Cheese, chive & chilli focaccia

There’s something about the cheesy salty chilli topping that makes this focaccia so incredibly hard to resist!

Find the video on how it’s made HERE

500g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting 

7g dried fast action yeast

1 tsp fine sea salt

5 spring onions, finely sliced

½ small bunch chives, finely sliced

100g cheddar cheese, finely grated

5 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the tin and to serve

For the topping

50g cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

1-2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

1 tsp flaky sea salt

1 Put the flour into a mixing bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer). Mix the yeast into one side of the flour, and the fine salt into the other side. Then mix everything together, this separation prevents the salt from killing the yeast.

2 Mix the spring onions, chives, 100g cheddar into your flour and and add 2 tbsp oil and 350-400ml lukewarm water, adding it gradually until you have a slightly sticky dough (you may not need all the water). You can either combine it by hand or use the dough hook on your mixer. If doing it by hand sprinkle the work surface with flour and tip the dough onto it, scraping around the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5-10 mins until your dough is soft and less sticky (or in your stand mixer). Put the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for 1 hr until doubled in size.

3 Heavily oil a rectangle, shallow tin (around 20 x 30cm) (if you find your tin is quite old and tends to stick, I’d advise lining it with greaseproof too) . Tip the dough onto the work surface, then stretch it to fill the tin. Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for another 35-45 mins.

4 Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Press your fingers into the dough to make dimples (if you oil your hands it’s easier to do this as it won’t stick the dough). Sprinkle the 50g cheddar chilli flakes evenly over the dough. Mix together 1½ tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp water and drizzle over the bread, top with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.

5 Bake for 18 - 20 mins until golden. Whilst the bread is still hot, drizzle over 1-2 tbsp olive oil. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold with extra olive oil, if you like.