Focaccia is my all time favorite, after pizza. It is an Italian bread, that can be of many types, depending on your taste. It's not the first time I'm making focaccia and definitely not the last time. It's very delicious, no matter which one you choose, tomato, olives or just herbs and salt.
The truth is, an Italian video has been popping up in my feed and I have only been able to avoid it till now. Today I gave in and here it is my version.
The original recipe is from this video.
Ingredients
- 400 gr all purpose flour (the original recipe uses type 0 or 00 but I can't find those here, or the name is different),
- 150 gr semolina,
- 1 pack of dry yeast (7gr), or 25g fresh yeast
- 2 tsp sugar,
- 150 ml lukewarm milk
- 150 ml lukewarm water,
- 100 ml sunflower oil,
- 1 tsp salt
For the topping:
- 50 ml water,
- 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil,
- granulated salt,
- rosemary.
Method:
The method is a bit different from what I am used to, but very simple.
Place the dry ingredients, except the salt, into a mixing bowl and mix well with your hand.
In another mixing bowl add the warm water, warm milk, oil, salt and mix well.
Then start adding the flour mix, while working the dough with your ringers, not your hands. The woman in the video is explaining it how she is doing. She is right as her fingers are acting like a mixer.
Work the dough on a floured surface till you get a nice, non sticky dough. Place it in a bowl.
Here's when it becomes interesting. Benedetta made a cross on the top of the dough with a sharp knife. She says her mother thought her to do that.
Catholics and Orthodox use to make a cross on the bread, before cutting it, it's kind of like a blessing or something similar. Italians are Catholics, so it would explain it, but she has another reason to do that and after today, trust me, I can confirm it's a valid one.
So even though I'm not religious, I made the cross, covered my bowl with a plastic foil and placed it in the oven. Previously I let the oven on for 2 minutes, to be warm inside.
Warning: turn the oven on for 2 minutes, turn it off and place the dough inside. Don't let the oven on while the dough is resting!
Let the dough rest for 90 minutes.
And voilà! Here's the dough! So why make the cross? Benedetta says if you make a cross on the top of the dough, after the resting period you can see if the dough has really risen and it makes rising easier. Now look at my dough. This is a nice trick I'm going to use from now on.
You need a 28cm pizza pan, but I don't have one, so I used this one, which is almost 28 cm in diameter.
Oil the pan so the dough don't stick to the pan and place the dough in it.
Cover with a plastic foil and let rest for another 20 minutes in the oven.
Here it is after 20 minutes of rest.
After that comes the necessary hole making, that can't be missing from the focaccia.
The next step is to make a mix of 100 ml water and 3 tbs olive oil and brush the focaccia with it.
I sprinkled it with dry rosemary as there's no way I can get fresh in April. You can use oregano or whatever green seasoning you like. Also sprinkle with granulated salt.
Bake 25 minutes at 180°C.
It's easy to make, the focaccia is great, so don't miss it :)
