Slow Cooker Spinach and Feta Focaccia

Since I have had success with making bread in my slow cooker before (pesto twist loaf, rosemary and olive bread, apricot and sultana loaf, chocolate chip brioche), it was a no-brainer for me to turn to the slow cooker again to make focaccia with toppings for work lunches.

I love the way I can just forget about the dough in the slow cooker and get on with other things while it proves and then bakes. Perfect for a day at home with an active nearly three-year-old! Read on for the recipe for slow cooker spinach and feta focaccia.

Recipe:

Adapted from Paul Hollywood’s recipe for focaccia from The Great British Bake-Off:

• 250 g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fast bake yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200 ml cold water

Topping

• 50 g spinach, chopped
• 40 g feta cheese, crumbled
• Cherry tomatoes, handful, halved
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves stripped
• Coarse sea salt
• Olive oil to drizzle

Method:

1. Place the flour, salt, yeast, olive oil and three quarters of the water in a large bowl and use a spoon to mix it together into a sticky dough.
2. Knead it in the bowl for five minutes and add the remaining water slowly.
3. Stretch the dough out in the bowl and then fold in into the centre, keep turning the bowl little by little and continue stretching and folding for five minutes. It will gradually become less sticky and more elastic.
4. Turn the dough out onto an oiled surface and knead it for another five minutes.
5. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it with clingfilm, and allow it to double in size. This rise took about an hour for me.
6. Line the bowl of a largr slow cooker (I used one which is 5.7 litre) with a double layer of baking paper.
7. Place the dough in the pot on the baking paper and stretch it out to roughly the size of the base of the pot.
8. Place the lid back on the slow cooker, turn it onto low and allow the dough to prove for an hour.

Here it is as it went in.

After an hour on low, the dough rose well again.

9. Drizzle the dough with olive oil, and make some holes with the end of your finger to push in the halved tomatoes and crumbled feta. Scatter the chopped spinach and rosemary leaves on top. Drizzle over a little more olive oil, and some sea salt, and it is ready to switch onto high to bake.

10. Bake for approx. 1-2 hours on high.

After 1.5 hrs on high with a tea towel under the lid, the focaccia baked well!

11. To brown off the top a little more, place it in a hot oven for five minutes.

This was absolutely delicious for work lunches, and was enough for two days eaten in its own. If served with a side salad it could even make four servings. At approx 300 calories per quarter focaccia, this can be included in a healthy eating plan.

For more focaccia recipes, why not check these out:

• my blackcurrant focaccia
• tomato, red onion and blue cheese focaccia from the Crafty Larder
• focaccia from The Great British Bake-Off from Kerry Cooks
• wholemeal herb and onion focaccia from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families
• cherry tomato and rosemary focaccia from Little Sunny Kitchen
• olive focaccia from Family-Friends-Food

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Linking up with Janice and her Slow Cooked Challenge

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