This week we’re making Focaccia! This is a slight detour from the great british bakeoff cookbook. The adventures of Peter and Paul will have to wait. Its hard to top Julie and Julia anyway. This focaccia recipe comes from Claire Saffitz’s book “Dessert Person.” What I like most about making focaccia is that you can take creative liberties with what toppings you’d like to use and make the recipe your own. I’ve kept pretty close to the traditional flavors you would expect to find on focaccia; garlic, thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, salt. And while you can’t go wrong with any of those, there are plenty of savory flavor options to experiment with. So let’s get going with the bread prep so the flavor experimentation can start.
Notes about the Dough
Mix the yeast with some warm water and wait for it to get bubbly before adding the rest of the water and the flour and salt. Using a stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, flour and salt until the fully combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the dough a bit with a spatula to make sure there aren’t any pockets of flour in the dough. Once the dough starts wrapping around the dough hook, turn off the mixer and cover the dough for 10 minutes to rest. Continue to mix the dough until very smooth and stretchy. Once the dough is ready, pour olive oil into a separate bowl and make sure oil is covering the bowl. Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl using a spatula and rest the dough until doubled in size, roughly 90 minutes.
The dough will take on the shape of the pan that you use here so if the intent is to use the focaccia for sandwiches, a smaller pan with higher sides is what you’d like to use. If the plan for this focaccia is to have it with dinner or just on its own then a standard sheet pan will work great, smaller pans will make the bread thicker, making it easier to cut in half for sandwiches. Add ¼ cup of olive oil to your pan of choice and make sure the pan is completely covered.
Notes about the Second Proof
Once the dough has doubled in size, put some oil on your hands and pick up the dough from the bottom and lift it up. Let the dough drop back down into the bowl on its own. This is to stretch the dough out, giving it structure and helping the dough to get a better rise. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and lift the dough up again. Repeat this two more times for a total of four times before transferring the dough to the oiled sheet pan. Stretch the dough out so that it fills the entire pan or as much as you can without ripping the dough. Cover the pan with an oiled piece of cling film and rest the dough at room temperature for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, stretch the dough again so that it fills the sheet completely.
You can either proof the dough immediately until doubled in size and bake. Or you can place the covered dough in the fridge where it will proof more slowly if you’re planning on baking the dough tomorrow. However you decide to do the second proof, once the dough has doubled in size again, you’re ready to prep and bake.
Final prep
So focaccia is famous for its dimples and this is the step where you get to add those. Dip your fingers in some olive oil and press your fingers into the dough, pressing all the way down to the bottom of the pan. After dimpling, add your toppings and some nice flaky salt and bake.
Baking Notes
Focaccia is baked at a high temperature, 450 degrees F. Arrange your oven racks so that you have one rack as high as possible and one as low as possible. Bake the focaccia on the lower rack for the majority of the time. Move the focaccia to the top rack for the last 5 or so minutes. The last 5 minutes is to get that golden brown crust on the focaccia. Depending on the toppings you have on your focaccia, baking time may be longer or shorter, so YMMV. Let the focaccia cool in the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Focaccia Topping Notes
For toppings, my favorite combination so far is olive oil, salt, garlic, and thyme. Combine all ingredients and let the garlic and thyme marinate in the olive oil. Spread ingredients on your focaccia after dimpling and bake as normal. But I’ve also tried sun-dried tomatoes with diced jalapenos and that batch turned out pretty good as well. I haven’t heard of or tried a combination that didn’t taste good. If you find a combination that just doesn’t work, let me know. I’m interested!
Focaccia Bread
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 18×13 sheet pan Can be standard size or smaller depending on how thick you want your focaccia to be. Two 13×9 pans works if you want to divide the dough between the two pans
Ingredients
- 7 grams Dry Yeast 1 standard packet
- 780 grams Bread Flour
- 2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
- 110 grams Olive oil Plus more for oiling hands
- 680 grams water, room temp
- Flaky Salt For topping the bread
Focaccia Topping
- 12 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced into slivers
- 55 grams Olive oil
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Thyme leaves
- 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
Instructions
Dough Instructions
- Take 113 grams of the water and heat it up to around 105 degrees F. This can be done on the stove or in the microwave, or simply use hot water from the tap. Add the yeast to the water and whisk to dissolve. Wait roughly 5 minutes for the yeast to activate and get a bit bubbly.
- Put the yeast mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer and add the rest of the water along with the bread flour, and salt.
- Mix using the dough hook on the lowest speed possible for 1 minute, and then increase to medium speed until the dough comes together and starts wrapping around the dough hook, roughly another 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and break up any pockets of flour that may be forming in the dough.
- Cover the dough with cling film or a damp towel for 10 minutes and then mix the dough at medium to high speed for another 10-15 minutes. The dough should be very smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. The dough is going to be super sticky, don't add more flour though.
- Pour 55 grams of the olive oil into a large bowl and make sure the olive oil coats the sides of the bowl. Using a spatula, transfer the dough from the mixing bowl to the oiled bowl.
- Put some oil on your hands and pick the dough up in the oiled bowl to make sure its not sticking to any parts of the bowl and move some of the oil onto the top of the dough.
- Cover with cling film or a damp towel and leave to proof at room temperature until doubled in size, roughly 90 minutes.
- Take the other half of the olive oil and pour into your sheet pan, making sure to get the entire pan coated in oil.
- Put some oil on your hands and pick the dough up from bowl and lift in straight into the air. Let the dough drop back down into the bowl. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and do this again. Repeat two more times for a total of 4 times that you pick the dough up and let it drop back down into the oiled bowl. This is to help give the dough structure and help it rise higher so don't skip this step.
- Transfer the dough to the oiled sheet pan and stretch the dough out until it starts to pull back. Cover the tray with a piece of oiled cling film and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, uncover the dough and stretch the dough again to try and get it to fill out the pan completely. Cover again with the same piece of oiled cling film and leave to proof until dough is doubled in size. This second proof can be done in the fridge overnight or at room temperature depending on your schedule. If you're adding toppings to your focaccia, this is a good time to prepare them.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and arrange the oven racks to be in the highest and lowest positions.
- Once the dough has doubled in size and is coming up to the edges of the sheet pan, dip your fingertips in oil and press your fingers into the dough, pressing all the way down to the sheet pan. This creates the signature dimples you see on focaccia bread.
- Add your toppings to the focaccia and sprinkle with flaky salt. If you're not adding toppings, just drizzle another 55 grams of olive oil over the focaccia and then add the salt.
- Bake on the lowest rack until the corners of the focaccia are pulling away from the pan, around 20 minutes.
- Transfer the focaccia to the top rack and bake until the focaccia has a golden crust and is bordering on brown.
- Let the focaccia cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting and serving.
Focaccia Topping
- Peel the garlic cloves and slice thinly into slivers
- Strip the thyme leaves from the stems until you have roughly 2 tbsp worth
- Combine garlic, thyme, salt and oil in a bowl and mix to combine. Add to the focaccia before baking.
