Sourdough Focaccia

Focaccia is a simple, rustic, and typical bakery product of Italy. It shows numerous variants depending on where it originated in Italy – thick or thin, crunchy or soft! I personally prefer a thinner and crunchy version topped only with confit garlic and sea salt. While I am typing this, I feel teleported to the streets of Rome which was where I tried my first focaccia – something very new to me at that point. But that left me hooked.

It is made with such little effort and few simple ingredients – flour, water, salt, and olive oil, but a myriad of nuanced differences are obtainable by topping it, prior to baking, with fresh tomato, onions, potatoes, olives, cheese, etc. or flavoring it with herbs (rosemary, sage, oregano, etc.). This is also why it becomes critical to use good quality ingredients, especially the extra virgin olive oil – this brings a world of difference with its earthy grassy flavors and sea salt.

The dough for focaccia is pretty much hands-off and very easy to develop. Because it is a flat-leavened bread, it is not essential to develop a lot of strength, making it just a few sets of folds and stretches and lots of rest! The dough feels beautiful, almost sensual. And it’s basically foolproof. The only real “kneading” comes at the end when you press with your fingertips to make those dimples that will eventually fill with pools of extra virgin olive oil! It feels therapeutic to poke and prod a focaccia dough or even watch someone do it. I usually get very fidgety when it comes to poking a dough, even if it’s a poke test but not this one. This I absolutely LOVE.

The high hydration and increased extensibility helps with a porous and dramatic crumb, appropriate for mopping up copious amounts of olive oil with crushed pepper and sea salt! If you choose to make the thicker sheets of focaccia, they make amazing sandwiches or accompaniments with red pepper or tomato soups!

Shall we now get on to baking one?!

Course Instructor

Neelima Dandapat Author

Get Started…

Vitals and Ingredients

Mixing

Bulk fermentation and Cold Retard

Topping and Bake

Peach & Pesto Focaccia