It's been really few years I didn't show up here. Busy but never stopped baking. Focaccia is one of the breads I've baked almost every 2~3 days in the last 3 weeks. It's simple and goes well with about every thing I put on my dinning table and, most of all,  my family and my friends love  it. The dough I use for focaccia is pretty much similar to regular pizza dough. I actually us it for pizza as well.

Bread flour.........600g
Instant yeast.......1-1/2 tea spoons
Sugar...................2 tea spoons
Salt......................2 tea spoons
Olive oil..............2 table spoons
Water..................380 cc
Note: I shap the fermented dough to fit a 30x40 cm baking sheet and let it double. Before baking, I slight sprinkle sea salt then make pockmarks then spray rosemary and olive oil and sliced garlic evenly over the dough . Baking temperature is 200 degree C for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  

This is how I repare my focaccia before baking.

Our house was filled up with pleasant aroma during baking. That really brought up good mood.

Farlic is soft and tender.

Crispy crust plus spongy crumb.

My boy loves the bread a lot.

40 seconds in microwave helps olive oil extract fragrance from rosemary.

Beef soup we had with focaccia for dinner. Beef shank cooked with large volume of chopped celery, onion, carrot and one tomato stewed, and seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, and a cup of red wine. It made good soup itself.

Hey everyone,

I just posted a new focaccia video on our website if your interested.

http://fgpizza.com/videos_cookbake.php#Focaccia

I hope you enjoy

Frankie G - FGpizza

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=154698f919d69ec9bc1b46e4e&id=8220a92253

Hi all

Thanks for the advice from those of you who responded to my question about green cherry tomatoes to be used in focaccia.  I went ahead and used them without pre cooking, and here are the results.  I used Peter Reinhart's pain a l'ancienne dough with 30% whole wheat, then made it into a focaccia after retarding overnight.  I topped it with olive oil in which had been soaked italian herbs and two large crushed garlic cloves.  As you can see, I used up all our remaining cherry tomatoes, in varying stages or ripeness, all of which were fairly small.  The green tomatoes softened up nicely while cooking, and had a slighly sour taste in the bread, which was a nice savory twist.

After seeing http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4507/concord-grape-focaccia, I knew I had to try it, and grapes were on sale at the grocery store. It's cooling now, dinner soon!

I made Reinhart's focaccia recipe from the BBA a couple weeks ago and it turned out very well.  Interestingly, I noticed that the olive oil and water are simultaneously mixed with the flour.  I understand that fats are typically added later in the mixing process so that the gluten is given more time to form and so the fat doesn't lubricate the gluten and prevent it from forming longer strands.

Is this the typical mixing process for focaccia?  Am I right in believing that the mixing order (combined with the dough's high hydration and generous fat content) produces the tender crumb of a well-baked focaccia?  Has anyone tried a different mixing order or an autolyse with focaccia?

I've been away from The Fresh Loaf for a while. I was still baking and blogging but didn't quite have time to also update the pages here. So, I'll keep it short and sweet for few things that I baked in the past week or two. 

Ciabatta with wheat germs and olive oil (from Hamelman's Bread)

The recipe produced great tasting and chewy ciabatta. I followed the shaping method from Susan @ Wild Yeast, by not degasing the dough. This worked really well. The bread was great with potato soup with sage burnt butter.

Full post is here > http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/07/ciabatta-with-toasted-wheat-germ-and.html

Focaccia with Rosemary and Tarragon herb oil

The recipe came from Peter Reinhart's American Pie cookbook. The recipe is quite similar to Reinhart's pizza dough. The herb oil contributed to great tasting focaccia. 

Full post is here > http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/07/focaccia-with-rosemary-and-tarragon.html

Wheaty Sourdough with bulgur, wheat berries and wheat germs

It had nice texture and crunch from wheat berries, moisture and flavour from bulgur and aroma and chewiness from wheat germ. I also included a small amount of honey to bring out more wheat flavours. 

Full post is here> http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/07/wheaty-sourdough-with-cracked-wheat.html

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

Hello TFLers!

Pizza and Focaccia are both subjects near and dear to me. I have seen so very many arguments arise from the subject of how to discern one from the other, and I don't like to see my fellow TFLers consumed by the fires of wrath. We are a community, after all, and a community we shall remain forever after. If you would all be so kind as to follow along with me on this journey...

I would like to be able to claim some fair amount of impartiality in this decision, and so if you will allow me, I will open with my qualifications.

I state for posterity that I am a proud and very happy mutt, being of Mediterranean and Scandinavian descent. I believe that the Mediterranean predeliction toward passion and exuberance in all things, combined with the Scandinavian predeliction toward dispassionate objectivity, provides a somewhat rare qualification for this decision. I am passionate about food to the point that I will make a stubborn stand on where to have dinner on any given night. When I state that "bread is the staff of life" I mean that bread is that from which life itself flows. Humanity is as nothing without our ability to process food, to turn raw, edible materials into readily-accessible nutrients. Without bread, our species would be simply one among countless thousands.

My passion and background firmly established, the conclusion follows.

