Use food ingredients to turn bread dough into art
Several weeks ago I saw a photo on Facebook that was so fascinating to look at. It was a photo of focaccia bread with flowers on it. Someone had used food ingredients to make beautiful flowers on the bread dough. When the pizza dough was baked the flowers make for focaccia that was a work of art. I knew right away that I had to make this pretty bread and add it to my collection of homemade bread recipes. It was so cool to see that someone had used their talent to turn a piece of bread into a work of art. It was simply too pretty to eat but the amazing thing is one could eat the focaccia bread flower design.
I have made focaccia several times and my favorite focaccia recipe is this Rosemary and Caramelized Onion Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia. Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread product similar in style and texture to pizza dough. This pizza-type bread is so easy to make and the toppings always look so good, maybe because there is no cheese covering them up. Just like pizza, the toppings that can be added to the homemade dough are many. I like to think of pizza crust as a canvas for the ingredients. The ingredients are the art supplies.
So I went to the grocery store and headed to the produce section to get my focaccia art supplies. I wanted my bread art to have many colors on it so I selected some colorful vegetables for my focaccia bread art. I chose cherry tomatoes for the flowers and green onions for the flower stems. Then I saw the colorful bell peppers and selected peppers in red, orange, and yellow. Green peppers would be a nice art ingredient also but I don't like the taste of green bell peppers. Then I saw the red onions and I knew that color would look good on my bread dough art.
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I then grabbed a couple cans of a variety of olives as I love olives on a pizza. I selected black olives, green olives, and kalamata olives. I did not have to buy rosemary as I have a rosemary bush in my yard. The rosemary and the red onions would be so pretty for the flower stems. Other ingredients that would be good for the pizza art supplies would be spinach leaves, fresh basil leaves, and fresh oregano. Just think of ingredients that you like on pizza and use those to draw your design on your homemade focaccia dough. If you like meat then you could use pepperoni.
To make food art on a focaccia crust, you need pizza dough. Check out my recipe for Fourth Of July Red, White & Blue Flag Pizza as this recipe includes my homemade pizza dough recipe. You can also find the recipe for focaccia dough from my recipe for Rosemary and Caramelized Onion Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia. Once your homemade bread dough is ready, spread it out on a cookie sheet. You could use a round pizza stone if you prefer, the dough canvas shape is your choice. You can use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the focaccia dough into the pan. I like to roll the homemade dough with a rolling pin to help it spread out a bit and then I use my hands to further shape the dough. The homemade dough is your canvas for your food ingredients art supplies.
Once you have your dough shaped, the fun begins. Grab a cutting board and start slicing your food art ingredients. I sliced the cherry tomatoes in half and then slice a bit off the end of that tomato piece so it had a flat bottom. I then pushed the tomato slices into the dough. For the flower stems, I thinly sliced the green onions. I used scissors to cut sprigs of rosemary to further add to the flower stems. Make to press the food pieces into the dough as you decorate your pizza dough canvas.
I used the pepper and onion slices to add some color to my focaccia recipe. I chose to thinly slice the onions and pepper slices. The olives were sliced in half also and I placed some near the tomato flowers. What I loved about making this focaccia bread was how it allowed me to be creative with the ingredients. It was like painting a picture with food and I had so much fun. This is your canvas and you can decorate any way you like. Have fun with the food and paint a pretty picture with them.
After you place all the toppings on the dough, I recommend brushing some olive oil over the toppings. I did not brush olive oil over my toppings and some of them dried out while the focaccia was being baked. So the olive oil will keep the pizza toppings moist. A sprinkling of sea salt over the uncooked dough adds amazing flavor to your focaccia bread art. Then bake your work of food art for 20 minutes at 400F or until the dough turns light brown. To get the full instructions to make this focaccia bread flower that is a work of art, click HERE!
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I then grabbed a couple cans of a variety of olives as I love olives on a pizza. I selected black olives, green olives, and kalamata olives. I did not have to buy rosemary as I have a rosemary bush in my yard. The rosemary and the red onions would be so pretty for the flower stems. Other ingredients that would be good for the pizza art supplies would be spinach leaves, fresh basil leaves, and fresh oregano. Just think of ingredients that you like on pizza and use those to draw your design on your homemade focaccia dough. If you like meat then you could use pepperoni.
To make food art on a focaccia crust, you need pizza dough. Check out my recipe for Fourth Of July Red, White & Blue Flag Pizza as this recipe includes my homemade pizza dough recipe. You can also find the recipe for focaccia dough from my recipe for Rosemary and Caramelized Onion Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia. Once your homemade bread dough is ready, spread it out on a cookie sheet. You could use a round pizza stone if you prefer, the dough canvas shape is your choice. You can use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the focaccia dough into the pan. I like to roll the homemade dough with a rolling pin to help it spread out a bit and then I use my hands to further shape the dough. The homemade dough is your canvas for your food ingredients art supplies.
