Cherry & Rosemary Focaccia

Serves 8-10

Try a bread you’ve probably never had before with this surprising recipe. The sweetness of cherries is offset by rosemary and salt in this fabulous focaccia. Those plumped up cherries get richer and more concentrated in the oven, and the rosemary remains nice and crisp.

• 500g (1.1lb) strong white bread flour

• 7g sachet dried yeast

• 350ml (11.8fl oz) lukewarm water

• 1 tsp table salt

• 150g (5.3oz) cherries halved and pitted

• 3 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked

• 75ml (2.5fl oz) olive oil

• Sea salt

1 Tip the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast on one side of the bowl, and the salt to the other side of the bowl, this is to make sure the salt and yeast don’t touch as the salt kills the yeast. Make a well in the centre of the flour, then pour the water into the well.

2 Mix with your hands to form a soft dough, it shouldn’t be too sticky, add a little more flour if it looks too wet. Tip onto a clean surface and knead for around 10 mins.

3 Clean the bowl and add a tbsp of the olive oil. Move the dough into the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for around an hour, or until doubled in size.

4 Tip a tbsp oil into a 30cm x 20cm roasting tin. Tip the dough into the tin, squashing out the air as you do so. Use your hands to press it into the corners and flatten it out into a rectangle. Top with the cherry halves and scatter with the rosemary leaves. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for 30 mins. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/430°F/Gas 7.

5 Once the dough has risen, drizzle with the remaining olive oil, scatter with sea salt and bake for 20 mins, until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 mins, then slice and serve.