at heart, and eliminating Italian food was one of my biggest struggles when I did the elimination diet.
When on a gluten-free diet we often think that having good bread, which is also tasty. I know that was the case for me. When I started I was craving the bread from our local bakery and daydreaming about it for days on end.
My doctor had told me that we were not allowed to have gluten but also gluten-free products as those were often processed. So we were left with having to cook and prepare everything ourselves from scratch.
I spent all my free time that first week looking up recipes to find some type of bread I could make at home without gluten flours, without eggs, without yeast, without dairy. I knew that somewhere out there this recipe exists and it was possible. Would have tried to mix up something myself of course, but I was still a newbie in the baking world. Unfortunately, I did not yet know the science involved in mixing ingredients together in a dough. Let alone without eggs, gluten or yeast!
My research efforts were not in vain. I found this recipe and with some tweaks I have not stopped using it ever since. This is a must when guests come over, and we serve it warm with our homemade platters and dips and so far everyone loved it.
The original recipe was with a too strong almondy taste for me. Moreover, nearly every recipe I tried used almond flour. While almonds are healthy they also have a lot of hats, so it is best to balance the flours which you use. So the main substitute is part of the almond flour with oat flour.
This substitute not only reduces the nutty flavour and fat content, but it also gives it a more natural focaccia taste.
Focaccia with Rosemary and Garlic
Ingredients
- 150 g almond flour
- 150 g oat flour
- 60 g coconut flour
- 40 g Ground Flaxseed
- 45 g Ground Psyllium husk powder
- 14 g baking soda
- 14 g apple cider vinegar
- A few pinches of sea salt
- 480 ml hot or boiling water
- 130 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (according to taste)
- 1 tbsp thyme (dried or fresh)
- 1 tbsp rosemary (dried or fresh)
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 sea salt
For the oil mixture:
Directions
- Firstly, prepare your oil mixture, take a small pot and mix the olive oil, rosemary, thyme, black pepper and salt together. finely chop the garlic cloves and place in the mixture. Cook attentively until right before the garlic turns golden. Try not to overcook it. Once ready, set aside.
- In a big bowl, or your food processor, mix well together the almond flour, the oat flour, the coconut flour, the ground flax seed, the psyllium husk, the baking soda and the salt.
- To the big bowl add half of the oil mixture and mix well. Add half of the hot water and mix well until your dough is formed. Add the rest of the water slowly, do not make the dough too liquid.
- Once the dough is formed, knead it for a couple of minutes to allow the ingredients to mix well and the psyllium husk to activate.
- Preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celcius on fan.
- I usually bake this in one 30cm x 20 cm rectangular tray and one 15cm x 10 cm tray. Prepare your desired tray and line with baking paper.
- This bread is very dense since it has no gluten so you need to spread it with your hands onto the tray and press and spread until the dough is split as thin as possible. I usually do mine arround 0.5cm-0.75cm. According to how thin or thick you have your dough, this will affect how much mixture you have left for the other tray.
- Once you have your dough spread and ready to bake, take a brush or a spoon and spread the oil mixture on top a bit at a time, covering the whole dough. This will help influse the mixture with the herbs and garlic while it is baking and make it crispy. If you have mixture left, keep it in a small jar to serve with the focaccia.
- Bake at the lowest rack for 40 mins. Check with a toothpick to see if ready.
- Once ready, let the focaccia bread sit until fully cooled down before you cut.
Tips: You can rewarm this focaccia bread in the toaster to give it even more crispiness.
Refrigerate this bread for up to 7-10 days. However, at home, this is usually gone in 3 days. You can use the focaccia bread for bruschetta, sandwiches, served for platters, cut small as croutons for soup, as a naan-bread substitute for Indian curries, and so on.
We love this amazing recipe, and we hope you love it too. I have made some substitutions in the method and ingredients when compared to the original recipe but the credit is still fully thanks to lowcarbrecipeideas. Without them, I would have never tried out this amazing focaccia.
Please do let us know in the comments below if you have tried this recipe using other substitutes.
