A layered focaccia made with the ancient grains, spelt, bursting with warm, creamy mozzarella and tasty olives. It’s so good straight from the oven.

My son, who is 11, likes experimenting in the kitchen. His combinations are often weird and wonderful. I try to let them be – isn’t trying, tasting and evaluating a huge part of the process?!

Because of my desire to allow him to play, we’ve eaten some weird dishes (chocolate and cheese, linseed and cabbage…the list goes on!).

But when it came to the idea of a spelt bread stuffed with olives and mozzarella, I was quite enthusiastic. I’m a lover of the ancient grain spelt. Add two delicious Mediterranean treats; what’s not to like?! My son had the idea of layering the dough in a cake tin. I never seen anyone doing this before I wasn’t sure whether it would work, but it does!

We decided to called this dish layered spelt focaccia with mozzarella and olives. It’s delicious, luxurious and interesting. When I initially included a picture of it in one of my newsletters, I received emails asking for the recipe! My son was proud and together we baked the bread again, this time noting all the weights and the process.

The bread uses instant yeast. That’s a departure from all of my previous bread recipes which have all been sourdough. 11-year-olds aren’t as patient as I have learnt to become, so he wanted to use yeast. In practice, you can make this focaccia using sourdough, check my notes at the end of the recipe for specific details.

Layered Spelt Focaccia with Mozzarella & Olives

Ingredients:

270g white spelt flour

4.5g salt

5g instant yeast

115g water

2 tablespoons olive oil

175g mozzarella

110g olives

1 teaspoon rosemary

Method:

Measure the flour, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl.
Combine the water (if your environment is cool, warm the water that you use to around 30°C/86°F) and olive oil in a jug.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, kneading till you have a soft dough.
Use a little olive oil to grease the bowl, place the dough back in it, cover lightly and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (for me, at 28°C/82°F this took two hours).
Remove the mozzarella from its packaging and dice it. Leave these pieces on a plate to rest and drain any liquid that comes from them.
Depending on the size of your olives, chop them either in half or in quarters.
Prepare a 7 1/2 inch/19 cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tin by greasing and/or lining with parchment paper.
Check your proofing dough. If it’s sufficiently risen, remove it from your warm space (if not, return it and keep checking).
Flour your work surface and, removing the dough gently from its proofing bowl, divide it into four relatively equal portions.
Stretch/push/roll the first of these four portions into a circle that will fit the bottom of your cake tin. When it’s the right size, place it at the bottom of the tin.

Top this layer with a third of the olives, a quarter of the mozzarella and a sprinkle of the rosemary.
Take the second quarter of dough, stretch/push/roll it as you did the first and place this over the top of the last one.
Sprinkle this second layer with a third of the olives, a quarter of the mozzarella and a sprinkle of the rosemary.
Repeat this process with the third quarter of the dough.

Stretch/push/roll the last quarter of the dough and place it over the top. You should now have a quarter of the mozzarella to dot on the top. Add a little rosemary too.
Cover the cake tin with a damp tea towel and move it back to your warm space for a final proof; at 28°C/82°F, I like to allow half an hour for this process.
Whilst its proofing, preheat your oven to 180°C/355°F.
When the layered focaccia is ready (it will have risen, not a great deal, but noticeably, in the tin), place it in the oven.
Cook for 25-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Eat warm!

How to make this with sourdough:

If you’d like to make this a sourdough spelt focaccia, I recommend swapping the yeast out for 55g of active sourdough starter. It may take longer to ferment/proof.