Gluten Free Focaccia Flatbread topped with sliced black olives and fresh rosemary. Made Vegan with aquafaba instead of eggs!
Behold!
Another gem to file away in the aquafaba files: Gluten free focaccia that’s vegan to boot!
I really shouldn’t still be surprised at how well aquafaba works in baking considering all the things we’ve made with it this past year.
To whoever it was that figured out that you can use the briny water found in cans of chickpeas (or other white beans!) as egg substitutes – you’re my hero.
The base of this recipe is super simple and requires only 10 ingredients to make. I decided to top mine with a sprinkling of black olives and chopped rosemary, but you can get creative here with what you like.
As far as gluten free bread baking goes – this recipe is super easy! Once you’ve mastered this rise it’s all smooth sailing for the rest of the bake.
The end result leaves you with a flatbread that’s:
Crunchy on top
Perfectly chewy
Easy to make
& Mouthwateringly delicious!
This would be great along side soup, in sandwiches, and even as pizza bases. In fact, I see a pizza coming up in my very near future.
Enjoy!
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Gluten Free Vegan Focaccia Flatbread
Gluten Free Focaccia Flatbread topped with sliced black olives and fresh rosemary. Made Vegan with aquafaba instead of eggs
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon fast-action dried yeast
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 3/4 cups dairy free milk, warm to the touch (180ml)
- 1 3/4 cup gluten-free flour (245g)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing (45ml)
- 3 tablespoons |aquafaba, briny water in cans of chickpeas (45ml)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Toppings
- 1/4 cup sliced black olives
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (15ml)
- couple springs fresh rosemary
- course sea salt
- ground black pepper
Instructions
- Grease a 9-10 inch square or round baking tin with oil
- Mix the yeast, sugar and milk together in a bowl and set aside to foam up for at least 5 minutes while you prepare the rest of your ingredients
- Sift together the flour, xanthan gum, and salt. Add the oil and aquafaba and beat on high with an electric or stand mixer until fully mixed. Scrape in the foaming yeast mixture and whisk together until smooth, sticky and fully combined.
- In a separate mug, mix the baking soda & white vinegar together to fizz up then fold into the mixture. Smooth the dough out into your prepared tin with oiled hands
- Cover with a sheet of cling film and store somewhere warm for 45 minutes to an hour to prove, in which time it should rise and puff up. I like to keep mine in the microwave or previously warm oven for this part.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/ 190°C
- Once the bread has doubled in size, take off the cling film and poke holes with your fingers into the dough to make indentations.
- Sprinkle the black olives over the top and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil and picked rosemary leaves, and a little extra sea salt and pepper
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden and nicely puffed up.
- This is best eaten when fresh.
Notes
Prep time includes 45 minutes for rising. Keeps for 1-2 days, but is best eaten fresh. Warm this up in the oven or microwave before serving if not fresh. Recipe adapted from: Great British Chefs
Nutrition Information
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Michelle B says
Can I skip the sugar or replace it with something else? I’m not allowed to have sugar 🙁
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Michelle! You can actually skip the sugar here.
The point of the sugar in this recipe (and often in recipes where you see it paired with yeast like in this one) is that helps you see whether or not your yeast is still alive/active. When you mix the two together in a little bit of warm water or milk, you’ll notice the mixture starts to foam up because the sugar is feeding the yeast and helping it grown. It’s not 100% necessary, but it is useful to visually see if your yeast is still alive (and therefore if your baked goods will rise).
If you’re using fairly new/fresh yeast you shouldn’t really need to worry about this, but if it’s old you may want to buy another packet just to be safe.
If can use other types of sweeteners other than sugar, maple and molasses (you’d only need a teaspoon here). Honey works to an extent, but since it has anti bacterial properties it’s also likely to kill the yeast so I don’t recommend it.
I’d also just like to let you know that I have a newer gluten free focaccia recipe you can find here: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/gluten-free-focaccia-easy/#mv-create-recipe
It doesn’t have the same black olive/ rosemary topping, but you can easily add it if you’d like. If you’re not going to use any sugar to proof the yeast, I think the newer recipe would be a better option because it uses baking powder (instead of baking soda) which will also help your focaccia rise incase the lack of sugar makes too much of an impact on the overall bread.
Hope this helps!
Melanie says
So good! I used half water and half nut milk (only because I had unsweetened vanilla cashew milk and I didn’t want it to taste funny because of the vanilla). I used aquafaba from home booked chickpeas and green olives as that’s what I had in the fridge. I was surprised that it had risen as I haven’t had luck with yeast and gluten free baking. It was crispy and salty and amazing! Thank you!
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! So glad it worked out for you! Thank you so much coming back to let me know how it went!