Bread #20 Ligurian Focaccia
My daughter, Rachel, is home from college so bread baking will be a collaboration for the next couple of weeks. So happy -- It’s great to have a partner – both for inspiration and just practical help. We decided to make the focaccia recipe from Samin Nosrat’s series, SALT FAT ACID HEAT. Surprisingly, Focaccia is featured in the FAT episode. I had no idea fat (In this case olive oil) is so important in making focaccia. We are planning to use our regular old olive oil that we get by the bucket load from Costco – not sure if that’s a great idea, but it’s time to start the dough and that’s what we have. Rachel will make the dough while we are playing euchre with our friends. Oh, by the way, in case you’re wondering what Ligurian refers to, it refers to the region of Liguria which is a “crescent-shaped region in northwest Italy” (per google – the authority over all). According to Samin, the best olive oil is made in that region.
Please bake Ligurian Focaccia with Rachel and me.
Special Tools you will need:
None
Simple Ingredients (we did not use the Kosher salt):
Ingredients
2 ½ cups lukewarm water
½ teaspoon yeast
2 ½ teaspoons honey
5 1/3 cups flour
2 Tablespoons Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1 Tablespoon fine sea salt)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil plus more for pan and finishing
Flaky salt for finishing
Fresh rosemary (we added this, not in original recipe)
1 ½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (we used ¾ teaspoon sea salt)
1/3 cup lukewarm water
Make dough: In a medium bowl, stir together water, yeast, and honey to dissolve. In a very large bowl, whisk flour and salt together to combine and then add yeast mixture and olive oil. Stir with a rubber spatula until just incorporated, then scrape the sides of the bowl clean and cover with plastic wrap. Leave out at room temperature to ferment for 12 to 14 hours until at least doubled in volume. We left it out overnight.
Form the focaccia, brine & proof: Spread 2 to 3 tablespoons oil evenly onto an 18x13" rimmed baking sheet. When dough is ready, use a spatula or your hand to release it from the sides of the bowl and fold it onto itself gently, then pour out onto the middle of the pan. Pour an additional 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough and gently spread across. Gently stretch the dough to the edge of the sheet by placing your hands underneath and pulling outward. The dough will shrink a bit, so repeat stretching once or twice over the course of 30 minutes to ensure dough remains stretched.
Dimple the dough by pressing the pads of your first three fingers in at an angle. Make the brine by stirring together salt and water until salt is dissolved. Pour the brine over the dough to fill dimples. Proof focaccia for 45 minutes until the dough is light and bubbly.
Bake the focaccia: Thirty minutes into the final proof, adjust rack to center position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. If you have a baking stone (we don't), place it on rack. Otherwise, invert another sturdy baking sheet and place on rack. Allow to preheat with the oven until very hot, before proceeding with baking.
Sprinkle focaccia with flaky salt. Bake for 25-30 minutes directly on top of stone or inverted pan until bottom crust is crisp and golden brown. To finish browning top crust, place focaccia on upper rack and bake for 5-7 minutes more.
Remove from oven and brush or douse with 2-3 tablespoons oil over the whole surface (don't worry if the olive oil pools; it will absorb as it sits). Let cool for 5 minutes, then release from pan and transfer to a cooling rack.
The finished focaccia (forgot to brown the top curst....sadly)
Reflections on this bake:
Very good! Lots of flavor, good texture. Love the crunch of the flaky salt and earthiness of the rosemary on top. It would be interesting to use really high quality extra virgin olive oil next time. Considering just how much olive oil is in the dough (not to mention poured over the baked focaccia), I think it would change/enhance the flavor. Not sure why our dimples didn’t stay dimpled…maybe we needed to let the dough rest a little longer. Nevertheless, I think our focaccia was a success.
Rating Category | Rating out of 5 |
Taste | 3 |
Texture | 4 |
Likeliness to make again | 4 |
Overall Rating | 3.7 |