Strawberry Almond Breakfast & Brunch Focaccia

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 package Quick Rise Instant Dry Yeast
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup ginger ale
• ½ cup water
• 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon almond extract
• ½ cup Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves
• ½ cup slivered almonds
• 4 tablespoons honey
• ¼ cup confections sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt.
3. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, microwave ginger ale and water until it reaches 120-130 degrees.
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of almond extract.
5. Mix all the ingredients until a dough forms. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, sprinkling with a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.
6. On a 16 X 11 jelly roll pan, brush with 2 tablespoons of olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Place the dough on the pan and flip the dough to coat both sides with the olive oil. Pull and press the dough out to cover the bottom of the pan making indentations (It’s ok to have small openings, they will come together during rising and baking).
7. Place the pan with dough in a warm place and cover with a clean linen towel. Let rise 40-50 minutes.
8. After rising, press indentations in dough. Brush remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil on top of dough. Drizzle with the honey. Fill the indentations with little dollops of strawberry preserves. Sprinkle top of the dough with slivered almonds.
9. Bake in 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Cool, dust with confections sugar and cut into 12 squares.