Focaccia

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One of my absolute favourite recipes of the moment is my Focaccia bread. It is very simple to make, and a crowd pleaser!

You only need a handful of ingredients to make this recipe, but it looks and tastes like you have gone to a lot of effort. I mean, I find that the hardest bit of the whole thing is finding room in my fridge for the bowl!

I use Alexandra’s Kitchen’s recipe with a couple of tweaks.

You will need:

Ingredients

Strong White Bread Flour (512g)

1 packet of Instant Yeast (7g)

Fine Sea Salt (10g)

Olive Oil

Maldon Sea Salt Flakes

Fresh Rosemary

Tepid Water (2 cups)

Equipment

A 9x13inch Baking Pan, I always use this 9×13 Baking Pan by Wilton, and it hasn’t let me down.

A large mixing bowl (I prefer glass). I use one I inherited from my Grannie (Great Gran) but similar ones can be found here: Glass Mixing Bowl

Whisk

Digital Scales

1 Cup Measure

A rubber spatula

Cling Film (Plastic Wrap)

Baking paper

Time!

The secret to this recipe is that you make it the night before you want to eat it. It can be made in about 3 hours if you are short on time, but I never do.

The initial dough comes together in about 20 minutes (if that) and then its off to the fridge for its first proving.

Step 1

Gather your supplies. The key to a pleasant bake is to gather everything to hand before you start, it just makes life easier. Are your ingredients gathered? Great, we are good to go.

Step 2

Measure out your 512g of flour into your bowl. I prefer scales vs cups for this step as it gives a more accurate result. After this add in your 7g of instant yeast (I just use the little sachets for ease, and I think it keeps your yeast a little fresher) and 10g of fine sea salt. Give your dry ingredients a really good mix with your whisk till well combined.

Step 3

Check your water is tepid, (pop a clean finger in if you need to, to ensure it’s not too hot or too cold) and then add it to your dry ingredients. Now gently combine everything together until there is no bits of dry flour left in the bowl (be sure to scrape down the sides too). You can add a little bit of extra water here if you need to, but be careful – we don’t want it to become water logged.

Step 4

After everything is combined you should have a ball of dough that is a bit sticky to the touch. Slick the ball of dough with olive oil until it is completely coated, and make sure that there are no dry bits, especially on the top. We want pillowy focaccia dough, no crusty bits in sight!

Step 5

Immediately after your dough is coated put your cling film over the top of your bowl to make a tight seal. After this pop it in the fridge overnight to prove.

Step 6

Now this is important, we are going to work backwards here from when you are looking to eat your focaccia. Around 3 hours before you are wanting to impress your friends with your amazing focaccia, you are going to prepare your baking pan and then take the dough out of the fridge. To prepare your pan you need to grease it with a little olive oil and then line it with some parchment paper (this is to make doubly sure that your focaccia will not stick).

Step 7

Take your dough out of the fridge and remove your cling film. It’s time to release the dough. I like to take two forks and use them to release the dough gently, turning the bowl a quarter each time until it has all come away from the sides.

Step 8

Dump the dough into your prepared pan, and give it all another coat of olive oil to make sure no crust forms. Cover it with a tea towel and leave it alone for 2 – 4 hours in a warm spot, to do its second prove.

Step 9

When the dough has expanded to the size of the pan, then we are ready to go. Preheat your oven to 220ºC, and then wash your hands.

Step 10

Wash your Rosemary and then coat it with some olive oil to stop if it from burning and place it onto the dough.

Pour about a tablespoon or so of olive oil onto the dough and rub a bit extra onto your hands and start to make your dimples. Big bubbles should form, this is what we are aiming for so be careful not to pop them. When the dough is dimpled to your satisfaction, sprinkle a generous amount of the Maldon flaky sea salt on top.

Step 11

Put the focaccia in the oven immediately and leave it in there for about 25 minutes, or until golden and crisp on the bottom. No oven is created equal so keep an eye on things, you can always put it back in if you take it out too early, but no one likes a burnt focaccia! When your focaccia is baked, take it out and place it on a cooling rack if you have one, this makes sure the bottom stays nice and crispy.

Happy Baking!