Schiacciata con Uva (Squashed Bread with Red Grapes)

During the autumn grape harvest in the Italian province of Tuscany, bakers produce big trays of this delicious flat bread covered with ripe red grapes, and sprinkled with fennel seeds and sugar. Soft, sweet bread and syrupy purple grape juice are a pretty irresistible combination. I usually make Schiacciata (skee-ach-ata) with our own Albany Surprise grapes, but you could try making it with other red or black grapes, or in summer, try it with chopped red-fleshed plums.  Here is a quick and easy recipe for this lovely bread.  It makes a big tray which cuts into at least 16 very large pieces.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 250 ml  warm water
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 100 g butter
• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 500 g  flour

For the topping

4 cups ripe purple grapes or chopped red plums

¼ cup walnuts

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1/3 cup Demerara sugar

Method

Mixing the dough
 

Put the warm water and 1 tbsp of the sugar into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle over the dried yeast. Leave to stand for about 5 minutes.

Melt the butter gently. Beat the eggs, the remaining sugar and the salt together with a whisk and pour on the melted butter. Whisk until well combined.

Pour this mixture onto the yeast, mix well and then add the flour about half a cup at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon to make a soft dough.

When the dough is too stiff to mix with the spoon, change to your hand and lift the dough up and throw it back into the bowl several time to finish the mixing.

Now put the soft dough into a greased bowl, cover it, and leave to rise on the kitchen bench for 1-2 hours. It should double in size.

(You could also put it in the fridge overnight, just allow it to return to room temperature in the morning and continue with the recipe.)

Making the bread

Oil a large (40 x 28 cm) shallow baking tray.

Put the risen dough onto the tray and squash it out with your hands to cover the base of the tray. If the dough keeps springing back, just leave it for 5 minutes to relax and try again.

Now spread the grapes all over the bread, pushing them into the dough and sprinkle them with the chopped walnuts. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and leave for about 45 minutes until it is puffy. While the dough is rising heat the oven to 200ºC.

Just before you put the bread into the oven, sprinkle it evenly with the fennel seeds and then the Demerara sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat down to 180ºC for another 10-15 minutes. The edges of the dough will be golden brown and you will see purple juice around the sides of the bread – be careful not to spill any of the juice on yourself as you lift the Schiacciata out of the oven and onto a cooling rack.

After about 10 minutes the extra juice will have soaked back into the bread. Cut it into big squares and eat warm – thanking God for the grape harvest. . .