Homemade Focaccia BLT with Avocado
- Prep Time: 25 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 25 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings
Description
Make a plain sandwich even tastier by home baking a fresh focaccia bread and layering with bacon, lettuce, tomato and avo.
Ingredients
Dough
1 kg white bread flour
800 g water
20 g salt
½ tsp (2,5 ml) instant yeast
olive oil
3 sticks rosemary, picked
sea salt
Mayo Sauce
1 C (250 ml) mayonnaise
½ tsp (2,5 ml) ground garlic
zest and juice of 1 small lemon
Fillings
2 packets of streaky bacon
2 large tomatoes, sliced
1 large head of cos lettuce, washed
2 x ZZ2 Hass avocados, sliced
Instructions
Dough
The night before you want to bake the focaccia, prepare the dough. Add the flour, water, yeast and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix well to combine, ensuring that there is no dry flour. Pop a lid on or cover with plastic wrap and leave on the kitchen counter overnight to prove.
The next day, use a drizzle of avocado or olive oil to coat the inside of a rectangle pan (roughly 35×25 cm, 5 cm in depth); use a pastry brush to evenly spread it around the base and the sides. Pour the dough in and leave it for about 10 minutes to relax in the pan – it will naturally spread to the edges. You can help it along gently using your fingertips but you don’t want to knock too much air out of the dough.
Sprinkle over the picked rosemary, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 220 ºC.
Drizzle the focaccia generously with olive oil then use your fingertips to lightly dimple the dough on top. Place the pan into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and drizzle with more olive oil and season with sea salt. Allow to cool completely. Trim the crust off the edge of the focaccia all the way around and then portion into 6 or 8 even squares for the sarmies (depending on how big you want to serve them).
Mayo Sauce
In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise, garlic powder, zest and juice and season to taste.
Fillings
Lower the oven temperature to 200 ºC. While the bread is cooling, place the bacon onto a large baking paper-lined tray. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until crispy, then drain on some kitchen towel.
To assemble, slice the focaccia squares open and spread a generous layer of mayonnaise on the inside of both top and the bottom halves. Add a layer of lettuce, then 2-3 slices of tomato to each. Follow with slices of bacon and then a fan of avocado. Season the avo with salt and pepper then close up the sarmies and serve.
