Focaccia - Focaccia Bread - Focaccia Recipe - Rasa Malaysia (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to use bread flour or all purpose flour for focaccia? ›

I love rosemary focaccia, so I use fresh rosemary, but you can try a different blend of herbs if you'd like to (or leave them out and just make garlic focaccia). Flour: All-purpose flour or bread flour is perfect for making focaccia bread. I use all-purpose most of the time since that's what I stock in my kitchen.

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.

Venetian focaccia is sweet, baked for Easter and resembles the traditional Christmas cake panettone. Sugar and butter are used instead of olive oil and salt. Focaccia barese, which is common in Puglia in southern Italy, is made with durum wheat flour and topped with salt, rosemary, tomatoes or olives.

Now, focaccia uses plenty of olive oil, not only in the dough, but for kneading, proofing, in the baking pan, and on the bread's surface before baking. All this fat means the texture is light, moist and springy, the crust emerges golden and crisp, plus the center stays soft for days afterwards.

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. If you are short on time, preform some stretch and folds as this mimics the kneading process, helping to develop the gluten structure.

Use a high quality extra virgin olive oil and don't be shy with it – this is a recipe that relies heavily on extra virgin olive oil not just for the taste but also for the texture and that golden and crunchy crust. It's important we are not skimping on the quality which is why I recommend using Rich Glen olive oil.

Dimple the dough by gently pressing your fingers into the top of the dough. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until golden brown on top. Rotate the pan 180°, then reduce the heat to 450°F/232°C and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown on the top and bottom.

If your focaccia dough starts to look flat and kind of sunken in on top it is probably overproofed.

Forgetting to dimple the dough

Thyme and Envy note that dimpling the dough prior to baking prevents the dough from bubbling and burning — similar to a pizza crust. If you forget to dimple your dough and bake it, the dough will collapse when the bubbles burst, resulting in sad focaccia and a sad baker.

Transfer to the pan - The dough is transferred to an oiled pan and spread out slightly, and placed in a warm place. Rise focaccia in the pan - The dough rises a second time, uncovered, until doubled in size, puffy, and jiggly. This rising time depends on whether you started with room temperature or cold dough.

Why is focaccia expensive? ›

So why does it tend to be more expensive to purchase? Friends who have worked in the restaurant industry had some thoughts: Focaccia requires a lot of olive oil, which is pricey (though some other breads call for butter and eggs, which pencil out to more in my own Kirkland-brand-olive-oil kitchen).

Focaccia typically contains flour, water, yeast, salt, and oil. Ciabatta is made with a similar dough but without oil, often as wet as focaccia or with even wetter doughs. This preferment is called a poolish and has equal parts of water and flour.

I used only bread flour for this recipe but feel free to use all-purpose or whole wheat flour. I have made focaccia bread with various toppings: red onion, slices of watermelon radish, dried and fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes, black and green olives etc. You can honestly top the bread with anything!

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.

Focaccia is a lean-dough bread—there is almost no sugar in it and there is no fat in the dough to enrich it. That means that it is done cooking between 190 and 210°F (88 and 99°C).

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.

I am testing some different flours for my focaccia in search of a more open crumb and more oven spring and have found that I achieve a lighter more open airy crust with a 75% Central Milling ABC+ (11.5% Protein Content) 25% Semola Rimacinata combination.

You can use all-purpose flour as a 1:1 substitute for bread flour and vice-versa. For example, for 1 cup of bread flour, you can use 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Bread and pizza crust made with all-purpose flour may have a little less chew than those made with bread flour, but the results will still be good.

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.