Herby gluten free focaccia

Soft, gluten free bread can be elusive - and a frustrating process. This is a Lucinda Miller recipe (naturedoc.co.uk), so I'm afraid I can't take the credit. I have however doubled the recipe in order to fill a small baking tray. I guarantee this will not last a day because it tastes so good. Use whatever herbs you have. I followed Lucinda’s original recipe and used wild garlic, and I have also tried it with basil. Delicious.

Ingredients

4 tsp quick dried yeast

4 tsp maple syrup or honey

160ml lukewarm water

200g ground almonds. If you can’t eat nuts, try coconut flour or polenta

100g gram flour. If you don’t like gram, try gluten free flour or cassava

20g psyllium husk powder

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt, plus extra for topping

2 eggs at room temperature.

4 egg whites at room temperature. If you can’t use eggs, use six flax eggs to replace all eggs (6 tbsp ground flax with 15 tbsp water)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for topping

4 tsp apple cider vinegar

Couple of handfuls of soft herbs, finely chopped. Or try tomatoes and olives, rosemary and garlic.

Method:

Dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, weigh out the almonds, flour, psyllium, baking powder and salt.

Wet ingredients: In goes the yeast with, maple syrup and water water into a medium bowl, stir and leave for 7-10 mins until it starts fermenting. Once fermented, add egg, egg whites, olive oil and apple cider vinegar to the yeast mixture and whisk until light and frothy.

Working quickly, (the psyllium will stiffen the dough), gently fold the the wet mixture into the dry mixture until you get thick dough, then fold in the herbs.

Spread the dough onto a small baking sheet - about 2cm or so thick, using a wet spatula to stop it sticking. With wet fingers, make indentations in the dough like proper focaccia, and drizzle on more olive oil and sea salt.

Cover and prove in a warm place for 40 mins. Heat oven to 180 deg C.

Bake focaccia for 18 minutes. If it starts burning on the top, cover with foil. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before serving.