For our July lesson in the Better Baking Academy with Bob’s Red Mill, we bring you an instant Italian favorite: delightfully dimpled and pillowy soft Summer Focaccia. Whether sweet or savory, focaccia comes together with just a few simple pantry ingredients creating a lofty flatbread that can be customized with an array of toppings. Starting with a high hydration ratio, our savory dough forgoes traditional kneading, relying on the high protein content of Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour and a simple folding technique to build exquisite elasticity. We then bake this stunner on a baking sheet, and the generous addition of olive oil and relatively high baking temperature createsa crispy exterior with an airy and open interior. Our Summer Focaccia showcases bright and seasonal choppedproduce, but this bread is also theperfect palette for fresh herbs or anarray of cheeses and meats. Whether you are enjoying the breadfresh from the oven or usingslices to create epicsandwiches, focaccia is a must for your baking repertoire. We’ll take you through each step of the process, from building elasticity in the dough via folding to creating the characteristicolive oil-catching indentations.Click here for the printable PDF version of the module!
Before you get to baking, be sure to enter our Instagram giveaway to win Bob’s Red Mill products and a $50 Baking Essentials Gift Certificate. The giveaway closes on July 31, 2021, so hurry to enter!
INGREDIENT BREAKDOWN
Great recipes require great ingredients. Here’s how each of our recipe’s simple ingredients contributes to making focaccia you’ll fawn over.
WATER: Moisture, in the form of warm water, is needed to activate the yeast and hydrate the dough so the gluten can develop. Because focaccia dough isn’t kneaded with a traditional kneading process, this dough relies on a higher hydration level. This high hydration not only helps to build elasticity, but in the oven, the water is converted to steam, which helps leaven the dough and prevents the crust from forming too quickly and burning.
EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL: Extra-virgin olive oil plays multiple parts in our focaccia, enriching the dough with fat and adding a savory flavor. Extra-virgin olive oil is the finest-produced olive oil from the first press and contains only 1% acid. Smooth, with a fruity flavor, the color ranges from golden yellow to pale green. Olive oil also makes the dough more elastic, lubricating the dough so it is easier to stretch. Finally, drizzling the dough with olive oil before adding toppings helps create a barrier and keeps moisture from effecting the dough, making a crispier crust.
BOB’S RED MILL ARTISAN BREAD FLOUR: The process of folding the dough to develop the gluten network calls for a high-protein flour. Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour offers plenty of protein to create an elastic network of gluten without traditional kneading and, as a bonus, leads to the perfectly chewy texture of focaccia.
KOSHER SALT: As a general rule of thumb, the ratio of salt to flour in breads is 1.8% to 2% of flour weight. It’s important to weigh your salt because different salt crystals measure differently. Dough without enough salt easily overferments. Salt also helps with crust color and enhances flavor.
INSTANT YEAST: In contrast to active dry yeast, instant yeast contains 25% more living yeast cells because it is processed more gently. A single-celledorganism, yeast will grow and multiply when it receives the following: moisture, food (sugar and carbs), and warmth. It leavens the dough by converting carbohydrates into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol.
SUMMER PRODUCE: We chose an array ofcolorful sweet peppers for our Summer Focaccia,but feel free to add any seasonal produce of your choice. Tomatoes, corn, summer squash, and onions make great additions, as well as fresh herbs like chives, basil, thyme, and rosemary. You can also reach for olives, capers, cheeses, and cured meats to turn it up a notch.
FLAKED SEA SALT: Used as a finishing salt, this ultra-light and flaky sea salt adds a soft crunch and delicately salty flavor to baked goods.
Summer Focaccia
In Italy, regional variations of focaccia range from sweet and enriched versions to salty and savory renditions, but one thing is for certain: this bread is beloved wherever it travels. We started our classic olive oil-based focaccia with high-protein Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour, developing its gluten structure through a simple folding process to build elasticity and create a light and airy crumb. After the second rise, we created the dimples characteristic of this Italian bread, which allows the olive oil to permeate into the dough, creating an unbeatable crisp crust and chewy crumb. A meal in itself or the perfect sandwich companion, this is your go-to bread for the summer.
