Best Foccacia
I have been obsessed with bread baking. I have failed many times, but I never stopped trying again and again. I used to make focaccia from another recipe, which was equally good but not as great as this one.
SO, when I chanced upon Alexandra’s recipe, I had to try it for myself. I tried it and immediately declared it my favorite. After researching a lot, I understood that the hydration part to any bread baking is very crucial in the result it will yield. Thanks to so many FOOD 52 secret santa gifts, I have a lot of bread baking books to refer and learn from it.
Bread baking is easy if you understand the basics and keep trying. Yes, trying and failing, failing and succeeding until you have tried enough. I find the recipe to be simple and very easy to work with if you are first time or new into bread baking.
Some tips –
I have used active dry yeast, but you can use instant dry yeast. The difference is active yeast needs to be dissolved in lukewarm liquid to test it out and if it fizzles, its active or working.
With instant yeast, you can add it directly to the dry dough without dissolving it in water.
I have used active dry yeast without it being dissolved and it works every time. I don’t have patience to wait for it to dissolve sometimes. Always store yeast in the fridge or cool dry place. If you are using expired or yeast that is not good, it will affect the results. I buy in bulk and store it in the fridge. It has never gone bad for me.
The best way to see if the bread has doubled in size is of course you can see the difference and to make sure you can do the poke test. You try to poke gently the risen bread and if it springs back it is risen, good to go for the next step. But if it comes back up slowly that means you need to give it some more time. This can happen for various reasons the temperature in your kitchen or where the bread is rising is very important. I usually put the bowl in shut off oven covered, for me it is the warmest spot. Another great spot is microwave. Be careful to remove the bread, before you turn on the oven or microwave.
Always cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap so that it does not get dry.
More so have patience, bread baking is really a virtue of patience. You cannot achieve good results by rushing it.
If you are not ready to bake the bread immediately, you can let the dough rise the first time, and then punch it down and cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for a slow rise. You can leave it in there for 18-24 hours. Just remove it from the fridge when you are ready to bake. Let it come to room temperature and rise again. Follow the rest of the steps to baking.
My Foccacia recipe is adapted from here
Best Foccacia
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp honey optional
- 1.5 cup lukewarm water 110 F
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Toppings- salt black pepper, fresh or dried rosemary, garlic slices, onions, tomatoes, olives etc.
- Butter for greasing
Instructions
- Dough- In a bowl of standing mixer, add flour, salt, yeast and give it a mix. Add lukewarm water with honey to it and mix until the dough comes together. It is a very sticky wet dough. Once the dough forms, rub the surface with some of the olive oil about a tbsp.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap tightly. Let it rise for an hour and half in a warm place in your kitchen. I usually plop the bowl in my oven.
- Once the dough is risen or doubled in size, you can see the difference and you can also do a poke test to make sure it has doubled.
- Grease the bottom of the pan or use parchment paper in half sheet pan or 9 -inch by 13 -inch bake tray. ( See Notes )Add some olive oil and transfer the dough using oiled hands or spatula to the tray. Do not spread the dough. It will spread out when we put it for second rise on its own. Let it double or rise second time for at least another hour or until you see it has doubled in size again and spread out to the edges of the pan. Pour the leftover oil from the bowl to the pan.
- Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Pre-heat the oven at 425 F.
- By this point, you can gently stretch out the dough to fill the gaps on the edges if it didn’t on its own.
- Once the focaccia dough has doubled, drizzle some olive oil on top; gently poke the dough (the best part) with oiled fingers and make dimples. Your fingers should reach the bottom of the bread. Try not to deflate the dough. Sprinkle the toppings you are using all over the dough. I only used chopped rosemary and some seasonings.
- Let it bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until it looks golden brown on top.
- You can snack on it with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil mix with some Italian seasonings. It tastes best the day its baked. Leftover bread can be cut in squares, store it in zip lock bags in the freezer few weeks. You can make sandwiches out of them.
Notes
- Do not hesitate in using all the olive oil. It gives it nice crispy top and lots of amazing flavor. It is a sticky dough, so olive oil helps pliable.
- If you want, you can bake focaccia in a deeper pan to get thicker bread for sandwiches. They make great sandwich bread.
- Greasing the pan is important, to avoid the bread from sticking to pan after baking.
- Use good quality of olive oil.
- A good test to check if the bread is doubled/risen is to poke with your fingertips, if it springs back its done. If it takes time to spring back, it will need some more time to rise.
XO, Devangi