Alex's Bread Blog: Focaccia

Foccacia is an Italian flat bread based on the same type of dough as pizza - read more about the history and types of Focaccia on wikipedia: Focaccia

You can find lots of receipes on the internet and in books, ours is a combination of recipes that we've found - we tried to make it as simple as possible, We've used this method for many years and it always comes out great, tasty and fluffy

We normally finish it with mozzarella cheese, red onion and parmesan but you can experiment with whatever you like on top, or whatever you have to hand that needs using up

The amounts are enough to make around a kilo of dough; by changing the quantities but keeping the proportions the same you can produce more or less, depending on how much bread you need

Ingedients for the Dough

600g Strong White Flour
5g Salt
10g Fresh or Powdered Yeast
50ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
350ml (approx) cold water

Ingredients for the focaccia dough

Making the Dough

Weigh the dry ingedients into a mixing bowl, crumbling the dried yeast into the flour

Stir the dry ingredients to mix the salt and yeast into the flour, make a well in the centre of the flour, then pour in the olive oil and most of the water

Dry ingredients ready for the liquid to be added

Next, stir the liquid into the flour until it starts to combine together - use some extra flour to clean off the spoon or whatever you used to stir the dough, then start to fold and kneed the dough together

Add more liquid to the mixture if you need to during the folding and kneading until you get a nice smooth dough - this should only take a few minutes, especially when you get the hang of it

If you're using a dough bowl, transfer to the bowl - next, make a few holes in the top of the dough with your fingertips and fill with extra water, then cover (either with the lid of the bowl if you're using a dough bowl) or a towel if it's a standard bowl and leave to ferment

Dough in the bowl ready to ferment

Normally we leave it for up to 12 hours, either overnight or for most of the day, but it can be done much more quickly if you need to, especially if you find a warm place for it

It's ready when you can see the bubbles of gas forming in the dough and you can smell a deep yeasty fermenting aroma

Fermented dough ready for shaping

Shaping the Focaccia

Sprinkle flour round the edge of the dough and take it from the bowl and onto a large floured board or worktop

Fold the dough over a few times and knead until it's a smooth ball - add more flour a little at a time if the dough is too wet and sticky

Divide into two and shape with your hands into two balls - now, first with your hands, then using a rolling pin, flatten out to the approximate size and shape of your baking trays

Two balls of dough ready to be rolled out

Lift onto the baking trays, cover with a towel and leave to rise for around 90 minutes

Dough on the baking trays ready to rise

Risen dough ready for the topping

Topping Ingredients

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Mozzarella Cheese
Medium sized Red Onion
Parmesan Cheese

Topping of cheese and onion

Add the Topping and Bake

Preheat the oven to 200C

Slice the Mozzarella and Red Onion

Brush the top of the focaccia with the oil, put the Mozzarella and Red Onion on the bread and finish by grating Parmesan over the top