FAQs
Bread flour is slightly higher in protein than All-purpose, so gives the focaccia just a little more chew. I love the mix of both, but just AP flour works just fine too!
Why is my focaccia not fluffy? ›
Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.
Why is the bottom of my focaccia not crispy? ›
The heat of a baking steel is necessary for getting a crispy bottom on a focaccia pizza. The cheese and sauce on top of the dough insulate the pan too much for the bottom to get crispy otherwise.
Why did my focaccia come out tough? ›
Why is my Focaccia dense and tough? Not allowing the focaccia to proof long enough in the fridge will prevent enough gluten from being formed. This causes flat and dense focaccia once baked.
Why won't my focaccia rise? ›
Add more yeast, blend in the starter, or knead in more flour to help initiate rising. Dough that has expired yeast, too much salt, all-purpose or cake flour, or antifungal spices like cinnamon might have trouble rising.
What happens if you accidentally use bread flour instead of all-purpose? ›
Be aware that the dough may be stickier and less elastic by nature, and won't hold its structure or rise quite as well. Tip for Success: Flour protein levels vary significantly by brand, so it is best to substitute bread flour with a higher protein all purpose flour, such as King Arthur, for better results.
Why is my homemade focaccia so dense? ›
Oven temperature: If the oven is too cold, it can lead to dense bread as it doesn't heat the gases in the dough enough to make them expand and rise. Preheat the oven and don't leave the door open too long when placing focaccia inside. This ensures the oven is nice and hot.
What happens if you let focaccia dough rise too long? ›
If your focaccia dough starts to look flat and kind of sunken in on top it is probably overproofed.
How wet should focaccia dough be? ›
This dough will be very, very wet – almost like cake mix. If you can, wet your hands (to stop them sticking) and fold the dough over a little, just to see what a dough of this wetness (or 'hydration') feels like.
How to get focaccia golden brown? ›
Place the pan of focaccia onto the baking stone, or onto a middle oven rack. Bake the focaccia until it's light golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the focaccia from the oven, and immediately turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool.
Dimpling (aka poking holes) in focaccia helps to release gas and air, which helps your focaccia to maintain its signature flat look. At the same time, olive oil that's drizzled onto the foccacia is able to infuse into the dough for a truly wonderful flavour!
What happens if you don't dimple focaccia? ›
Not just for aesthetic flair, dimpling the dough is a vital step because it expels air from the dough, preventing it from rising too fast, giving it that perfect crumb. That, combined with the weight of the oil, will prevent a puffed-up poolish that more closely resembles a loaf than a tasty crust.
Which flour is best for focaccia? ›
Today, I am sharing a simple focaccia bread recipe that is crispy on the outside and airy, fluffy in the inside. I used only bread flour for this recipe but feel free to use all-purpose or whole wheat flour.
Can focaccia be overproofed? ›
Thanks. Even if something is over proofed it is not ruined. An over proofed dough makes good focaccia.
How to tell when focaccia is done baking? ›
Put the pan in the oven and bake for 20–30 minutes, until the top is a lovely golden and the internal temperature is 190-210°F (88–99°C). When your timer sounds, verify the internal temperature with your Thermapen ONE. Continue to cook if the temp is not high enough.
What kind of flour do you use for focaccia? ›
Use your favorite kind—I prefer extra virgin olive oil. Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour: I tested this focaccia with both and prefer the bread flour variety. Both are great, but bread flour has a higher protein content so it yields a chewier texture.
Is it better to make bread with bread flour or all-purpose flour? ›
Bread flour produces baked goods with more structure and chew than all-purpose flour, as all-purpose only has a protein content of 10 to 12 percent, versus the 12 to 14 percent of bread. All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc.
How is focaccia bread different from normal bread? ›
How Is Focaccia Different From Other Bread? Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy.
Why is my focaccia dense? ›
Oven temperature: If the oven is too cold, it can lead to dense bread as it doesn't heat the gases in the dough enough to make them expand and rise. Preheat the oven and don't leave the door open too long when placing focaccia inside. This ensures the oven is nice and hot.
