Gluten Free Vegan Focaccia

I just like bread in any form and Focaccia is one of the easiest to bake if you want to bake a quick bread. A bread I’d recommend a newbie baker to try . It is forgiving even if you goof up a little and can be baked into any shape. It can be served cold, as a snack or it can be served as a sandwich bread, it doesn’t get stale fast and great for lunch boxes too. The leavened Italian oven baked flatbread is definitely versatile and you should try baking it 🙂

This particular Focaccia has some different ingredients but its texture is gorgeous!

So here’s my gf vegan Focaccia recipe

Sorghum Gluten Free and Vegan Focaccia

Equipment required

  • A 7*7 square pan or 9*5 rectangular baking pan
  • A spatula or a handheld mixer
  • 2 bowls

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Sorghum Flour – 110 gm
  • Tapioca Starch – 100 gm or a mix of corn or potato starch
  • Active Dry Yeast – 3/4 tsp – 2 gm
  • Dosa Idly batter – 1 tbsp *
  • Psyllium Husk – 4 gm
  • Lukewarm water – 150 ml
  • Honey – 1/2 tbsp
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil ( EVOO) – 3 tbsp + 2 tbsp
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Aquafaba – 3 tbsp **
  • Toppings – any of your choice, I used olives and zaa’tar. You could use cherry tomatoes, caramalized onions and herbs or olives. Just about anything including just some parmesan and rock salt.

Method

  • Grease the baking pan
  • Proof the yeast. In a bowl take 100 ml of the water make sure it is just the right temperature, lukewarm, and then add in the yeast and the honey. Stir it with a spoon and let it proof.
  • In another bowl mix the flours and the salt.
  • To the proofed yeast mixture, add the dosa batter and then the remaining water, psyllium husk, aquafaba and EVOO . Let it rest for a minute or two.
  • Then add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula or handheld mixer. The batter you get should be wobbly but not too dry. If your dough is too dry add a little bit of water.
  • Let the batter rest covered in a warm place for 30 minutes. By this time your dough should be 1.5 times more than when it was kept for proofing.
  • Then transfer the dough to the pan, pushing it out to the edges, and pre-heat the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.
  • Towards the end of the pre-heating time, drizzle EVOO over the dough and add toppings of your choice. Press the toppings lightly into the bread using your fingers.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until golden and crusty. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool on a wire rack. The bread can be served hot or cold.
  • Once cooled slice it into pieces and store in an airtight container and it will stay up to a week if refrigerated.

*If you do not have idly dosa batter, just use 1 tsp of Active Dry Yeast

**If you do not have Aquafaba ( the liquid which you get at the result of cooking chickpeas or in a can of chickpeas) you may use flax seed meal in 3 tbsp of warm water or chia seed meal, or 1/2 tsp more of psyllium husk, or any egg replacer or an egg if you are not vegan.

I hope you enjoy baking this and if you do try please tag me and let me know @jagglutenfree on Instagram or Twitter and @GFIndia on Facebook . It is very heartening for me to know that when I share recipes it helps people enjoy baked gluten free goodies. It is a motivation for me to share more.

If you are new to the gluten free lifestyle, or a Celiac / Coeliac or want an easy to read book on an health condition but not preachy please do check out my book. From recipes to travel tips it has a lot of information