“If you want to fill your kitchen with the smell of fresh-baked bread but you’re nervous about shaping a boule or working with a starter, focaccia is the best place to begin.”
– Sarah Jampel, Basically
Basically’s Better Baking Challenge started around February and was a 10 week challenge that went through the beginning of quarantine. The idea of making an entire loaf of focaccia for just myself and my husband seemed silly (Now I know I could’ve frozen half for later). I finally found an excuse to make focaccia for a night at a friends house to add to a full cheese and snack board (don’t worry there were only 7 of us). Anyway, the bread was insanely easy to make, absolutely delicious, and I hope everyone tries it out at least once!
See below for some things to note when making this bread.
First of all, I recommend heading over to Basically’s instagram account, and watch the “BB: Focaccia” video to see how Sarah explains the recipe.
Once I made the dough, I let it rise for 15 hours. The dough had definitely risen a lot, but potentially could’ve risen more if it rested for the full 24 hours. I scraped the dough out of the bowl onto my buttered/oiled sheet pan still in the shape of a dough ball on the pan as I didn’t want to disturb the dough too much. After two hours of a second rise, the dough had not spread out very well in the pan. So, I pushed my fingers throughout the dough to stretch it as close to the full length of the pan as I could. I then let the dough set again for two hours in the oven with the light on. It had finally expanded throughout the entire pan and was fairly jiggly.
I believe the reason the dough hadn’t spread very much was because it was still very cold from rising in the fridge. All this to say, provide extra time for the dough to rise fully (24-36 hours) in the fridge, and pre-spread the dough out on a baking sheet if not using the 13×9 pan to let it completely “defrost.”
Otherwise, follow all of the directions Sarah Jampel provided in the recipe linked and pasted below.
Enjoy!
Shockingly Easy No-Knead Focaccia
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ¼-oz. envelope active dry yeast (about 2¼ tsp.)
- 2 tsp. honey
- 5 cups (625 g) all-purpose flour
- 5 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 Tbsp. Morton kosher salt
- 6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for hands
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more for pan
- Flaky sea salt
- 2–4 garlic cloves
INSTRUCTIONS
Whisk one ¼-oz. envelope active dry yeast (about 2¼ tsp.), 2 tsp. honey, and 2½ cups lukewarm water in a medium bowl and let sit 5 minutes (it should foam or at least get creamy; if it doesn’t your yeast is dead and you should start again—check the expiration date!).
Add 5 cups (625 g) all-purpose flour and 5 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 Tbsp. Morton kosher salt and mix with a rubber spatula until a shaggy dough forms and no dry streaks remain.
Pour 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil into a big bowl that will fit in your refrigerator. This puppy is going to rise! Transfer dough to bowl and turn to coat in oil. Cover with a silicone lid or plastic wrap and chill until dough is doubled in size (it should look very bubbly and alive), at least 8 hours and up to 1 day. If you’re in a rush, you can also let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size, 3–4 hours.
Generously butter a 13×9″ baking pan, for thicker focaccia that’s perfect for sandwiches, or an 18×13″ rimmed baking sheet, for focaccia that’s thinner, crispier, and great for snacking. The butter may seem superfluous, but it’ll ensure that your focaccia doesn’t stick. Pour 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil into center of pan. Keeping the dough in the bowl and using a fork in each hand, gather up edges of dough farthest from you and lift up and over into center of bowl. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat process. Do this 2 more times; you want to deflate dough while you form it into a rough ball. (We learned this technique from Alexandra Stafford, who uses it to shape her no-knead bread.) Transfer dough to prepared pan. Pour any oil left in bowl over and turn dough to coat it in oil. Let rise, uncovered, in a dry, warm spot (like near a radiator or on top of the fridge or a preheating oven) until doubled in size, at least 1½ hours and up to 4 hours.
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 450°. To see if the dough is ready, poke it with your finger. It should spring back slowly, leaving a small visible indentation. If it springs back quickly, the dough isn’t ready. (If at this point the dough is ready to bake but you aren’t, you can chill it up to 1 hour.) Lightly oil your hands. If using a rimmed baking sheet, gently stretch out dough to fill (you probably won’t need to do this if using a baking pan). Dimple focaccia all over with your fingers, like you’re aggressively playing the piano, creating very deep depressions in the dough (reach your fingers all the way to the bottom of the pan). Drizzle with remaining 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Bake focaccia until puffed and golden brown all over, 20–30 minutes.
Hold off on this last step until you’re ready to serve the focaccia: Melt 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Peel and grate in 2–4 garlic cloves with a Microplane (use 2 cloves if you’re garlic-shy or up to 4 if you love it). Return to medium heat and cook, stirring often, until garlic is just lightly toasted, 30–45 seconds. (Or, if you prefer raw garlic to toasted garlic, you can grate the garlic into the hot butter, off heat, then brush right away.)
Brush garlic-butter all over focaccia and slice into squares or rectangles.
Do Ahead: Focaccia is best eaten the day it’s made, but keeps well in the freezer. Slice it into pieces, store it in a freezer-safe container, then reheat it on a baking sheet in a 300° F oven.
It’s time to eat, enjoy!
Let me know how the recipe turned out for you in the comments below!
Trial & Eggs 