FOCACCIA

For best results, start this dough a day ahead. You’ll want to give it a minimum or 8 hours in the fridge, 18-24 is ideal, up to 36 is great!

INGREDIENTS

2 ⅛ tsp yeast

625g All Purpose Flour

30g Honey

20 oz Warm water

1 TBSP Salt

3-4 TBSP Olive Oil

2-3 TBSP Butter to grease pan

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine flour and salt and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, dissolve honey into warm water. Add yeast and wait for it to bloom. Depending on temperature, type of yeast, how it was stored, this can take a few minutes or kind of a while. 

Add flour and salt to the water/yeast and mix just enough so that there are no dry clumps of flour left, but do not over mix or mix this until it’s smooth.

Coat a new mixing bowl with olive oil and pour the dough into that bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge, ideally overnight.

When it’s time to bake, get your pan ready. We find this volume works perfectly in a quarter sheet pan, or we like to do a traditional loaf pan with about a quarter of the dough and do the rest in a 9” glass pie pan, and we also had success in a 10-12” cast iron skillet. It’s a very forgiving recipe, and mixing and matching dishes until you find what works best for your oven should still give you great options along the way.

Grease the pan liberally with butter. If you feel like you’ve put too much on, add just a little bit more. 

Take the dough out of the fridge. We use a flexible bench scraper to pull the dough away from the side of the bowl, but you can use your hands. Oil your hands first so the dough doesn't stick to them. Work your way around the edges by grabbing the dough directly across the bowl from each other and folding it down into the middle. Think of it almost like turning the dough inside out, pushing down towards the bottom of the bowl each time. Just go around the edge once, don’t over work it.

Dump the dough onto your greased pan. Let it rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size. 

Once the dough has risen, oil your fingers again and press them into the dough to pop bubbles and spread it evenly through the pan. Again, don’t over do it. Start at one edge and push your fingers down into the dough, and go all the way across.  You can dress this bread up however you like. Sometimes we go hard with fresh garlic and fresh herbs, but our default is to sprinkle the top generously with black pepper and Maldon salt before baking. 

Everyone’s oven is different, so getting exact time and temp for baking may take you some experimenting. We have an Anova Precision Oven and have found that 400 degrees on the convection setting gets us great results in around 25 minutes. You want color on the top and bottom, soft, fluffy, airy bread on the inside. Let it cool before slicing.