Whole-Wheat Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia

My husband has asked me to make my Bolognese sauce tomorrow which means I need whole wheat bread crumbs to make seitan to be ground into “meat crumbles”. I decided to make 1/3 of the whole-wheat focaccia bread for dinner tonight and make the remainder into breadcrumbs for tomorrow. If you want to make the entire recipe into sun-dried tomato focaccia triple the amount of tomatoes.

This is my standard focaccia that I also use for pizza dough. I make this dough so often I don’t need to look at the recipe any longer as I have it memorized. The only thing I make more often is the almond milk.

Whole-Wheat Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia
1/3 of recipe for focaccia and 2/3 for whole wheat breadcrumbs

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups luke warm water (approximately 105 degrees)
2 ¼ teaspoons active dried yeast
¼ teaspoon agave
2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 cups sprouted whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons canola oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon of oil for the bowl
¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced (for adding to 1/3 of the dough)

Directions:

Combine the water, yeast and agave and wait 10 minutes for the yeast to begin to grow. When you see the foaming add the water and yeast to your mixer along with the other ingredients, except the oil for the bowl and the sun-dried tomatoes. Knead the dough on low for 5 minutes. If all the flour does not get combined add a little bit more water a tablespoon at a time until all the flour has been absorbed into the dough.

Oil the bowl and drop in the dough ball. Turn the dough in the bowl so that it has a little oil on the top. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic cling film and allow to rise in a draft free location until it has doubled in volume. This should take about 1 to 1 ½ hours to proof. I place mine in the microwave since I know that is draft free and that location seems to work well.

When the dough has doubled in volume take the dough out of the bowl and cut out 1/3 and knead the sun-dried tomato into the dough. Stretch the dough to fit on one third of a half sheet pan covered with parchment or silpat. With the remaining dough stretch it to fit the other two thirds of the pan. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in volume again.

While the dough is rising the second time preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the dough has doubled in volume dimple the top of the dough with your fingertips and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the bread is cooked and lightly browned.

After you are finished baking cool the dough in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Slice and serve the third of the bread with the sun-dried tomato. With the remaining two thirds of the dough I made whole wheat bread crumbs for seitan. I placed chunks of the bread into the food processor and processed until the crumbs were a fine texture. I keep the breadcrumbs in the freezer in a zip top bag until I am ready to use them.

Nutritional Information for ¼ of the sun dried tomato focaccia:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 245.23
Calories From Fat (20%) - 49.61

Total Fat - 6.97g
Saturated Fat - 0.51g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 101.26mg
Potassium - 166.84mg
Total Carbohydrates - 48.12g
Fiber - 5.5g
Sugar - 0.79g
Protein - 7.1g

Comments:

Sun-dried tomatoes add a nice flavor to this bread, but they also increase the calories and fat significantly. I initially thought this recipe was eight servings but both the guys had three pieces of bread tonight so I decided to run the numbers assuming four servings.

You could add fresh herbs, garlic or finely minced fresh onion to this bread if you choose. This is a good all purpose whole wheat bread. It is quick and makes great breadcrumbs if you can’t find whole-wheat crumbs.