MIMI’S

Goat’s Cheese and Grape Focaccia

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The joy of focaccia is all the space it gives for toppings! It’s a blank canvas, waiting to be topped with whatever delicious ingredients take your fancy. Our bakers make fresh focaccia every day, creatively choosing toppings and regularly coming up with new seasonal flavours.

Mimi, one of our bakers, bounded into Luminary for her shift one day clutching a plastic bag brimming with jewel-like black grapes from the vines in her garden, and they inspired the day’s focaccia. We love how the grapes glisten and burst with sweet-sour juice as you bite into them, deliciously complementing the creamy goat’s cheese and heady olive oil.

MAKES 1 LARGE LOAF (6–8 LARGE PIECES)

For the dough

560g strong white flour

2 tsp (11g) fine salt

2½ × 7g sachets (17g) of fast-action dried yeast

450ml hand-hot water

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing

For the topping

250g black, seedless grapes

a good handful of fresh rosemary (about 15g), sprigs picked

50ml olive oil

100g soft goat’s cheese, sliced into small chunks

1 tbsp flaky sea salt

Follow the same method for making the dough as for the focaccia here, up until the dough is proving for a second time in its oiled baking tin.

Meanwhile, mix the grapes and rosemary in a bowl with the olive oil and set aside. Slice the goat’s cheese into 2cm pieces.

When the dough is ready, push your fingers deep into the dough a few times, almost to the bottom of the tin, to create little dimples. Sprinkle the grapes, rosemary and oil across the top of the dough, followed by the goat’s cheese and sea salt flakes. Leave to prove in a warm place for a final 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/Gas Mark 7.

Bake the focaccia for 20–25 minutes until golden brown and puffy.

Leave to cool a little before cutting into squares. This is really good served alongside a cheese platter or cut into small squares as appetisers.