Traditional Focaccia Bread
Traditional focaccia recipe using a pre-ferment to give it added flavor.
Equipment
Ingredients
Poolish
- 1 cup Unbleached bread flour 160g by weight
- 1 cup Water, tepid or slightly warm 200ml, 230g
- ½ tsp Active dry yeast 2g by weight
Dough
- Poolish (see above)
- 1 ½ cup Unbleached bread flour 250g by weight
- ¼ cup water 50 ml
- ½ tsp Honey
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- ¼ tsp Yeast 1g by weight
Pre-Bake Topping
- ¼ cup Olive oil
- 2 tbsp Rosemary
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
Poolish Instructions
- Using a fork or wire whisk, mix flour water and yeast together until there are no lumps.
- Cover loosely with a plastic wrap and set aside on the counter overnight, 10 hours.
Focaccia Dough Instructions
- Mix poolish and dough ingredients together in a large mixing bowl or Kitchen Aid bowl, if using stand mixer.
- Knead for 15 minutes by hand or 10 minutes using stand mixer at level 2 with dough hook.
- In a large bowl, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and move dough into that bowl. Roll dough around to evenly coat it with olive oil and cover with damp kitchen towel, plastic wrap or my favorite, a shower cap.
- Rest in warm area for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- In a 9 x 13 sheet pan, use half of the olive oil to coat the bottom and gently scrap the focaccia dough into the sheet pan. Pull the dough to stretch it to reach the edges of the pan.
- Pre-heat oven to 375°
- Pour the remainder of the olive oil on top and spread evenly. Add more if you need more but make sure to top is coated.
- Using your finger tips, press down into the dough to create dimples.
- Sprinkle with salt and rosemary
- Once, oven comes to temp, bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on the and the internal temperature is 200°F
Notes
If you prefer to have thicker and crispy edge focaccia bread, use a cast iron skillet. The heat retention of the cast iron combined with the olive oil will give you a much crispier crust.