The difference between pizza and focaccia is twofold:

One! It is a difference in toppings. A pizza's toppings must cover all or a vast majority of the bread's surface area. A crust may be visible and readily available for gripping. The crust may be foregone in the event that the toppings are thick enough to render a crust redundant, as in the case of a "Chicago-style" pizza. A focaccia, therefore, will have the lower layer of bread readily and amply visible through its toppings, regardless of the nature of toppings or the formula from which the bread itself has been constructed.

Two! It is a difference in width. A pizza's inner crust (that portion of crust which is covered with toppings) must not ever exceed 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) in width. The focaccia, therefore, will have an inner crust with a width equal to (or nearly so) or greater than that of the outer crust (that portion of crust which is not covered with toppings). 

Thank you for your time, I love you all.

hi there ,

we are a family owned bakery for over 26 years . We are not embarking on distributing ciabatta bread. W have order hoagie pans 6 " x 3" x 1/2" . We are not sure how we are going to dispense the sticky dough into the bun pans . We would like a mechanical method to save time . Also if some can suggest , if we should supply it half baked , which perservative will be best for the shelf life. \

This is the first time we are venturing in the wholesale market. 

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

Melissa Pascal 

  As a long time reader who has learned a great deal from this site I am now here to ask for help.

For years I have regularly made focaccia using a recipe from Suzanne Dunaway’s “No need to knead’ book.

2 cups lukewarm water/I packet instant dry yeast/4 cups flour/2 teaspoons salt
Baked in a 2 inch deep baking tray at 190C for 35 minutes in a fan forced electric oven.

The batch  I made yesterday looked fine when it went into the preheated oven, it had risen  well - 2/3 way up the sides,&  looked slightly bubbly.After 35 minutes the crust was the usual golden brown, came away from the baking tin to the cooling rack cleanly, but looked much flatter than usual, and when cool I found the dough was greyish, gluey and inedible.

The flour and yeast were well within their use by dates, so I thought I had made an error with the amount of water.

I made the same recipe today - new yeast which bubbled well when tested, flour from new bag with a 2012 use by date. 
2 cups lukewarm water / mixed as per directions as usual, left to rise for 20 minutes to accommodate the instant yeast that I always use. I stand the tray on a rack inside a deep kitchen sink that has a  cover - warmish, but not hot, and draught free.

Then gently moved into the oiled tray,stretched and finger dimpled,  left to rise for 20 minutes, by which time  it was well risen and looked fine.
I checked the oven temp using two thermometers - both showed the correct temperature.
Baked for the usual time - but got the same result as before - the focaccia was only about a half inch deep [usually about 2 inches]the dough was grayish and uncooked.

Any suggestion as to why or how this is happening will be appreciated.

I've been baking bread a long time and I'm still amused by the narrow line between success and failure. I fed my sourdough starter last night in preparation for baking a (singular) rustic loaf today. When I looked at the starter early this morning it had grown to over 16 oz. by weight. Being a frugal person I decided to use all the starter and made a monster ball of dough. I blended 2 recipes, substituted and blended flour, and basically just winged it with autolyse, proofing, and shaping. I ended up with a 2 1/2 pound boule and 20 2 oz. rolls. I stayed on the right side of that fine line somehow and ended up with great looking bread and awesome crumb and taste.

And just because I like a challenge, I made a 100% whole wheat focaccia at the same time. I almost crashed and burned with getting everything in and out of the oven on time, but again I stayed on the line.

The lesson?  Learn to trust the instincts you develop through experience and have some crazy, risk-taking fun! It is a hobby, right?

Whole Wheat Focaccia

This 100% whole wheat flour recipe was adapted from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

Biga

Mix together until well blended. Cover and let stand at room temp for 12 to 16 hours.

4 oz. KAF white whole wheat flour

4 oz. water

Scant pinch of yeast

Dough

In the mixer bowl of a stand mixer add:

All the biga

9 oz. water

1 oz. orange juice

12 oz. KAF white whole wheat flour

3 Tbs Vital Wheat Gluten

Pinch of ascorbic acid

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp instant yeast 

With the paddle beater, mix on the lowest speed until dough starts to come together. It will be very wet and slack. Scrape down the paddle and add 1 to 2 Tbs water if the dough seems too dry. Mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead for 4 minutes. The dough will be very soft.

Cover and let rest in the bowl for 30 minutes. Scrape the dough onto a silicon mat and fold like an envelope length-wise and width-wise (4 folds). Return to bowl, cover, and let rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the fold process again, and let rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the fold process once more and turn out onto a parchment-lined half sheet pan. With oiled hands, press the dough outward to the pan edges. When dough stops spreading, let it rest for 10 minutes then continue pressing the dough out with your fingertips. The dough will not cover the pan - it will be approximately a 10" x 13" oval.

Cover and let rise for 30 minutes while preheating the oven to 500 degrees. I use a baking stone set in the bottom third of my oven. Uncover the dough and drizzle with olive oil. With greased fingers, gently dimple the dough. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in the pan on the stone for 18 to 20 minutes until a deep golden color.