Recipe for Focaccia with Chestnut and Vin Santo
How to Make a Delicious Italian Bread for Christmas
Oct 28, 2009
Made with Vin Santo, the sweet Italian wine, and chestnut flour this focaccia recipe is delicious. The bread is ideal teamed with cheese on cold winter nights.
This homemade focaccia mixes wheat flour with chestnut flour, which gives the bread a distinctive flavour. The recipe comes from Italian Breads by Maxine Clark (© Ryland Peters and Small £9.99) and appears here with permission. Made with that delicious sweet Italian wine, Vin Santo, it’s a perfect bread to serve at Christmas. Maxine Clark suggests serving it with Gorgonzola cheese and pears – plus some Vin Santo to drink of course.
Chestnut and Vin Santo Focaccia – Recipe
Ingredients – Makes 2 focaccias
- 500g Italian ‘00’ flour or plain white flour
- 200g chestnut flour (farina di castagne)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 25g fresh yeast, 1 tablespoon dried active yeast or 2 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 150ml Vin Santo mixed with 300ml water, warmed
- Coarse sea salt or rock salt, to sprinkle
Equipment
2 cake tins, pie or pizza pans, 25 x 4 cm, lightly oiled
Method
- Sift both the flours and fine sea salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crumble in the fresh yeast. For dried yeast, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Pour in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, then rub the oil into the flour and yeast until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour the warmed Vin Santo and water into the well and mix until the dough comes together.
- Tip out onto a lightly-floured surface, wash and dry your hands, then knead the dough briskly for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should be very soft, almost too soft to handle, but don’t worry at this stage. Put in a lightly-oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm or a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size – about 1½hours.
- Uncover the dough, punch out the air, then divide into two. Shape each piece into a round ball on a lightly-floured work surface. Roll out into two 25-cm circles and put in the tins. Cover with clingfilm or a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until very puffy and almost risen to the top of the tins.
- Uncover the dough and, using your fingertips, make deep dimples all over the surface of the dough right to the base of the tin. Drizzle over the remaining olive oil, re-cover and leave to rise for a final 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6.
- Spray the focaccias with water, lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat on the same day or let cool completely, wrap in foil and freeze. When you remove the bread from the freezer, thaw and wrap in foil, then reheat for 5 minutes in a hot oven.
The copyright of the article Recipe for Focaccia with Chestnut and Vin Santo in Italian Baking is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish Recipe for Focaccia with Chestnut and Vin Santo in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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