Easy Roasted-Garlic Focaccia Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my focaccia so crispy? ›

From my experimentation, I noticed higher temperatures with a thinner dough lead to crispier focaccia. On the other hand, lower temperatures with thicker doughs yield a softer crumb. Fermentation Time: This dough can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. The longer the ferment, the more the flavor develops.

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.

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.

Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.

A naturally leavened rise is best.

Use a sourdough starter or other means of natural leavening to give focaccia dough its rise. A long rise with natural leavening is the best way to make focaccia, as this method creates subtle new flavors and deeper complexity.

Can you overproof focaccia dough? You can definitely overproof focaccia, but it is difficult. There is so much oil in the dough, and very little sugar, so the yeast is "sleepy" or slow due to both of those elements and less likely to overproof.

As Elizabeth Yetter wrote in her helpful primer "How To Punch Down Bread Dough," the more air pockets "you can remove from the dough, the finer the grain (or crumb) will be." While that's great for sandwich bread or sweet rolls, it's not as desirable for loaves, like focaccia, where you want airiness.

A well-proofed dough will have lots of air bubbles and. rises quickly. Massaging adds dimples that keep your. focaccia flat, as it should be.

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.

Room temperature first rise and room temperature second rise - The first rise will take about an hour to an hour and a half. Then transfer the dough to the pan and do a second rise, which should take anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour.

Is focaccia healthier than regular bread? ›

A moderate consumption of focaccia bread can be healthy. It is because complex carbs in focaccia offer the body energy slowly and help control blood sugar levels. In addition, it gains an advantage if it contains whole wheat flour. It is also rich in vitamin, mineral, and fibre content.

Not just for aesthetic flair, dimpling the dough is a vital step because it expels air from the dough, preventing it from rising too fast, giving it that perfect crumb. That, combined with the weight of the oil, will prevent a puffed-up poolish that more closely resembles a loaf than a tasty crust.

If mixed too long the dough can become loose and sticky. The water that was absorbed by the flour gets released back into the dough and the gluten structure breaks down. After this there is no way to fix it. It will be a loose, soggy, and sticky mass unable to hold in fermentation gasses.

Note: The stretch and fold method is better suited than kneading for a high-hydration dough such as this because the dough is naturally sticky and this method reduces hand contact. Additionally, the stretch and fold will allow for an open crumb when baked because the air isn't pushed out of the dough.

Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy.

It sounds like you are baking a lean dough (flour, water, yeast, salt) and using a steam bath because the recipe tells you to. Steam helps the bread get a good oven spring, because it keeps the crust flexible longer, but it also encourages a crisp, chewy crust.

If you want to make stale bread soft again, wrap the bread in foil. If the crust of the bread is very hard, sprinkle a little water on the outside before you close the foil. Place the bread in a 300°F oven for 5-15 minutes or until the bread feels soft. If you added water, heat the bread until it no longer feels soggy.