Raisin focaccia from Peter Reinhart's Pizza book
This weekend I baked Peter Reinhart's raisin focaccia from his pizza book. I was intrigued with this recipe, since many on this site have created variations using a sourdough starter. To keep it simple, I decided to make the recipe as stated in the book, thinking that I might make the sourdough variation some other time. I made some small mistake making the recipe, since I at first did not understand how I was supposed to spread the dough into the pan, but otherwise I was true to the recipe. The recipe calls for halving the basic focaccia dough, and adding soaked raisins and some extra flour after the raisins and all their soaking liquid is added. I had exactly the size pan called for.
Here is what happened- The recipe called for setting the oven to 500 degrees, turning down to 450 and baking for 20 min and then turning the pan around and baking for another 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes the focaaccia was completely brown and done. There is no way this recipe could bake for 40 minutes. I want to know if this is a known error in his book, or if anyone has had a different experience with it than I.
At least I saved it in time, and it was pretty good anyway!
Hi Caryn,
I love raisin focaccia, and I do a sourdough version that is posted in my blog, if you want to see another sample recipe.
In the BBA, PR has a poolish focaccia recipe. There he specifies that you preheat the oven to 500F, then drop the temperature to 450F when you put the pan in the oven. He then says to bake for 10 minutes, rotate, and bake 5-10 minutes more.
I typically bake my sourdough raisin focaccia for about 9 minutes, then rotate and bake for 4-6 more minutes. I tend not to like it overbaked, but it could be baked a few minutes more. I agree that you would probably begin to burn the crust after much more than 20 minutes at 450F.
Bill
Bill- thank you for your quick response! I wonder if Peter Reinhart has published any errata for his books. I think the baking time for raisin focaccia is certainly an error. If the foccacia in his other book bakes for a much briefer time, then certainly a sweet version could not bake longer.