For today’s Light and Tasty appointment, I prepared my sweet walnut focaccia. A focaccia I’ve been making since my kids were in elementary school, and it fits well with today’s topic: snacks for school recess.

I made this sweet walnut focaccia – or rather, not very sweet focaccia – for the first time years ago for one of my son’s birthdays, one of those kid-filled birthdays I used to organize during elementary school years when I’d always prepare a mountain of homemade things: pies, bundt cakes, muffins, pizzas, savory pies, and focaccias.

It was one of those last-minute ideas. You know how it is, right? You make the pizza, then the rosemary focaccia, the olive one, the cheese one, the potato one, and then you’re like, what now? Let’s go for sweet. A quick sprinkle of sugar, some walnuts, and into the oven it goes.

And as always happens when you try a recipe on the fly, it was a hit.

Then, since the era of those kinds of birthday parties has ended (I sometimes wonder, how did I manage to bake so many things all in one day?? 😅), this walnut focaccia has become a sweet breakfast focaccia for us (which my kids, the sweet tooth they are, usually fill with hazelnut cream).

That’s why I thought of proposing it for this snack-time appointment, because you can cut it into larger or smaller slices as needed (filled with Nutella or not, I’ll leave that decision to you!) and the homemade snack is served. 😊😋

Here are some more ideas 👇

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Inexpensive
Rest time: 3 Hours
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Portions: 8
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/3 cups water
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil (+ additional for brushing the surface)
Half cube fresh yeast
to taste brown sugar
6 walnuts

Tools

Baking Pan 11.5×9.8
Nutcracker

Steps

Dissolve the yeast in the water (preferably lukewarm).
Pour the two flours into a bowl.
Add the water+yeast and two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and mix with a spoon until you get a rough dough.
Knead by hand for about 10 minutes to obtain a smooth dough.
Let rise in the oven with the light on (or in the microwave, which I find to be an excellent proofing chamber) for 2 – 3 hours.
After the time has passed, spread the dough (with oiled hands) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
👉 I used my trusty rectangular pan 10×12. Using a pan of these reduced dimensions, the focaccia will be tall and easy to cut in half for filling.
Brush the surface with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise again for about 30 minutes, then remove the wrap.
Sprinkle the surface with sugar, add walnut kernels scattered as desired.
👉 I prefer cane sugar because it’s coarser, but regular granulated works too. As for quantity, I eyeball it straight from the bag (maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons), so feel free to adjust to taste. 🙂
Bake at 338-356°F and cook for 30 minutes.
VARIANT with added chocolate:
A richer version, doable by adding the walnuts and chocolate directly into the dough, or by proceeding in this simple way:
Divide the dough into two parts, spread the first one and sprinkle it with pieces of walnuts and chocolate, like this:
Spread the other half and lay it on the first layer.
Press with your fingertips to adhere the dough, especially on the edges (I don’t have a photo to show you, but the method is the same I used in the focaccia with asparagus and stracchino, take a look at the photo in the procedure).
Finally, decorate the surface with sugar and walnuts as per the basic recipe (it’s better to avoid putting chocolate on the surface, otherwise it dries out during baking).
Same cooking times as above.
Enjoy! 😋
Wishing all our kids and grandkids a good school year, and I’ll leave you with the recipes of my Light and Tasty colleagues:
Carla: Apple Cake
Daniela: Muffins with Carrots and Coconut without Lactose and Eggs
Elena: Oil Brioches
Franca: Shortcrust Pastry Baskets filled with Azzeruole
Milena: Upside-Down Fresh Fruit Tartlets
Serena: Cloud Maritozzi