Focaccia in two ways!

16 Feb

Written By Sam

I LOVE a good focaccia (as does as least one of my friends). I usually make a sourdough focaccia because I love the gorgeous bubbly, soft and crispy texture of a sourdough focaccia. But a friend from work recently asked me for a yeasted focaccia recipe, so I decided to develop side-by-side, and equivalent sourdough and yeasted focaccia recipe!

I have written the two recipes together side-by-side so you can easily see the differences. Both recipes will make approximately a ~22x30cm focaccia that is ~5cm thick.

The yeasted recipe will be slightly faster than a sourdough focaccia, but what you make up in time, you lose in flavour…

Sourdough focaccia ingedients:

330g water
400g strong white bread flour
120g active sourdough starter
1.5 tsp honey/barley malt syrup
13g finely ground salt
1 tsp olive oil

Yeasted focaccia ingredients:

390g water

460g strong white bread flour
11g fast action yeast
1.5 tsp honey/barley malt syrup
12g finely ground salt
1 tsp olive oil

Method for both:

In a large bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the flour and salt until well-combined. Tip in the flour and mix to a rough dough with your hand like a paddle. No need to overmix, just make sure all the dry spots are gone, and the dough has a uniform consistency.

Method for both:

Cover with clingfilm/damp towel/showercap/linen bowl cover and leave to rest for 30-40mins.

Once rested, sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough, followed by ~1.5tsp of water. Keeping the dough in the bowl and using a stretch and fold technique followed by some gentle mixing with your hand held like a paddle, ensure that the salt is well mixed into the dough. Cover again and leave to rest for ~2hrs.

Method for both:

Line a ~25 x 35cm oven proof dish/tray, that is ~4-5cm deep, with baking paper and drizzle ~2tsp of olive oil over the baking paper.

Remove the cover from your rested dough and drizzle ~2 TBSP olive oil over the surface of the dough. Gently fold it through the dough without knocking all the air out. Some deflation is fine!

Scoop the dough in one ‘blob’ out of the bowl and place it in the centre of the lined baking dish. Very gently encourage it slightly out towards the corners as this will help ‘train’ it where to rise.

Method for sourdough:

Cover the dish with a large, inflated plastic bag and leave to rise for 3-5 hrs until it has risen by ~75%, nearly filled the base of the dish, and some air bubbles are visible.

Method for yeasted:

Cover the dish with a large, inflated plastic bag and leave to rise for 1.5-2 hrs until it has filled the base of the dish, and nearly doubled in size.

Method for both:

Preheat your oven to 230C (~220C fan).

Remove the plastic bag cover from the dish and drizzle 2-3 TBSP of olive oil over the surface of the dough. Using your fingers, firmly ‘dimple’ the olive oil into the dough over the entire surface. You may want to rub some olive oil on your hands first to stop the dough from sticking to your fingers.

Method for both:

Add your toppings (if you want). I like chopped cherry tomatoes marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs, salt and black pepper, but you can do olives, figs, rosemary and salt, roasted butternut or pesto. If you want to add cheese, I suggest placing it on 15mins into the bake to stop it from burning.