Why you are cooking this tonight
Focaccia is the Italian flatbread that any home baker can make on a Saturday morning with no shaping, no kneading by hand, no scoring, no skill. Mix, rise, dimple, oil, rosemary, salt, bake. Twenty-five minutes later you have a crackly golden flatbread that was drunk in olive oil and looks like it came from a proper Italian bakery.
High hydration is the whole game. The dough is wet (over seventy percent hydration) and lives in the tin for its final rise. You push your oiled fingertips down hard to make the dimples, which catch olive oil and salt and turn into crispy little craters. Rosemary and flaky sea salt on top.
Notes on method
Lukewarm water – body temperature. Instant yeast, not fresh. Time matters: an overnight cold ferment gives the best flavour but a 2-hour room-temp rise still works. Generous olive oil on the tin and on top.
What to pour with it
Tuscan olive oil for dipping. A glass of vermentino or a Dal Zotto prosecco. With a bowl of soup for lunch or next to a roast lamb for Sunday dinner.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Pour in water and olive oil. Mix with a spoon until no dry flour remains.
- Cover, rest 15 min. Wet your hand, do one round of stretch and folds. Repeat twice more at 15-min intervals.
- Cover and let rise at room temp 1.5 hours until puffy and doubled. (Alternatively: refrigerate overnight then return to room temp for 1 hour before shaping.)
- Generously oil a 23x33cm baking tray. Tip dough into the tray, turn to coat both sides in oil. Gently stretch to fill tray. Cover, rest 45 min.
- Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced.
- Drizzle 2 tbsp olive oil on top. Using oiled fingertips, press down firmly through to the tin to create dimples all over.
- Scatter rosemary leaves and flaky salt across the top.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until deep golden. Cool in tin 10 min. Drizzle with extra olive oil. Cut into squares and serve warm.