If you find yourself in Tuscany in the autumn then you may well have lucky enough to have seen or tried schicciata all’uva from the local bakeries. I was lucky enough to try this beautiful bread many years ago in Florence & have been intrigued by it’s borderline sweet-savoury nature ever since. Schiacciata is basically the Tuscan equivalent to focaccia. It’s often thinner & requires a little more technique to press & stretch the dough down with your fingers, schiacciata means “squashed” or “pressed”.
During the autumn, at the end of the wine grape harvest (or vendemmia), the very last of the wine grapes would traditionally be made into schiacciata all’uva. This is sweet-savoury twist on the classic schiacciata & is made from a double layer of bread, sandwiched & studded with jammy grapes (click here for a more savoury version). Grapes would always be seeded as the added crunch is an enjoyable contrast in texture. To recreate this Tuscan treat at home, as with almost all Italian cuisine, this dish is so simple in nature that you really do want to make sure you are using the best quality ingredients. When it comes to the grapes, obviously it can be a bit difficult to find sweet & fragrant wine grapes outside of a winery try concord, champagne or any small, sweet black grape variety.
SCHIACCIATA ALL’UVA (SWEET GRAPE FOCACCIA)
Ingredients:
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 10g salt
- 10g fast acting dried yeast
- 400ml water
- 50ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- 300g sweet red or black grapes
- 75g caster sugar
- 1-2 tbsp icing sugar (to dust)
Method:
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, yeast & salt
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients & pour in the water followed by the olive oil
- Mix until everything is wet & well combined, the dough will be quite loose & wet
- Add some oil to a large bowl or rectangular tupperware or tin
- Empty the dough out into the oiled container & use oiled hands to fold each edge of the dough back over itself into the middle
- Turn the dough upside down so that the folds are no underneath
- Cover the dough & leave to rise for about an hour, until it has doubled in size
- Once risen, repeat the same folding process again, being careful not to knock out too much of the air bubbles & rise for another hour
- Repeating the same fold & rise process for a third & final time
- Once risen, empty half of the dough out into a 9″x13″ rectangular tin lined with baking parchment
- Use your fingers to gently stretch the dough out to fill the baking tin being careful not to burst all of the air pockets inside
- Scatter half of the grapes all over the dough before sprinkling over half of the sugar
- Next, carefully add the remaining half of dough over the top of the grapes
- Cover the dough & leave to prove for 45 minutes minutes until risen with a few bubbles now on the surface
- Finally drop the remaining grapes into the the dough, creating grape filled dimples in the bread before drizzling over some of the excess oil left in the container & sprinkle over the remaining sugar
- Bake the schiacciata in the oven at 180C for 20-25 minutes until golden brown
- Leave the the schiacciata to cool before slicing & dust with a little icing sugar to serve
