Make

I have a few tried-and-true recipes that I make on a regular basis: cookie brittle, compost cake, this piña colada zucchini bread. Time to add another regular bake to the list: chive and garlic focaccia.

I started making this bread back in the spring when the only plant growing in our garden was chives. I never considered myself much of a chive fan, but I decided to make use of the one fresh thing I had by tossing it in a bread dough. Now, I’m a big fan of chives, and I’ve made this bread probably ten times in the last four months.

This bread is super easy to make and doesn’t require any out of the ordinary ingredients. I bet you already have everything you need right in the pantry.

What You Need for Chive and Garlic Focaccia

As I said, you don’t need a lot to make this bread, and like many of my favorite recipes, you can make some pretty easy substitutions.

• 1⅓ cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• Packet of yeast
• 3½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup olive oil + more to top
• 2 teaspoons sea salt + more flaky salt to top
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Fistful of fresh chives, finely chopped

If you don’t care for chives or don’t have them, sub in another herb. Rosemary, oregano, basil or even dill would be great in this dough. If you don’t have fresh herbs, dried work! Just don’t go overboard—a tablespoon total is enough.

Full disclosure: I used the minced garlic you find in a jar. I add a heaping spoonful and call it good. I say it’s about four cloves worth.

Another substitution: You can use a heaping teaspoon of quick-rise yeast if you don’t have active dry yeast at home. This recipe is pretty forgiving, so don’t be worried if you need to make some small changes.

Step 1: Proof the Yeast

If you’re new to bread, using yeast is the most daunting part, but really don’t fret too much. Just fill up a measuring cup with warm water. I go by feel, but if you want to be precise, just be sure not to go over 110ºF. Any hotter and you’ll kill the yeast.

Stir in the sugar and yeast and let it sit for a few minutes until it begins to froth.

Step 2: Stir Up the Dough

This dough is so easy to put together. Just mix together the flour, water-sugar-yeast mix and olive oil with the dough hook of your stand mixer. Then add the salt, garlic and all the chives and mix until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and creeps up the hook.

Step 3: Knead and Rest

Next, turn out the dough onto a floured worktop and knead for five minutes. A lot of breads require a lot of kneading, but not this focaccia. You want it to be fairly tender, so there’s no reason to keep laboring over it to develop a ton of gluten. Five minutes of work is enough.

When you’re done kneading, pop the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise for an hour.

Step 4: Press into the Pan

After the dough has pretty much doubled in size, press it into a 13×9 sheet pan, cover and let it rise again. The second rise on this bread is pretty short: 20 minutes will do the trick.

Step 5: Add Dimples, Oil and Salt

This part is my favorite. Once the dough has puffed up a little bit, press dimples into the dough with your fingertips. You’ll want to press until you can feel the bottom of the pan (but don’t rip through the dough). Make little divots all over the bread.

Then take your extra virgin olive oil and drizzle oil into all of those dimples. Sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the top and toss this in the oven.

Toss in a 400ºF oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

When it’s cool enough to remove from the pan, take it out and enjoy! I love a slice or two while the bread is still warm. The dough is so soft and tender thanks to the short knead time and ample amounts of olive oil. I like when I find a salty slice—it gives it a nice little crunch on top!

How to Serve Focaccia and How to Store It

I think this is a pretty good focaccia recipe, so I eat this bread without adornment (and I eat it for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner). It’s just so good.

However, if you want to not live on bread alone, you can serve this focaccia up alongside a big salad or a tasty Italian dish. I like to make it with this skillet zucchini lasagna from Half Baked Harvest.

If the bread is a bit past it’s prime, I toast it up and cover it with butter and garlic powder for easy garlic bread. You could just toast it plain and use it for sandwiches, too.

As for the timeline on this bread, it’s definitely at it’s best the first day, but if you wrap it tightly, it’s good for about three. After three days, it starts to dry out. But that’s where the garlic bread and toast ideas come in!

I’d consider myself a regular home baker. I always have baking essentials in the pantry and the fridge. Sometimes I have things that go beyond essentials—which is why I have a big bag of dried currants hanging out in my baking basket.

Currants are definitely not a baking staple for me, but they ended up in my cupboard during my annual dried fruit shopping spree (I always buy too many fruits for fruitcake). Sheltering in place, though, has me baking like everyone else and looking into the recesses of the pantry like everyone else.

I decided the best way to use these dried zante currants (which are actually a kind of grape not real currants which frustrates me to no end) was to toss them in a scone. My favorite scone from Colectivo has dried blueberries, so this is a good way to approximate them with what I have on hand.

My Recipe for Currant Scones

Making scones is pretty simple business. You don’t need any fancy equipment, just a bowl, a spatula and a pastry blender (you can use a fork if you don’t have one of those). This recipe takes about 15 minutes to prep and then it’s about 40 minutes of hands-off time. And if you don’t have currants—and why would you?—use dried cranberries or even fresh blueberries.

• 2¾ cups flour
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup dried currants
• Zest of half an orange (or lemon or lime)
• ½ cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk + 2 tablespoons coarse sugar to top, optional

Yield: 6-8 scones, depending on how you slice.

Step 1: Mix the Dry Ingredients

First up, whisk together the dry ingredients—thats flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the zest.

The zest here is optional, but I think it makes the scone taste a bit fresher and gives it a touch more personality. Use whatever citrus you have on hand.

Step 2: Cut in the Butter

Next, grab your cold butter and cut it into cubes. Make sure it’s good and cold—not oh it sat on the counter for 15 minutes while I measured cold.

Use a pastry blender or a fork and cut the cubed butter into the dry ingredients. Keep cutting in until the butter is about pea-sized. If you make homemade biscuits, this is all standard procedure.

Step 3: Add Milk + Currants

After cutting in the butter, add your buttermilk and vanilla along with your currants. Give them a quick toss in a few teaspoons of flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the scone.

Stir until just combined. Don’t overwork the dough, just get everyone in the bowl introduced.

If you don’t have buttermilk, milk or half and half is fine. You can make your own buttermilk substitute, too.

Also, use good vanilla always. Yeah, the good stuff is pricey, but it’s worth every penny if you ask me. I used Nielsen-Massey Indonesian vanilla extract here. I typically prefer the Mexican kind, but the Indonesian vanilla goes well with fruit (also I’m out of the Mexican variety right now).

Step 4: Give It a Few Turns + Chill

With your scone dough made, turn it out onto a clean countertop and pat it flat. Then fold it over itself. Repeat three or four times and shape the dough into a round on the final fold (or turn). The round should be about ¾-inch thick.

Then using a knife or a bench scraper, slice the round into wedges. I opted for six which yields pretty generous scones. Cutting this batch into eight would also work (I’d actually recommend that).

When your done cutting, you can pop the scones into the fridge or freezer for 20 minutes. This will let the butter solidify a bit so you get flakier, more tender scones.

Step 5: Brush + Bake

After hanging out in the ol’ chill chest, you can prep the scones for baking. They can go in the oven as-is or you can give them a quick brush with milk or cream and then a quick sprinkle of coarse sugar. This part is totally optional, but I like the crunch that the coarse sugar gives the scones. Also, I’ve got a full bag of demerara sugar hanging out in my pantry that also needs to be put to use.

From there, pop the scones into a 400ºF oven for 15-20 minutes—or until golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack and eat them within a few days. You can always freeze any extras.

As far as back-of-the-pantry bakes go, this one’s pretty good. It helps me rid myself of why did I buy that? ingredients and now I’ve got a tasty breakfast that makes quarantine a little less glum.