Focaccia bread - quick and easy * ideal for guests

In these days, just before Easter, you get all these Easter-Bread "Kozonak" Recipes everywhere. And because we like to be different, you get something different from us ;)

Today from the category "from our gang " 😊 - A recipe for focaccia from my friend Christo who lives in New Zealand. Thank you, Christo! - But why the heck are you posting this on the Easter Weekend, well because Focaccia is suitable for pretty much any topping and style, I believe its ideal especially for after-easter-sandwiches with all your leftover eggs from the holidays :)

But let's get started

Focaccia is a flavored flat bread. The name comes from the Latin phrase 'panis focacius', translated as bread baked on the floor of the oven.

You can make the focaccia topping to your taste or classic with olives and rosemary

Sources on the Internet claim that the name of the Bulgarian Pogaca comes from focaccia. And in fact it's probably better that way, because otherwise a direct translation would be "baked bread" (as opposed to fried or steamed) 😉

There are no special requirements for ingredients, shaping and decorating the focaccia. The most popular versions use yeast, but focaccia can also be made with soda or sourdough. Height recommendations are from 1-2cm, up to 10cm.

For me, making focaccia is an easy way to bake flavoursome bread with ingredients available from the kitchen.

I almost always have dough in the fridge, but I don't use it every day. Sometimes I tell myself: why not bake a focaccia. I take the dough out and within an hour or two I have freshly baked bread to eat.

Instructions

For baking instructions, I'll first start with steps and ingredients that are assumed to be "best", and then I'll share what I do most often.

For the dough (focaccia for 4 people):

- 650g strong flour (high protein)

- 450g water

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp honey

- 13g coarse salt

- 7g dry yeast

Additional ingredients:

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp olive oil 1 sprig of fresh rosemary

- parmesan cheese - 50 g

- 1 tbsp crystal salt flaked

Christo recommends always having a few doughs in the fridge - just in case :)

Mix all the ingredients for the dough in a deep bowl or in your favourite spiral dough mixer. Knead and let rest. Every hour, with greased fingers, pull the edges of the dough up as far as possible and place them in the centre of the bowl when lowered. Do that 3 times. This type of kneading is applied to allow the dough to rise again and build a new, stronger internal structure.

At warmer room temperature (around 22 degrees) the dough should have risen to the edge of its capabilities within 4 hours.

Another approach is to refrigerate the dough for 24 hours immediately after kneading. This gives a more pronounced flavour.

The dough is then removed from the bowl for shaping: spread it out on the counter and fold it like a letter. That is, the 4 sides are folded in half to make a small rectangle (20x10cm). Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius.

You can also make a focaccia baking party with different shapes :)

Brush a small pan generously with olive oil (2 tbsp). Place the dough in the tray, folded side down. Cover with transparent foil and leave to rest for about 1 hour (until the oven is nicely heated).

Focaccia before baking

The relaxed dough is now treated by pressing with fingers pointing straight down to create the famous poked look of the dough. Press in this way until the dough fills the shape of the tray. Large air balloons can be deflated as desired or left for this special rustic result you might want.

Drizzle the dough generously with olive oil , sprinkle with chopped rosemary tips and sprinkle with a good amount of coarse sea salt.

Bake at 230°C for 20-25min until golden brown. Remove the focaccia immediately from the baking tray and place on a wire rack to rest. Drizzle the remaining olive oil from the baking tray over the top and brush it over. Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese.

The focaccia can be eaten after 10-15 minutes warm, or cold. Serve with a portion of good olive oil - with a few drops of balsamic vinegar for contrast - or just with some Maldon Salt Flakes f.e.

Hristo's 2 Cents

Despite enjoying a thoroughly cooked focaccia, I prefer to achieve ease of preparation at the expense of appearance. I knead dough once a week and store it in the refrigerator to rise slowly. For this I use a greased 4.5 litre tin (which holds up to 1.8kg of dough to rise), write the date of preparation on the lid and try to use it within 4 days.

A piece of focaccia with avocado is always good

Some day of the week I might decide to bake bread, pizzas or Pita. In that case, I take out an appropriate amount of dough and shape it according to the baked goods. But, if I have leftover dough after 5 or 6 days, I know it won't rise with the same force as before. In that case, I resort to baking the focaccia to make use of it. It doesn't matter what kind of dough it is (yeast or sourdough) or what the hydration percentage is.

Focaccia bread - quick and easy

My point is that we can ignore exactly how much the dough has risen. We can assume that the focaccia will rise a lot, or not at all. It may not look attractive, but it will be delicious.

Sweet or salty, even for breakfast

I make my favorite focaccia in a small pan to make it relatively tall. I sprinkle the top with tomato reached by hand (with the juice and seeds) trying to remove the skins as much as possible. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano and coarse salt. When I want to make it "guest like" I decorate with onion rings, sliced olives, whole rosemary sprigs and pepper pieces. To enrich the taste I use olive oil infused with flavors. In my opinion, focaccia should include olive oil in both the dough and the pan. It should be seasoned on top with coarse salt crystals. Additional ingredients are optional. I urge you to bake the focaccia bread with the batter you prefer: And flavor it to your taste - salty or sweet.

The best focaccias I've baked with an Aperol Spritz cocktail in hand ;)

Enjoy making this absolute classic of Italian Bakery!

We continue the "from our gang" section. If you have ideas, recipes or tests of products you have purchased from us (with photos), please contact me :) Send me an email: Bernie@furnite.bg