Focaccia is a pretty popular bread, how does this recipe fair?

Time: 5 hours 30 minutes

Difficulty: 2/5

Ingredient Availability: 5/5

I’ve made a few focaccia in my bread making journey. I’m not sure which one is closest to authentic or traditional, but I do know what qualities I like the most. A crispy focaccia with an airy interior really hits the spot in my opinion. I haven’t made a focaccia that mixes any flavoring into it, so this recipe will be different in that aspect. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe from Italian American.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

To make this recipe, you will need to use another one of the recipes from the cookbook (which is pretty common for Italian American). That recipe is the Garlic & Chile Soffritto. With that being said, none of the ingredients are hard to find. You will need a pretty good amount of garlic and you’ll probably appreciate using a higher quality olive oil throughout.

Tools:

• Sharp Knife

• Stand Mixer

Cooking Review:

Garlic & Chile Soffritto: 22 Minutes

To make the soffritto, I started by chopping all the garlic cloves. Once they were chopped, they were added to a pan with olive oil and Calabrian chiles. This was cooked on low heat for about 7 minutes before being slightly toasted and fragrant.

Making Dough: 46 Minutes

After chopping some more garlic, I started to bloom the yeast by whisking it in the bowl of a stand mixer with some warm water and sugar. This was left to sit for 15 minutes to foam up. The oil and flour were added next and mixed on speed 7 on my sand mixer for 7 minutes. Next, I added the sofritto to the dough and mixed it in for 2 minutes. Later, I noticed I made a mistake  and added all of the sofritto instead of just a quarter cup of it. The dough was transferred to a parchment lined and oil coated pan. More olive oil was added on top and it was covered with plastic wrap.

Rise: 3 hours

The dough was left out for 3 hours to approximately double in size.

Divots and Second Rise: 48 minutes

After rising, I spread the dough out in the pan and used my finger tips to add divots. The dough was left to puff up for about 45 minutes.

Bake: 15 minutes

Before baking, I brushed a mixture of oregano, garlic, and Calabrian chiles over the top of the bread. I transferred it to the oven and baked it for 15 minutes.

Cooling: 19 minutes

I let the bread cool for 19 minutes in the pan before cutting up and giving a taste.

Analysis:

While this bread wasn’t particularly crispy as I tend to like it, the flavor really carried the experience. The olive oil was the main flavor, which was borderline buttery, perhaps because I used double the sofritto that I was supposed to. The garlic flavor was there, but I don’t think that the garlic flavor was as good as it could have been. There is some heat that builds over time thanks to the Calabrian chiles. The texture was still good despite not haven much crispiness. It made up for it with softness and a good chew. Overall, this is pretty good bread. I’ll give it an 8/10. You know what I prefer, but I wouldn’t be mad if I was served this focaccia.