Easy Coconut Flour Focaccia (gluten-free, grain-free & paleo)

I realize I will get no sympathy from my east coast friends by complaining of the 70-degree weather we experienced here in Texas yesterday, so instead, let me simply extol the gorgeousness of today: sunny, clear, and, at present, a cool 49 degrees. I started the day with a brisk walk at 6 am with my friend Lindsey, and now, with Nick off to school, I’m cozy at my computer in my favorite fleece (the same fleece that had me sweltering by 8 am only yesterday).

Adding to my sense of snug is the focaccia bread I’ve been nibbling. I made it yesterday when I came across the bag of coconut flour I bought several months back. I forgot it’s existence until last week when I spied it during my vain search for a package of herbed tempeh in our deep freezer.

Hooray for forgotten treasures! Have you worked with cocoonut flour before? It’s a little bit tricky at irst becuase the portions seem bizarre in comparison to grain flours. For example, where you would typically use, say, 2 cups of wheat flour in a bread recipe, you would only use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of coconut flour. Additionally, the liquid and egg quantities are far greater; the coconut flour is ultra-absorbent.

Once you wrap your head around the proportions, however, it is a pretty simple flour to work with. Plus, it is naturally gluten-free, low-carb and works for Paleo diets , too, which eschew grains.

I made a super-simple, savory (not sweet) dough and decided to push it into one of my long tart pans to make some grain-free focaccia bread. I opted for a pan, rather than free-form on a baking sheet, because the dough is pretty loose and spongy; it needs walls to hold it together. You don;t need a tart pan, though. A standard 8-inch (square or round) baking pan will work just fine!

One of the (many) reasons I am keen on focaccia is that you can top it with all sorts of bits and pieces from the refrigerator–your artistry with the toppings cleans out the refrigerator! For example, I topped mine with some leftover sauteed spinach, the last 3 sundried tomatoes (slivered them) at the bottom of jar, thin slices of a 1/4 of a red onion in the vegetable crisper, and some lone crumbles of goat cheese (skip the cheese if you are making this Paleo).

You can keep things simple, too, with a sprinkle of coarse salt and/or chopped rosemary.

This bread is fluffy, tender and so delicious! I hope you give coconut flour a try, it’s fun and easy to use. Happy baking!

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