PrintI want a soft focaccia bread recipe
I've made focaccia bread many times and always thought it turned out pretty well. However, my husband wants a softer, moister one like the focaccia they have at Biaggi's restaurant ( a chain, but so excellent!). Theirs has bits of caramelized onions in the dough and is just ever so slightly browned on top and bottom. It seems slightly sweeter than my standard recipe, which I can fix with additional sugar, and does not have the usual sea salt and rosemary on top either. Does anyone have a recipe for a focaccia that sounds similar to the one I am describing? The recipes I normally use are from Nick Malgierri's How to Bake or WS Bread and I believe them to be quite traditional Italian recipes.
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12 Comments:
I think what you want is what I call sheet pan focaccia. I usually make this for sandwiches, or to go with winter soups.
.5 t yeast*
10 oz bread flour
10 oz pastry flour
1¼ t salt
1 cup water (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
¼ cup olive oil
1 T fresh rosemary**
Add milk, water and yeast in mixing bowl. Let sit until dissolved. Add oil and half of flour. Mix with paddle attachment. Add remaining flour slowly, still using the paddle, until dough starts to become stiff. Change to the hook attachment and mix about 5 minutes longer at a decent speed.
Put in covered container in fridge overnight, dough should at least double in volume before it's ready to use.
Punch down once and shape into rough rectangle, let relax until workable. Repeat until the dough is sheet pan size.
Put in a parchment lined sheet pan with an extender (spray or oil inside of extender and parchment). After putting dough in sheet pan brush with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. Let sit until doubled in height.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn heat down to 350 and make another 15-20 minutes. Let cool in pan for five minutes and then transfer to rack.
* yeast amount varies depending on the type and speed of yeast.
** Olives or other herbs can be substituted for the rosemary in this recipe. Olives (about 1 cup coarsely chopped) can be added during the last minute of mixing.
Photos 12-16 here, are of said focaccia.
Cheers.
macluddite at 9:22PM on 04/05/08
The more olive oil you press into the dough the more moist it will be.
Also carmelize your onions in more olive oil and some butter. Then press them in as well. hold back on anything dry on the bread till its coming out of the oven like grated cheese or salt. Be careful of how much oil an oil slick will prevent the bread from expanding and it will just spread and pool.
JerzeeTomato at 10:07PM on 04/05/08
I use Italian Cooking and Living.com 's Basic Foccacia recipe. You can make it in the food processor, and it turns out perfect every time.
http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/recipes/archive/3164-Basic-Focaccia,cs=,cc=2,ps=,pt=nc,.html
Sorry that you'll have to cut and paste, I'm a little behind on how to post a link. This recipe is good to add herbs and veggies to.
beth1 at 11:07PM on 04/05/08
The whole point of focaccia is that chewy crust. ((Shrugs))
One possible option is to take a good, trusted recipe and make the focaccia a little thicker, in a deeper pan.
chiff0nade at 7:48AM on 04/06/08
Milk! Doesn't milk tenderize things?? If frederika used milk as part of the recipe, wouldn't that yield the more tender product desired??
chiff0nade at 8:53AM on 04/06/08
Thank you everyone so much for the recipes and suggestions. I'm going to try one today, along with asparagus/herb risotto and salad.
@beth1- thank you for the link to the Italian Cooking site. I think it will be a great resource for so many things.The caramelized onion version is something I might be able to work with.
I guess I'm really trying to clone the restaurant focaccia, and theirs has chopped caramelized onions incorporated in the dough, not just on top. I'm sure that adds to the moistness and sweeter flavor of the bread, as well.
@macluddite - I'm just a bit confused by the measurement of yeast. Is .5 t. about a third of a teaspoon? BTW, those are beautiful photos - are they your own?
@chiff - I know, know....sigh... The SO isn't even very fond of crispy, crusty baguettes and artisan breads. I guess he just has kind of a tender palate. One time when I was playing around with my new oven I tried my standard Italian loaf on convection setting. I was most dissapointed because the exterior was softer. He was a very happy guy. He consumed the whole loaf himself.
frederika at 9:26AM on 04/06/08
That's a decimal point, meaning 0.5 of a teaspoon, or five-tenths, which means a half. Two and a half milliliters if you're doing metric.
lemons at 10:59AM on 04/06/08
Try Emeril's recipe for Caramelized Onion Foccacia on the FN.
soirees at 3:42PM on 04/06/08
I make focaccia bread ALL THE TIME. You probably have your own basic recipe, but I've found that the key to making it extra moist is letting it do its first rise in a metal bowl completely coated in olive oil. Make sure the dough is well coated also. When you let it rise the second time, spread it out on your cookie sheet, do all of those lovely indentations with your finger tips and then drizzle it again with olive oil. The oil tastes excellent and it seeps into all of those nooks and cranny's you just made. It's moist and delicious.
PumpkinBear at 9:15PM on 04/06/08
I have been using the recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
I like the recipe b/c you make a large batch and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to use.
http://wwws.dinnersforayear.blogspot.com
eatmyfood at 9:46PM on 04/06/08
Try the Wednesday Chef's Focaccia di Patate - delicious!
http://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2008/01/focaccia-di-pat.html
mainegirl at 7:52AM on 04/08/08
Rosemary Tomato Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
1 10 oz. tube refrigerated pizza crust
1/4 C. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs. fresh rosemary, crushed
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced
1/4 C. Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 C. minced fresh parsley
Directions
Roll out pizza crust and place on a greased baking sheet. Combine olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and 1 Tbs. of rosemary and spread over pizza crust. Top with remaining rosemary, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and parsley and bake for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 12:21PM on 04/08/08