Christmas Tree Focaccia Bread

This Christmas Tree Focaccia bread is a fun and festive way to decorate focaccia. We use my base of big bubble focaccia and decorate it with parsley, tomatoes and capsicum peppers to create a Christmas tree scene with gifts on the side. It's also vegan too so it is versatile and can be served to everyone!

I first saw this idea for a Christmas tree focaccia on reddit and I thought that it looked so good that I had to try it myself. It is truly one of the easiest ways to decorate focaccia as it's just simple vegetables and herbs. I am going to serve this at the Elliott family Christmas dinner this year on Christmas Eve as it is vegan so everyone can eat it.

Tips For Making a Christmas Tree Focaccia

1 - Start this recipe 3 days ahead of time as you want the focaccia to rise and develop well. If you don't have the time to spare, try my quick focaccia recipe. I personally prefer the 3 day focaccia but the easy one is still delicious and you only need to wait an hour for it to rise.

2 - To decorate focaccias, I always lay out the design on a sheet of parchment first because you may want to move pieces once you see what it looks like. Focaccia dough is sticky and the toppings stick to the dough so it's not as easy to move things around. Cut out a sheet of parchment the exact same size as your tin and design your focaccia on this.

3 - You will need around 1/4 bunch of parsley for this. I used flat leaf parsley but I think curly parsley might also work well too!

4 - The hardest part is cutting out the star at the top. I could have sworn I had a small star cutter but I couldn't find it so I had to cut it with a paring knife.

Other Christmas Breads

• Christmas Tree & Wreath Twist Bread
• Christmas Dinner Wreath Bread {Three Cheese & Garlic Butter}
• SOFTEST Potato Bread Rolls (For Thanksgiving or Christmas)

This year, like most years, we will have two Christmases. We are having a Friendsmas a couple of weeks before Christmas so that we can get together with friends and then on Christmas Eve we will be having a family Christmas where I'll serve this focaccia. The family Christmas is mostly about the Elliotts because my parents and sister live in Singapore now. And while we have two Christmases, one thing that I often miss out on is a work Christmas party. When you work for yourself and there's just you on staff then you sort of don't really bother doing anything. I watch my friends having their staff lunches and dinners during December and I remember what it was like (although I wouldn't change anything, I LOVE my job now).

Then a couple of weeks ago I was invited to a Christmas Party with Capella Hotels. If there's one hotel Christmas Party you want to go to, it's Capella's because it is the most beautiful hotel. Mr NQN came along too. When we were driving there he asked me if it was the staff party or a media party and I told him that I really doubted that it would be the staff party as it was held in their bar.

When we arrived there were some media and sales people as well as suppliers. It was a really lovely evening and I was so happy that I got to have a nice Christmas party talking to friends and eating delicious canapes and cocktails. It really put me into the spirit of things. Although Christmas is a busy time it's also one of my favourite times of the year especially since we were overseas for Halloween.

Then I was talking to the lovely hotel manager and saying how nice it was to be here. "You are welcome to come to our staff party!" he said enthusiastically. He told me where it was held and the date and the theme and said that they would love to have me there. A part of me would be so curious to go to this staff party but I know that they are only really joking about inviting me. But it's nice to be asked!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a Christmas party at your work or do you work for yourself? Do you take yourself for the occasion?

Christmas Tree Focaccia

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 2 hours (not all active time) plus 3 days in fridge

Cooking time: 25 minutes

• 500g/1.1lbs bread flour (minimum 12g protein per 100g or 0.4 ounce per 3.5ozs)
• 460g/0.9pint water
• 8g/0.28oz instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 9g/0.3oz fine salt
• 6-7 tablespoons olive oil
• Flaked salt

To decorate

• 1/4 bunch fresh parsley
• 4 small cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 red onion
• small red, yellow and orange capsicum (baby peppers also work)
• 1 Turkish green pepper

Step 1 - First mix the flour and water together in a large bowl making sure that there are no dry patches. Cover and sit for 30 minutes. Then stir in the yeast (I find it easiest to sprinkle this over) and sugar. Then add the salt and make sure that it is well mixed in with a dough whisk and there are no dry patches of yeast. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of oil on top and cover and sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Step 2 - Take the dough and lift it from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position. Then rest it for 30 minutes at room temperature. Then repeat this coil fold method an additional 3 times. Then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cover and keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Step 3 - Four hours before you want to bake it take the dough out of the fridge. Line a 28x22x7cm or 11x8.7x2.8inch baking tin with parchment and drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over the base spreading it out. Do one final coil fold and lift the dough into the prepared tin. Cover with another high rimmed tin (so that the dough won't touch the tin once it doubles in size). Spread out as much as possible and leave it in a sunny area of the kitchen for 3-4 hours while you get started on the decorations. By the time the 3-4 hours is up, the dough should have spread to the edges of the tin.

Step 4 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F fan forced. I like to lay out the decorations first on paper so that all I have to do is transfer it to the focaccia (because once you place something on the sticky dough it's hard to move it). Start with the onions in graduating sizes (larger at the bottom and smaller at the top) and then lay parsley leaves in the shape of a tree. Cut the capsicum peppers into squares and make square presents out of them. Then cut strips to make the ribbon in opposite colours. Trim the end off the Turkish curly pepper and slice down the centre. Use one large slice of curly pepper for the bottom of the tree and slice the other half of the pepper in two and place on top. Cut a star out of a yellow pepper.

Step 5 - When the dough has risen and spread to the edges, drizzle with oil and dimple with your fingers. Transfer the decorations over to the dough and bake for 23-25 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and rest for 15 minutes before serving.