Dimuzio's focaccia question

Hi,

the other day i tried Dimuzio's focaccia from his wonderful book. Everybody loved it, myself included, but i would like to make it a little more to my taste next time.

First, being italian, it is not the typical focaccia found in my country (and supposedly the 'original', if this means anything); it's usually made with a lower hydration, baked somewhat thinner and with smaller holes in the dough. I see this one is more in line with the recipes from other american books, so it's probably the way they make it there; no problem though, i think it's lovely, if a little too 'bready'.

My real concern was regarding the crust: too tough for my taste. I really like focaccia's crust to almost fall apart when  you bite it, and this one, while not extremely crunchy, was definitely 'there' to bite on. I was surprised considering that the recipe has a full 10% olive oil in the dough...

Could this be because i used a too strong a flour? Can it even be because i built too much strength trough folding?

Here's waht i used and what i did:

The biga was made entirely with a professional pizza flour, W280, 12,5% protein. Final dough had some (40% of total flour) higher extraction flour, W190, 12% protein, the rest the same pizza flour used in the biga.

I used the short mix method, slow speed for 15 min., then folded 4 times at 15 minutes interval (he suggests to fold it 4 or 5 times). After 4th folding, the dough really stayed together and was manageable, so i stopped there. Left ferment for a total of 3 hours. Then i followed his directions for dividing, panning and baking. Baking directions felt spot on, with the focaccia turning in color perfectly in time.

Amazing was the taste and smell of it, so my only concern is the toughness of the crust; any suggestion would be highly appreciated, so next time i will have some ideas to apply and see if i can get it as i want it.

Best,

Daniele.