Once you have your dough shaped, the fun begins. Grab a cutting board and start slicing your food art ingredients. I sliced the cherry tomatoes in half and then slice a bit off the end of that tomato piece so it had a flat bottom. I then pushed the tomato slices into the dough. For the flower stems, I thinly sliced the green onions. I used scissors to cut sprigs of rosemary to further add to the flower stems. Make to press the food pieces into the dough as you decorate your pizza dough canvas.
I used the pepper and onion slices to add some color to my focaccia recipe. I chose to thinly slice the onions and pepper slices. The olives were sliced in half also and I placed some near the tomato flowers. What I loved about making this focaccia bread was how it allowed me to be creative with the ingredients. It was like painting a picture with food and I had so much fun. This is your canvas and you can decorate any way you like. Have fun with the food and paint a pretty picture with them.
After you place all the toppings on the dough, I recommend brushing some olive oil over the toppings. I did not brush olive oil over my toppings and some of them dried out while the focaccia was being baked. So the olive oil will keep the pizza toppings moist. A sprinkling of sea salt over the uncooked dough adds amazing flavor to your focaccia bread art. Then bake your work of food art for 20 minutes at 400F or until the dough turns light brown. To get the full instructions to make this focaccia bread flower that is a work of art, click HERE!
If you enjoy pizza then you will like these other pizza recipes
Too pretty to eat! This Focaccia bread flowers recipe seems like the perfect way to brighten up any lunch / tea time menu.
ReplyDeleteThis is so pretty! I love focaccia so I will definitely give this artsy one a go.
ReplyDeleteThis looks beautiful. I love how you've decorated the top!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, how pretty! I need to make one for sure. This would be a perfect dish in the spring.
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of excellent focaccia living in Italy for half the year. This is a great recipe!
ReplyDeleteWe love focaccia bread! And this is all so pretty. But we would be fighting over the rosemary pieces, lol. I think I will be making some of this for dinner!
ReplyDeleteThis bread looks so beautiful! I never had it first-hand but a lot of my close friends are Italian and they often speak about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is gorgeous! It would be so fun to take to a women's brunch or a lady's tea! I totally want to try this!
ReplyDeleteI love focaccia bread! It's been a while since I've had some. I can't wait to make this.
ReplyDeleteI like how this bread looks! I think I might have to give it a try one day.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an adorable bread! I would love to give this a try.
ReplyDeleteOh my, how adorable! This bread looks so delicious, and the colors are really pretty. I would love to try this recipe!
ReplyDeleteFocaccia Bread Flowers seem amazing. Yours personally turned out marvelous. I loved your recipe.
ReplyDeleteWOW! This is so neat! I would have never thought of making Bread with Flowers. I like it.
ReplyDeleteTara, this looks absolutely authentic and delicious. I am sat here wondering if my children would eat it as they are quite fussy when it comes to olives and I am quite the opposite as I just love them. Maybe I can use other ingredients that they will eat.
ReplyDeleteI love how pretty this is! Truly a work of art in the kitchen. ha!
ReplyDeleteI love focaccia bread, I don't know why I never tried making it before. Now I will!
ReplyDeleteI am tempted to try this, I love Focaccia bread and my daughter too.
ReplyDeleteThat looks pretty. I think this would be a great dish to put on the dinner table when guests are over.
ReplyDeleteI must think that there had kids in everyone family then this incredible idea would be so much helpful as kids love the bread which had be decorated with artistic way and the taste is good as well, so they will love it.
ReplyDeleteI see this on social media all the time. Can't wait to make my own!
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing. Focaccia bread is really delicious. I would love to try making this sometime.
ReplyDeleteFocaccia Bread is my favorite, looking forward to trying this recipe.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is so pretty! I want to try it :)
ReplyDeleteI did this once and it was so pretty. It got rave reviews. I have no idea Why I didn't do it again.
ReplyDeleteThat is so beautiful! I have never made bread art but I am thinking I might have to try this. It may just impress my family!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that is so pretty. What a lovely idea. It would make a great item to serve when guests come over.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to make focaccia for a while now. Thanks for the recipe. It looks amazing.
ReplyDeleteThis focaccia is gorgeous! What a great idea and not only does it look tasty, but it is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI love to make focaccia bread for my kids' lunch box. This decoration is such an awesome idea!
ReplyDeleteWow! That is definitely an art. I love the creativity. Bet it's delish, too! -LYNNDEE
ReplyDeleteLooks too good to eat! I am sure it’s delicious. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete