This focaccia might just be my new favourite gluten free bread. The texture was wonderful and softly chewy on the inside, the outside had a lovely crunch, it had amazing flavours on the top and the trademark focaccia dimples. It even met with approval from the house’s gluten eaters. The only drawback? You have to make it yourself! But it’s very easy.

I bought the mix early on in the first lockdown to go with a home made lasagne but that was when you had to re-mortgage your house to buy yeast and flour, so it sat in my cupboard for quite a while. It’s a Davinia Steel mix. I’ve not used any of her other products, but there’s a scone mix, a pizza mix and a loaf mix as well as this one. I’ve just had a look at the website and discovered they have recently launched a ‘dipping and dunking snack range’ of (pre-made) biscotti and crostini, which look rather fine!

Apologies for the next photo – evidently taken after opening!

Once I did get hold of some yeast, the mix was really easy to make. This kit comes with a flour mix and two packets containing rosemary leaves and garlic powder. To make the bread, you just need to add water and salt (and the yeast, of course) to the bread mix, and you need to have a 20cm, cake tin, oiled. With a generous amount of oil on your hands, it’s fairly easy to flatten the top of the mix and make the dimples with your fingers.

After an initial proving, which I did in the oven at about 50C, it had doubled in size and I was pleased that the dimples were still there. At this point, the rosemary leaves (provided) can be sprinkled on. I also added a bit of garlic powder and extra salt on the top, and then baked in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Once baked, you leave it the focaccia in the tin to cool and the steam helps it come out. You’re supposed to leave it to cool completely before eating, but as I botched my timings, we ended up eating it much sooner than that.

We ate it with carbonara but it would go well with any pasta, with soup or just with antipasto.

It was so good, I’ve already bought another one for myself and one as a present!