Fucking Foolproof Focaccia

This is it.

Few simple foods have been more convoluted, overengineered, gate kept and fucked up by recipe writers on the internet. I present to you - a foolproof focaccia that works, every time, requires no overnights or cold proofs, bakes airy with a nice crumb, rises and doesn’t fall, and lends itself to adjuncts, toppings, and a variety of post bake uses - from bread bread to crostini, sandwich bread and sfincione.

Before we get into it - this recipe is designed for a 4inch hotel pan, because I am a restaurant rat. If you don’t own a hotel pan, you need to buy one - it’s the optimal baking vessel just like a deli container is the elite water glass. You get 12-14 real nice sandwiches out of this batch or 16-18 nice chunks for bread service. The pan is about 12” by 24”, so if you don’t have that, it’s going to be okay - two square 12” pans will work just fine, so will something slightly smaller or bigger. So long as the dough covers the whole pan’s bottom without too much stretching, you’re going to be fine. I do not recommend using glass here - your crust won’t crust - but a cast iron skillet or hotel pan will work. You’ll also need a kitchen scale.

It’s important that your pan is at least 2-3 inches tall, so you get that towering rise and it has stability in the oven. I know a lot of folks stan the thin, chewy focaccia variant. I love that for you! I want pillowy, squishy, crusty focaccia, one I can slice in half and eat a meatball sandwich off of. That’s this. Let’s get it.

This recipe is for my black garlic focaccia, so it’s the base recipe with some instruction for adjuncts. I sold well over fifty pieces of this at a remote Northern Michigan pop up I just cooked, and the set included calabrian chili butter and some radish crudité. The base recipe remains the same, and there’s some other components depending on how much you love yourself.

Base focaccia | bakes one 12x24 hotel pan, tall. 3 hours.

1600g all-purpose flour

60g coarse salt

20g activated yeast

1200g warm, not hot, water

120g olive oil

30g honey

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Black garlic adjuncts | per one base recipe

2 heads black garlic, peeled, chopped into pencil top eraser sized pieces

1/2 cup fresh rosemary, chopped fine but not too fine

2tbsp fresh thyme, stripped

2tbsp fresh sage, chopped

1/4 cup roasted garlic, squished in your fingers to lil’ bits*

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Confit garlic | choose your own quantity

Place desired quantity of garlic cloves into oven-safe vessel. Cover with olive oil and herbs of choice. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 400 until fragrant and garlic is squishable. Remove tinfoil and bake for fifteen more minutes to allow some browning. Strain oil and reserve.

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1. By now, your kitchen is smelling fucking fantastic. Set your oven to 450. Grab a big bowl and measure in your flour and salt, mixing together with a whisk or a fork to distribute. If you’re using adjuncts here, add black garlic and herbs now. Rub around to coat the black garlic and express some of the herb oils - try not to destroy the black garlic in this process.

2. Combine water, yeast, and honey, in that order, and set somewhere warm - on the stove or near it, or if you’re on the line, the piano above the range/flat top. The happy place. Slosh the honey around with a fork to get the party started and let it froth for ten minutes or so. There will be a thick, foamy layer on the surface of the water.

3. Measure out your olive oil and reserve - I like to use the leftover garlic oil, but you can use it right out of the bottle. If you buy shitty olive oil, this recipe may be the reason you get right with god and stop - you’ll taste it.

4. When your water is nice and frothy, slowly pour it over the surface of the flour/salt mixture, followed by the olive oil. This is an important step: slosh around with your fingers rather than kneading with closed fists. Spread your fingers out and use them sort of like a pitchfork - rigid and only there to hydrate the flour while incorporating the oil. Prior to kneading the dough, grab your roasted garlic and squish it in your hands, the incorporate into your dough. Knead here minimally - we just want the flour hydrated, not too compacted or overworked. As soon as a doughball comes together in the bowl, and you flip it over once or twice to make sure you didn’t leave any huge swaths of flour, you’re done. Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil around the edge of the bowl (it’l drip down around the sides of the dough), cover with plastic real tight (and make sure the plastic doesn’t touch the dough), and set in a warm place until it doubles in size. This will take between 45 minutes to an hour depending on how warm your spot is.

5. Grab your hotel pan and pour in about two tablespoons of olive oil. Rub it around and cover every inch of interior pan, including the sides. Some will pool at the bottom - this is good- crusty!

6. Once your dough has doubled (or tripled, whatever), gently tip your bowl into your hotel pan. The dough should fall/slide right in without any encouragement from you. Should any chunks be left at the bottom, oil your fingies up and coax them off the bowl and into the dough chunk in the hotel pan.

7. With both hands rubbed with olive oil, very gently stretch the dough outward just until it touches all of the sides of your hotel pan. The dough will be very elastic and friendly at this point, and it’ll let you stretch it without tearing - you just have to be gentle and kind. Incredibly gently, dimple the top of your dough baby with your fingertips - don’t touch the bottom of the pan. This is the pre-bake pep talk. Immediately cover the pan and return to the warm place until it rises, again, about double its size - about the same time as the original proof.

8. By now, your pillow baby should be nice and fluffy - it’ll lose some dimpling and for this recipe, that’s what we like. Drizzle a touch of olive oil over the top, sprinkle your salt, and pop in the oven.

9. Set your timer for forty minutes and place your pan somewhere near the middle of your oven. We’ll be looking for a golden brown crust. A plain loaf will cook faster than an adjunct loaf - the added moisture of our roasted garlic will yield doughy pockets if pulled too soon. When your fingernail can make an audible tap against the upper crust, it’s ready - the degree of brown is up to you.

10. Let your focaccia rest and cool for thirty minutes to an hour before you attempt to liberate her from the pan, or else she’ll crack. Turn it out onto a counter or cutting board once the bottom of the pan is cool - when fully cool, wrap super tight in plastic wrap to prevent from drying/going stale.

And that’s it - you’ve just made a focaccia that has paid my rent for a while now and maybe it’ll pay yours, too. Some fun variations include subbing 50g of flour for 50g panko breadcrumbs, adding cut up figs or olives, or baking in halved cherry tomatoes.

If you make this, tell me how it goes! It’s one of my most requested recipes and I hope you enjoy it. I can’t eat gluten anymore, so have an extra bite for me!

BIG LOVE

A