Well have we got something fun here – a mix of 3 mega viral TikTok recipes that have each had over 100 million views between them, that’s a lot of eyeballs, so I had to try them, we’ve got some browned butter toast, smashed sprouts and getting arty with a focaccia! I hope you enjoy them, the sprouts were probably my favourite of the 3!
Decorative Focaccia Bread
I liked this, it was fun to make, but also I’m no Bob Ross and it looks pretty good and you can really push it and make it look epic with seeds etc.
Let’s get the dough going, in a bowl add the yeast, warm water and honey, stir and leave to foam for ten minutes or so. Add it to the flour in a bowl with the salt and mix well until combined. Slowly mix in the olive oil until combined. Flour down a surface and knead the dough well until smooth, it’ll have some flexibility with the oil in it.
Place in a large, clean, lightly oiled bowl and leave in a warm place for an hour to hopefully double in size. Lightly grease a 13×9 inch baking sheet with a tbsp oil whilst you are waiting and pre-heat your oven to 450f/210fan/230c.
Tip the dough into the prepared tin and make indents (dimples!) into the dough all along to help level it and push air bubbles out this helps it rise too fast to keep it like a true focaccia, I talk about this more in the video. Leave to rest in the tin for 20 minutes.
Now before baking get your prepared decorative ingredients and arrange them on top of the focaccia, lightly press into the dough so it grips it as it bakes. Use the chives as grass, the spring onions as stalks, with the peppers, shallots as petals, filled with olives and it should look pretty good!
Bake until just starting to golden brown, around 20 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack then chop up in chunks and serve away!
Burnt Butter Toast
This is cheeky. Get a frying pan nice and hot then add in the butter, stir well to coat evenly, reduce the heat but keep it going as we want it to change colour, don’t burn the butter though! Place a piece of bread into the browned butter and let it cook away for a few minutes, carefully flip to do the other side adding more butter if needed, remove from the heat, serve it with some honey and a pinch of salt which really does take it to another level!
Smashed brussels sprouts
First we’ll get our garlic roasted. Add the garlic cloves to some tin foil, cover in oil, salt and pepper, wrap in foil and bake in the oven at 200fan/220c/425F or equivalent for approx. 30 minutes, once removed, allow to cool and chop.
For the brussels sprouts, we want them cooked, putting them in the microwave works really well. Or just boiling them on the hob. Cook them in the micrwove by adding to a microwave proof bowl and covering in water, microwaving for approximately 10 minutes, drain and allow to cool.
Mash the roasted garlic with more salt and pepper, plus the olive oil and stir into the drained sprouts to cover evenly. Scatter onto a lined baking tray and then use a glass to squish the sprouts down flat, this is quite fun! Sprinkle the parmesan generously all over and bake in the oven at the same temperature for approx. 10 minutes until starting to char, remove from the oven, turn over carefully, and add more cheese if you wish. Bake again for a further 5-10mins until deep golden brown / charred to your liking, allow to cool and gobble up – extremely addictive! I’d maybe stir in cooked bacon next time!