Yeasted Focaccia Recipe
Ingredients
300g all purpose flour
200g bread flour
12g salt
1 tsp instant yeast
20g olive oil
375-400g room temp water
Time
Bake Time: 25-35 minutes
Total Time: ~ 3 hours
Process
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together flours, salt, and yeast.
Pour over the olive oil, then with the dough hook attached, turn mixer on low and slowly pour in the water.
Once all the dry ingredients have been incorporated (you may need to pause and scrape the bowl with a spatula), turn the speed up to medium and let it knead for ~8-10 minutes. This dough will be VERY loose and slack. That is a good thing, and will lead to a soft and bubbly crumb structure, although if it is too hard to work with feel free to add some extra AP flour 10-15g at a time until you are comfortable.
Remove the dough hook from the bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel, plate, or plastic wrap. Let it rise at room temperature for ~1.5 hours, or until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Liberally grease a 13x9 pan with olive oil.
With well-oiled hands and dough scraper, loosen the dough from the sides of the bowl and pour it out into your greased pan. Using oiled finger tips, gently press the dough out toward the edges of the pan. Short, quick motions will help avoid getting dough stuck to your fingers. It likely will not fill to the corners perfectly, which is fine, as the dough will fill out as it rises.
Cover the pan with a sheet pan or oiled plastic wrap and proof for ~1 hour, or until the dough is quite bubbly and has nearly doubled in size.
About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 425F with a rack at the lowest position and a rack in the top 1/3. Liberally oil the top of the dough and your finger tips, and—working from the side furthest from you—press your finger tips into the dough, all the way to the pan. The goal is to dimple the entire surface of the dough so it rises at an even thickness while baking.
Top your dough with whatever ingredients you want/have on hand. Flaky salt and fresh rosemary is a classic, but toppings such as tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, cheeses, herbs… even fruits are fantastic. Mix it up.
Bake on the bottom rack for 20 minutes, then check for doneness and move to the upper rack. Bake another 5-15 minutes, depending on your desired level of browning.
Once the top is well-browned, remove from the oven and carefully move to a wire rack to cool. It should slide right out (thanks, olive oil), but a careful metal spatula can be very helpful. Let cool before slicing.
My Talkie Business
Couple of points here:
FIRST - This recipe is very forgiving. I have messed with (and messed up) the ratios on many of these ingredients and it has turned out delicious every time. So try mixing it up and see what happens!
SECOND - Be careful with using too much whole grain flour, regardless of what kind. The bran in whole grain flours has a tendency to cut through gluten strands, which can really mess with your bubbly rise here.
THIRD - I’ve included a weight range for the water content of this recipe, and to be honest, even the low end of that range can make for a tricky dough to work with sometimes. Feel free to hold back on the water a bit if you are new to this—maybe 350g—and get a feel for it. The bread will still fry in that olive oil, so it’ll be flavorful either way.
FOURTH - If you don’t have a stand mixer, this one can be a little intimidating. If that’s the case, I would certainly drop that water content a bit. 350-375g would work great, and if you want to feel like a pro, go watch some videos of Richard Bertinet’s kneading (non-kneading?) technique—it works well with a looser dough.
