Focaccia

A wet oily dough dimpled under salted water, so the holes stay open.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 375 ml water
• 7 g dried yeast
• 10 g salt
• 80 ml olive oil
• 100 ml warm water, for the brine
• 1 teaspoon salt, for the brine
• a sprig of rosemary
• flaky sea salt

Method

1. Mix the flour, water, yeast and salt and leave 30 minutes, then fold in half the oil.
2. Fold the dough in the bowl four times at 30 minute intervals, as for a ciabatta. It is too wet to knead.
3. Oil a deep tray generously, tip the dough in, and spread it gently to the corners with oiled hands. Prove 1 hour.
4. Mix the brine. PUSH YOUR FINGERS RIGHT THROUGH TO THE TRAY all over the dough, then pour the brine into the dimples.
5. The brine is what keeps them: dimples pressed into dry dough spring back as it proves, and dimples full of salt water stay open and crisp at the edges.
6. Press the rosemary in, scatter flaky salt and the rest of the oil, and prove another 45 minutes.
7. Bake at 220C for 22 to 25 minutes until deep gold, with pools of oil still in the dimples.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes