![]() Flour: bread flour or all-purpose flour will work equally well here.If you dimple and let the dough rise again even for 20 minutes before popping the pan in the oven, the crevices begin to dissolve. After the second rise, dimple the dough, then immediately stick the pans in the oven - this has been a critical difference for me in terms of keeping those desirable crevices.This will depend on the temperature of your kitchen and the time of year. Count on 2 to 4 hours for the second rise.When I use my 9×13-inch USA Pan, I can get away with using olive oil alone. When I use Pyrex or other glass, pans butter plus oil is essential to prevent sticking. A buttered or parchment-lined pan in addition to the olive oil will prevent sticking.(You can leave the dough in the fridge for as long as 72 hours.) Allowing the dough to rest 18 to 24 hours in the fridge yields the best results.Moreover, and this is getting a little scientific, but during the long, cold fermentation: enzymes in both the flour and the yeast will break down the starches in the flour into simple sugars, which will contribute both to flavor and to browning, again rendering sugar unnecessary. Sugar will speed things up, but when you’re employing a long, slow rise, speed is not the name of the game. Why isn’t there any sweetener in this recipe? Simply stated, a sweetener is just not needed - the yeast, contrary to popular belief, does not need sugar to activate or thrive. The absence of sugar or honey or any sort of sweetener.There are lots of focaccia bread recipes out there, so why make this one? This one differs from many of the recipes out there in two ways: (Incidentally, this is the secret to making excellent pizza dough as well as light, airy sourdough sandwich bread.) How This Focaccia Recipe Differs from Others The high proportion of water will create a dough with beautiful air pockets throughout. The overall effort, however, is very hands-off, and the result - a light, airy, pillowy dough - is well worth it.Īs important as refrigerating the dough is using a high hydration dough, meaning a dough with a high proportion of water relative to the flour. This is nothing novel-many bakers extol the virtues of the cold fermentation process-and it came as no surprise to me either: it was, after all, past-prime Jim Lahey refrigerated dough that showed me how easy focaccia could be: place cold, several-days-old pizza dough in a well-oiled pan, let it rise for several hours or until it doubles, drizzle with more oil, dimple with your fingers, sprinkle with sea salt, then bake until done.Įmploying a refrigerator rise requires more time because the cold environment slows everything down initially, and during the second rise, the cold dough takes time to warm to room temperature. I’ll spare you all the details of the various experiments and skip straight to what I’ve found creates the best focaccia, one that emerges golden all around, looking like a brain, its surface woven with a winding labyrinth of deep crevices: high-hydration, refrigerated dough. PS: Once you master this simple focaccia, try your hand at this simple sourdough bread recipe, another recipe that requires minimal effort but yields spectacular results. ![]() Adding Rosemary, Herbs and Other Toppings to your Focaccia Dough.How This Focaccia Recipe Differs from Others.After all, this focaccia bread recipe is adapted from my mother’s simple peasant bread recipe, a recipe that has removed the fear of the bread baking process for many.įor the past few months, I’ve been making the focaccia bread recipe from my cookbook Bread Toast Crumbs, but changing the method: using more yeast, using less yeast, doing longer, slower rises at room temperature, doing longer, slower rises in the refrigerator. If you are intimidated by bread baking, this is the recipe I suggest making first, both for its simplicity and flavor. In sum, it’s hard to beat focaccia (pronounced foh- kah-ch uh) in the effort-to-reward category. It emerges soft and pillowy, olive oil-crusted, golden all around, and it’s completely irresistible.If you have a 9×13-inch baking pan and your fingertips (for dimpling), you’re good to go.It requires no special equipment, no tricky shaping technique, and no scoring.The no-knead, 4-ingredient dough takes 5 minutes to mix together.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: focaccia is the bread recipe for beginners.
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