tomato and egg loaf pan focaccia
a snack-y little foccacia inspired by chinese tomato and egg stir fry
i’ve published two loaf pan focaccia recipes already—my bierstangerl-inspired take and this chili crisp one—and will likely publish more as time goes on because i love the size, think it’s the perfect little snack-y baking project, and find it so fun to play around with. this one was inspired by one of the most classic chinese stir fry combinations: tomato and egg.
one of my favorite ways to eat this combo is not as a stir fry but as a noodle soup and my absolute favorite recipe (it’s life changing!) comes from lucas sin; you can find the walkthrough in his instagram highlights under “t egg soup”, you’ll have to scroll through his highlights a little bit to find it. i follow his recipe exactly as written and usually just use water, not broth. the rich, creamy texture and deep flavor you end up with is so incredible and makes the recipe truly magical.
anyways, as i was slurping up said soup a few weeks back, the thought went through my head to try and replicate theses flavors in a focaccia. i didn’t know how it would look or if it would even translate, but i gave it a shot (well, a few) and ended up with this really happy, eggy, snack-y little loaf.
at first, i experimented with baking the eggs into the focaccia whole, which many recipes on the internet already do—a quasi egg-in-the-hole situation—but i wasn’t happy with the texture and found the whole egg didn’t reflect the tomato and egg vibe i was going for. so, the final recipe simply scrambles the egg up and dumps it over the top of the focaccia before loading the dough with just the right amount of seasoned tomatoes (lol i always feel dumb writing a recipe with a tiny, precise number of something like cherry tomatoes!) and baking through.
the result is a golden, juicy focaccia that has a subtle eggy flavor and savory hits of sweet tomato. a wee bit of rice vinegar in the focaccia dough adds a hint of sourness that emulates the flavors of a sourdough (you could obviously make this a sourdough focaccia and leave that out if you’d like) and the msg just brings out the umami sweetness of the tomatoes.
this time last year:
tomato and egg loaf pan focaccia
serves 2 - 4 as a snack
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey (substitute: 1 teaspoon granulated sugar)
85 grams lukewarm water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
120 grams all-purpose flour (i’ve recently been using a higher protein, italian 00 flour usually used for pizzas for my focaccia and really like it, so you can use that here too if you have it)
1 teaspoon salt
1 scallion
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5 cherry or grape tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon msg
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 large or medium egg
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (optional)
1/2 teaspoon flaky salt
add yeast, honey, and water to a bowl. mix to combine and let sit for 10 minutes. add vinegar, flour and salt and mix into a sticky dough with no dry spots. cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes; at this point you could also place the covered bowl in the fridge and let it rest overnight or for up to 12 hours before continuing.
slice the scallion thinly, then scatter most it over the dough (i like to slice the whiter and lighter green parts round and use them in the dough, then have the darker greens sliced at an angle and use them to top the focaccia). use damp hands to lift the far edge of the dough up, slapping the bottom of the dough into the bowl and then folding the top down onto itself (see this video for a visual). turn the bowl 90 degrees to the left (or right) and repeat. repeat once more so the bowl has done a full 360 degree turn; the dough should be looking smoother and feeling tighter. cover and rest for 15 minutes.
add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a loaf pan, using your hand to rub the oil up the sides of the pan and around the bottom; depending on your pan, the egg may stick more or less if it travels around the sides of the loaf, so be generous here. transfer the dough to the pan, flipping so the dough is covered in some olive oil on both sides. use your already slightly oiled fingers to gently stretch and dimple the dough in the pan. if it doesn’t reach the edges yet, that’s okay. cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
once the dough has rested, use your fingers to dimple the dough all over. the dough should now be filling out the pan. cover and let sit while you preheat oven to 200°C/400°F and prep the toppings. halve the cherry tomatoes and toss with msg and white pepper. crack the egg into a bowl, add the toasted sesame oil and scramble it up really well.
once the oven is preheated, add the scrambled egg over the top of the dough then press in the tomatoes and sprinkle over the remaining scallions. drizzle with the remaining olive oil, top with flaky salt and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the top is golden and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it with your finger.
remove the loaf pan from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes. run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the loaf, then remove. i find a spatula helps here if the bottom has stuck a bit. slice or cut into large chunks and enjoy.