Is this the most festive focaccia or what?! The holidays are the perfect time for showing off your charcuterie board skills, and this cast iron Christmas Wreath Focaccia with rosemary and cherry tomatoes is an easy way to impress your family and friends. You can make it with pizza dough or your own homemade dough (as I’ll explain in the recipe below) and surround it with your choice of cold cuts or cheese, but my new favorite pairing for it is Amaro Montenegro, a bittersweet Italian liqueur that is perfect for apertivo time!
Apertivo with Amaro Montenegro
Apertivo refers to pre-dinner drinks – it’s like the Italian version of happy hour but it’s even happier than the American version since there is often platters of focaccia, cold cuts and cheese involved (and they’re often free with your drink!). I usually have an Aperol Spritz during apertivo, but recently discovered Amaro Montenegro through this DIY cocktail kit from Metabev, one of Hong Kong’s top beverage distributors.
They’re offering 25% off Monte Tonic DIY kits which pairs Amaro Montenegro with Fever Tree tonic water with the promo code Monte25 – you can use it to make your own Monte Tonic cocktails that remind me of a gin and tonic since the Amaro Montenegro is made with 40 botanicals, but with a more bittersweet flavor and a lower ABV than a G&T so you can drink plenty of them without blacking out 😂
I especially love how it pairs with this Christmas Wreath Focaccia with salami, coppa, and cured ham that I ordered directly to my apartment with South Stream Market (get 20% off your first month of orders with my code EATS20). This was actually my first time making focaccia period – I somehow missed the quarantine bread-making wave, likely due to Hong Kong having far less lockdown restrictions than other places in the world. But I definitely plan to make it more often, as it’s pretty easy to make and so therapeutic!
How to Make Christmas Wreath Focaccia
As mentioned in the intro, you can actually use ready made pizza dough or bread dough for an easier way to make your a focaccia-style wreath – just let the dough rest in an olive oil-coated cast iron skillet, then shape it into a ring and use your fingers to make the signature dimples in the top of your bread. Add fresh rosemary and cherry tomatoes in the pattern of a Christmas wreath with ornaments, then coat the entire top with more olive oil and flaky sea salt and bake until golden and finish it off my making it “snow” with fresh grated Parmigiano.
If you want to make your own dough like I did, there are a ton of different recipes you can use, from no-knead dough that you let rise in the fridge for 8-24 hours to a fast one hour cast iron focaccia that I used for my focaccia since I didn’t allocate time to allow my dough to rise overnight. The only difference is that I only had instant yeast on hand, so I mixed the yeast with the dry ingredients first, then combined all of that with the wet ingredients before letting the dough rise quickly in a warm oven.
If I made this Christmas wreath focaccia again, I would definitely put in the effort to do an overnight rise to make the flavor and texture even better. You can see that my focaccia didn’t have the big beautiful bubbles in the dough that really great focaccia has, but the fast way still produced a delicious result! I would also add even more cherry tomatoes, as those bites with that juicy pop of the bursting roasted tomato were my favorite. Give it a try either way and tag me so I can see the results!
Christmas Wreath Cast Iron Focaccia
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 cups bread flour
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Christmas wreath focaccia:
- 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 12-16 cherry tomatoes
- Olive Oil
- Flaky sea salt
- Parmigiano Reggiano for grating (optional)
- Salami, prosciutto, coppa, or other Italian cold cuts (optional)
Instructions
- If using instant yeast, combine dry ingredients in a bowl or stand mixer, then add water, olive oil, and salt and use your hands and/or a dough hook to combine. If using active yeast, dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast, stir and let sit until foamy (about 5 minutes). Then add flour and olive oil and use your hands and/or a dough hook to combine.
- Preheat the oven to 220 degrees F. Once preheated, turn the oven off but leave the door shut.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and fold the dough until it’s smooth and shape into a ball.
- Grease a cast iron skillet with olive oil, then place the dough in the center of the skillet. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to proof in the warm oven for 20 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F.
- Use your hands to shape the dough into a ring, then press indentations on the top with your fingers. Place fresh rosemary followed by cherry tomatoes in the pattern of a Christmas wreath with ornaments. Drizzle olive oil all over the top of the dough, using a brush to coat all edges, then top with flaky sea salt.
- Bake until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes. Grate fresh Parmigiano Reggiano on top if desired.
- Serve with Italian cold cuts and a Monte Tonic made with 1 part Amaro Montenegro, 3 parts tonic water, and a fresh orange peel over ice and enjoy.
Notes
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see the final product. Tag your photos and stories on Instagram with @IndulgentEats and #IndulgentRecipes so I can see them!
