Chive, Coarse Sea Salt, EVOO Focaccia
This recipe makes two small loaves in 8" round pans or one large bread in a 9" x 12" pan. Or for pizza focaccia bake it in a half-sheet pan.
Equipment
- Digital Metric Scale
- 4 Liter food container (or bowl)
- Cover for container (or plastic wrap)
- 2 8" Round (23 cm) Cake Pans
- 1 Baking Stone, Cast Iron Skillet or a flat Baking Pan that will fit the two round cake pans
Ingredients
Bread
- 140 g Sourdough Discard 50/50 hydration (1/2 Cup) (or Biga, see notes below recipe)
- 300 grams Water 100 F / 43 C (1.25 Cups)
- 3 g Instant Yeast (1 tsp)
- 7 g Fine Sea Salt (1 tsp)
- 370-400 grams Bread Flour (2½-2¾ Cups, dependent on hydration of starter)
Topping
- 4 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil (3 T)
- 10 g Coarse Sea Salt (1 tsp)
- 10 g Chopped Chives about 1" in length (1/4 Cup)
Instructions
Scaling Ingredients
- Measure all ingredients using a metric digital scale.
Mixing
- Add sourdough discard to a 4 L container or bowl.
- Add water to the sourdough discard and stir well to create a slurry.
- Sprinkle yeast on top of the water and mix.
- Add flour and stir until hydrated. The mix will be very wet, this is okay, it firms up over several folds. Do not add the salt, yet.
Bulk Fermentation
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle dough with salt and mix it in thoroughly.Hint: I keep a bowl of water next to my container of dough. As needed, I wet my hand in the bowl, shake off excess water, and then I can cut through the dough to mix and fold it over itself without sticking. Do this several times until the salt is thoroughly mixed in.
Folding (sometimes called punching)
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. This bread requires three folds, once every 30 minutes.
Dividing
- Dump the dough onto a floured work surface.
- Divide dough in half gently so as not to knock out too much air.
Preshaping or Rounding
- Gently pull four sides of each dough piece to the center and pinch together.
- Flip dough over to pinched seams are on the bottom.
- Form a very loose ball (do not tighten the dough ball).
Bench Proofing or Resting (first rise)
- Rest 10 minutes.
- While dough is bench resting, set a sheet pan, baking stone or cast iron skillet into the oven (must be appropriately sized for the two 8" round pans to later sit flat and bake on).
- Preheat oven with sheet pan, baking stone, or cast iron skillet at 500 F degrees for 30 minutes.
Make Up & Panning
- Next, scale your topping ingredients (olive oil, coarse sea salt and chives).
- Pour half the olive oil into each of the baking pans and spread it evenly including the edges.
- Sprinkle the coarse sea salt on top of the olive oil.
- Pick up your dough ball and place it seam side down into your prepared pan.
- Turn it around clockwise until the bottom of the dough ball is well coated in olive oil and salt.
- Flip it over so seam side is now facing up.
- Using your fingers, press and stretch the dough to spread it to the edges of the pan.
Proofing (second rise)
- Cover and set dough aside to rest for 15 minutes to proof.
- Uncover. Sprinkle the top of the dough liberally with the chopped chives (or other fresh or dry herbs).
- Using your fingers, punch down any large bubbles that may have formed and randomly poke some of the chives into the dough.
Baking
- Reduce oven to 450 F degrees.
- Put the two 8" round pans with prepared focaccia on top of the hot sheet pan in the oven.Hint: This allows the oil in the bottom of the pan to heat quickly essentially "frying" the bread so bottom is crispy when bread is removed.
- Bake for 15 minutes, turn pans 180°, continue to bake 10-15 minutes longer, or until top of bread is golden and bottom is nicely browned.
- Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Cooling
- Remove bread from pan and place on a cooling rack.
- Cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
- Slice this bread in strips and serve with a plate drizzled with high quality olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mixed dry herbs, and pepper.
Storing
- Store this bread at room temperature in a plastic bag. It will lose it's crispness but focaccia toasts nicely for use the second day.
Notes
Panning Options: I have baked this bread in two types of pans: one 8" (23 cm) round pan and one 9" x 12" (25cm x 30 cm) flat pan.
Round Pan: If using a round pan, you will get a thicker and softer bread and may need to bake it for 30-35 minutes until it is golden brown.
Flat Pan: If using a flat pan your bread will be thinner and crispier. You might only need to bake this for 25-30 minutes and find that is enough time to achieve a nice golden brown color.
Round pan (thicker and softer) or Flat Pan (thinner and crispier), you decide!
Biga Prepared 24 hours in Advance (To be used in lieu of the Sourdough Discard)
Ingredients:
- 80 ml Water (1/3 Cup)
- 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast (1/4 tsp)
- 60 g Bread Flour (1/2 Cup)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Dissolve yeast in water.
- Add flour and mix until well hydrated.
- Cover and set aside for 8-24 hours.
- You will know Biga is ready for use when it is loose and bubbly.