Focaccia: The Deb Breadbake Trio-Take Three
Yes. In the Time of COVID, where the staple shelves at the supermarket look like a scene out of Mad Max, I still have flour and yeast. Now don’t get your Hot Crossed Buns in a bunch, in all fairness, I normally have lots of flour and yeast on hand. I love to bake. Although, after 3 batches of Focaccia, I find myself perusing my King Arthur Flour wishlist to see if yeast or flour have made it back on their virtual shelves. Bread has become an obsession for me and so many others. The result of staying home and harkening to a simpler time.
The trio of Focaccia I tried were all pretty good but one stood out, Serious Eats No-Knead Olive-Rosemary Focaccia with Pistachios. But they’re all excellent. I’ve included links to the two “runner-ups” since they are both totally worth making. My favorite is the finale of this post along with the full recipe. Enjoy!
Foccacia Number One
From Kitchn, a recipe for No-Knead Focaccia that takes the least amount of time of the three we tried. It does start with a food processor which makes quick work of making the dough. The dough needs to sit for only 2-3 hours before spreading the dough in a 10-inch iron skillet, letting it rest for 30-40 minutes before baking.
I put the dough in the fridge overnight before proceeding. The dough did not rise as much as expected, operator error? Overzealous pressing it into the skillet? Too long in the fridge? Dense and chewy, reminiscent of pizza crust with a nice flavor from the garlic and rosemary. I’d like to try this recipe again, wondering if I had compressed it too much or inadvertently used water that was too hot. If it didn’t rise any more I’d just use it to make mindbogglingly good pizza. Oh, and my skillet is probably wider than the classic 10″ inch iron skillet, did I pat down my dough too much? My inquiring mind wants to know.
Guess I’ll have to bake more Focaccia
Focaccia Number Two
Back In the day, Jenny Jones was a singer, comedian and talk show host…now she does cooking and baking videos from home. Go figure. How I stumbled upon her site, I don’t know, but her No-Knead Focaccia Bread is pretty darn good. Easy to make, the end result leans towards a pizza-like consistency, chewy inside with nice air bubbles with an exterior that was a wonderful toasty brown and so crispy. She describes her Focaccia aptly, “This is no ordinary focaccia. It’s not the soft kind that you bake in a pan. This is focaccia the way I like it: thin and crispy. It’s like a slice of pizza without the pizza stuff” The search was still on for that soft, pillowy texture of classic Focaccia. Still, this was so good, I’d make it again in a heartbeat (if it wasn’t for my hipspread, lol) You will need a pizza stone or steel to bake this on.
Above is what the dough looks like after resting in the bowl. It doubled in size.
Below is after tucking (folding) the dough under a couple of times
The finished Focaccia! Airy and springy and soft inside, crispy and chewy on the outside, it’s delicious.
And the winner is…Serious Eats No-Knead Olive Rosemary Focaccia with Pistachios
I think we have found a Focaccia recipe that my entire quarantined family likes! Serious Eats Focaccia by Kenji-Alt Lopez has that soft, pillowy texture inside like traditional Focaccia and a nice crispy outside. With that first bite, we were all nodding our heads-this is it! Not a moment too soon as my bread flour supply is dangerously low.
Start the day BEFORE you want bread on the table, like all no-knead bread, time takes the place of kneading. We did not use olives or pistachios. Quarantine forces improvisation, instead, we used cherry tomatoes, garlic, red onions, and rosemary from our herb box. A tasty combination. Feel free to add your own toppings! #Lunchleftovers found me making Ottolenghi’s Charred Tomatoes with Labneh to dip into with my focaccia-absofrigginlutely delish.
This is the Serious Eats dough after resting 12 hours, at most, it tripled in size but more like two and half times (pure eyeball measurement). My bowl was plenty big enough. I thought it would rise more and was a bit worried, but the Focaccia turned out beautifully. Sorry, I will not doubt the master Kenji Alt-Lope again!
Olive Rosemary Focaccia with Pistachios
Equipment
- iron skillet
Ingredients
- 500 grams all-purpose or bread flour 17 1/2 ounces, about 3 1/4 cups, prefer bread flour
- 15 grams kosher salt .5 ounces, about 1 tablespoon Diamond brand) reduce by a third if using Mortons
- 4 grams instant yeast .15 ounces, about 1 teaspoon
- 325 grams water 11 1/2 ounces, about 1 1/2 cups minus 1 tablespoon
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided
- 4 ounces pitted green olives sliced
- 1/4 cup roasted pistachios roughly chopped or lightly pounded in a mortar and pestle
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves very roughly chopped
- Coarse sea salt
Alternate Toppings
- thinly sliced red onion
- fresh thyme leaves
- cherry tomatoes, halved
- garlic, slivers
Instructions
- Place flour, salt, yeast, and water in a large bowl. Mix with hands or a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. The bowl should be at least 4 times the volume of the dough to account for rising.
- Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, making sure that edges are well-sealed, then let rest on the countertop for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. Dough should rise dramatically and fill bowl, although mine did not rise that dramatically, it spread more than rise.
- Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour, then transfer it to a lightly-floured work surface. With well-floured hands, form into a ball by tucking the dough underneath itself.
- Pour half of oil (1/8 cup)in the bottom of a 12-inch cast iron skillet or large cake pan (your Le Creuset or Staub pan would be perfect)Transfer dough to pan, turn to coat in oil, and position seam-side-down. Using a flat palm, press the dough around the skillet, flattening it slightly and spreading oil around the entire bottom and edges of the pan.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough stand at room temperature for 2 hours. After the first hour, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 550°F. My oven only goes to 500 degrees, this works fine. It actually baked in about the same amount of time, but you may need to go at least the full 24 minutes at 500 degrees.
- At the end of the 2 hours, dough should mostly fill the skillet up to the edge. Use your fingertips to press it around until it fills every corner, popping any large bubbles that appear. Lift up one edge of the dough to let any air bubbles underneath escape and repeat, moving around the dough until there are no air bubbles left underneath and the dough is evenly spread around the skillet.
- Spread olives and pistachios or your choice of toppings, over the surface of the dough and press down on them with your fingertips to embed slightly. Drizzle with remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary and coarse salt.
- Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top is golden toasty brown and bottom is golden brown and crisp when you peek underneath, 16 to 24 minutes. Using a thin spatula, loosen focaccia and peek underneath.
- Transfer to a cutting board, allow to cool slightly, slice, and serve. Serve with cheesy butter or Ottolenghis tomatoes and Labneh, so good.
- Extra bread can be stored in a brown paper bag at room temperature for up to 2 days. Reheat in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes.