Wild Garlic Focaccia

I got one last wild garlic recipe for this season. But no need to be sad. The end of the wild garlic season means summer is close! I’ll celebrate that with a delicious, vibrant-looking, focaccia-inspired wild garlic bread. It has that fragrant wild garlic taste, a fluffy texture, and a nice crust. Best of all: It is super simple and quick to make and doesn’t need any special equipment. So, let’s bake ourselves a delicious focaccia!

Ingredients for making Wild Garlic Focaccia:

• Wild garlic
• Flour
• Olive oil
• Yeast
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Sugar
• Lukewarm water

This recipe is super straightforward. We will make basic focaccia dough, but instead of making it with plain water, we will blend the wild garlic into the water. It infuses the dough with lots of flavor and this fantastic green color. I am using dry yeast today, but this recipe should work just as well with fresh yeast. A simple all-purpose flour works perfectly fine for this recipe. I like to include a little sprinkle of sugar to help the yeast activate. Lastly, a good focaccia needs lots of olive oil.

What is Wild Garlic:

Here, in the tempered parts of Europe, wild garlic starts growing at the beginning of spring. The leaves and flowers are celebrated for their bold, garlicky taste. Its fresh, fragrant flavor makes you feel like winter is finally over.

I pick my wild garlic from my grandparent’s garden, where it grows in abundance. There is nothing better to me than cooking with hand-picked fresh ingredients! Everything tastes twice as good.

Be Careful when Foraging Wild Garlic:

Make sure to educate yourself if you want to forage wild garlic. You have to be very careful: There are numerous poisonous plants to confuse wild garlic with, such as lily of the valley, autumn crocuses, corn lilies, and others, which can easily be a deadly error. Always consult with a professional when foraging, or go the safe route and buy them in the store when in season, which I’d recommend.

How to make Wild Garlic Focaccia:

Firstly, we will prepare the dough, after which it needs to rest for about an hour. After transferring the dough to our baking tray, we let it rest one more time, before transferring our focaccia to the oven.

Preparing the Dough:

Firstly, let’s infuse our water with the wild garlic. Give the wild garlic a thorough wash before adding it to your blender. Add the water and blend until you have a dark green liquid. You can also use an immersion blender for this process. You will see the plant material and liquid separate after mixing. This is no problem at all.

Next, add the flour, yeast, baking powder, and sugar to a bowl and combine. Slowly add the olive oil. Next, add the wild garlic water and salt. Incorporate the ingredients until you have a uniform, smooth, green dough. The dough will be quite wet. This focaccia dough doesn’t need extensive mixing. Once the ingredients are combined properly, it is good to rest.

Resting the Dough & Baking:

Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic foil. Leave the dough in a warm place for an hour until it has risen.

Next, you can preheat the oven to 200° C (390° F). Carefully transfer the dough onto a baking tray with parchment paper. Try to pop as little of the bubbles from the yeast as possible. While the oven is warming, give the dough about 15 more minutes to rise on the baking tray.

Bake the wild garlic focaccia for about 30 minutes. I went with 3 minutes on the grill setting at the end for an extra nice crust.

Let the focaccia rest for 15 minutes after coming out of the oven before digging in.

Serving Suggestions:

This beautiful wild garlic focaccia makes an impressive spring appetizer. Just enjoy it nice and warm. You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat them briefly before consumption. It pairs nicely with wild garlic butter if you want to double down on flavor.

Some Recipe Suggestions:

• Cherry tomato focaccia
• Vegan vichyssoise
• Wild garlic bread
• Roasted garlic soup
• Wild garlic pesto
• Garlic rosemary focaccia
• Wild garlic pasta
• Garlic rosemary beans

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