How to make a fabulous slab of focaccia

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I love a good focaccia.

Focaccia may be one of the most forgiving breads. There is almost no way to hurt it. With a day of planning, you can make focaccia to portion and save for sandwiches for everyone. Now, that’s yum!

Ingredients

Poolish

Bread flour

Water

Sea Salt

Focaccia dough

Bread flour

Poolish

Sea salt

Instant yeast

Water

Extra virgin olive oil

Notes about ingredients

Bread flour has the necessary amount of gluten to hold the air bubbles and provide the pull focaccia needs.

If possible, avoid commercial salt.  Redman’s brand is good, but any minimally processed sea salt will do.

Extra virgin olive oil really does make a difference and it is worth finding.

Ah, I remember when I tasted real focaccia

Near my once home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn is Ferdinando’s Focacceria, a 100 year Sicilain eatery. It was here that I had for reals focoaccia. I had no idea that I would not find the real deal as easily as I had just by stumbling in to Ferdinando’s.

A proper focaccia can be several things and each will be, according to at least on Siciliano, the real deal. All have an airy crumb, lots of extra virgin olive oil and incredible flavor. That’s the thing lacking in so many breads which claim to be focaccia: they are fake focaccia. They are the off-Broadway stand-in: does a fine job and the show is not less for it, but it ain’t the star.

Ferdinando’s was the best focacciaria

Making focaccia the Ferdinando’s way takes time. Time is what makes the flavor and the irregular holes. I’ve developed my own which includes using a small amount of poolish, a sourdough word meaning starter. Terminology is far less important that getting flavor into the bread. If you keep a sourdough starter at home, use that. If you don’t, no worries. You can make one.

Focaccia dough is not a standard bread dough which fights back when you knead it. Focaccia dough is somewhat formless, a big bread dough amoeba. It will stick to your hands and everything it touches. All bread is, to me, a zen thing, and this is the culmination of all those skills. To work with the dough, you have to move your hands faster than the sticky sticks. It takes practice and a complete understanding that you will wear part of the dough on your hands.

The recipe I am providing is enough to make a ¼ sheetpan. Professional kitchens often measure based on pan size: full sheet or half sheet. These ¼ sheet pans are perfect for home use.  Most cookie sheets (properly Jelly Roll pans) have the approximate volume of a half sheet pan. This recipe easily doubles or quadruples if your needs be.

How do you top a focaccia?

There is almost nothing that can be put on top of a focaccia. Some basic guidelines are thin. The ingredients should be thin.  Any flavor combinations you can think of and that appeal to you can probably go on your focaccia.  Fresh herbs are generally better flavor and look nicer even when baked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my YouTube video showing the chef, the dough and how to work with the dough.

 

Here is the video of the focaccia coming out of the oven.

This book was so instrumental to my further development as a baker.  Of course, baking is the real teacher, but Reinhart is excellent.

Click the book to purchase your own copy.

You can listen to Peter Reinhart and I discuss his new book, Perfect Pan Pizza, here, Episode 38.

Click this link to buy the proofer I use.

Here’s a link to another focaccia I made, pressed into it by my friend Elvira.