Focaccia
Maybe the easiest, and at the same time, more challenging, breads to make. The easy part is it's hard to fail. The challenging part is the sticky dough. Many cooks and even some bakers care not for dough sticking to their fingers. Ah, but so it goes.
Ingredients
Poolish
- 50 g Bread flour
- 50 g Water
- 1 g Sea salt
Focaccia Dough
- 320 g Bread flour
- 33 g Poolish
- 7 g Sea salt
- 1 g Instant yeast
- 228 g Water
- 43 g Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
Tools
Mixing
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Add the chef, water and olive oil to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the flour, salt, and yeast. Mix on low speed for 4 minutes. Turn the mixer to medium speed for another 4 minutes or until the dough comes together and cleans the side of the bowl. There is every reason to expect that this dough will not release from the bottom of the bowl. That is how it is supposed to be. Remember, this is a runny dough.
Folding
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Using a rubber spatula or bowl scraper remove the dough to a extra virgin olive oil coated sheet pan. Oil your fingers as well and push the dough to spread out the size of the pan. Fold the dough as a business letter, in thirds. The dough should be as wide as the pan and in the middle. Brush the top of the dough with EVOO. Turn the dough 90 degress and flip it over. Brush the new dough top again with EVOO, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in a cool place, like a refrigerator, over night. The next day, remove the plastic, brush the dough with oil and using the bowl scraper work to loosen the dough from the pan, flip it over, stretch it to the full size of the pan then fold it again. Cover with the plastic wrap and allow to come to room temperature.
Toppings
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Toppings for focaccia are nearly endless. There are some basic guidelines, however, to make the most of your bread. Some toppings ideas are
Fresh chopped herbs
Onions and garlic
Zucchini
Red onions
Mushrooms
Cheeses
Raisins
Pepperoni
Salami
Olives
Mushrooms should always be cooked before putting on a focaccia. Onions can remain raw if they are sliced very thin or diced and cooked. Tomatoes should be cut into smaller pieces than whole slices for they have so much water they will make soggy that which we wish to be crunchy.
Baking
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I place thinly sliced zucchini which have been lightly salted and coated in EVOO on the top like overlapping coins. I salt and pepper the focaccia first, then the zucchini and thinly sliced red onions then kosher salt. I allow that to proof to the top of the pan and then bake it at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. The bread should release from the pan, but if not, simply slide a metal spatula or cake decorating spatula between the bread and the pan. With a bit of poking, it should release easily.
Allow the dough to cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove it to a cooling rack to allow the bottom to keep the yummy crusty bits.
