A Focaccia to lick ... your fingers !!!

Flour white and soft like clouds, extra virgin olive oil that has the color of gold, a pinch of salt and then the source of life par excellence, water. Mix everything together and you get a humble but tasty food that brings together all the diners at the table! A poem both in preparing it and in eating it, then if it is shared with friends during an aperitif, then there the poem is also accompanied by a string quartet.

But let's start with the serious stuff !!

Ingredients for a 20x35cm pan (4 / 5people):

- 500g type 1 flour

- 0,5gr dry brewer's yeast

- 1 pinch of sugar

- 1 small teaspoon of salt

- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

- 350 / 400ml of water at room temperature

Method

We weigh and sift 500g of flour and place it in a large bowl,

( Sifting the flour is still too underestimated !!! Sifting it helps to incorporate more air and make it softer! It also creates much less lumps during processing and the dough is easier to work and becomes much smoother ).

We combine the yeast and sugar, mix well and start pouring the water, a little at a time, reaching 200ml, ( we can help with a wooden ladle or a fork, but if like me you like to "get your hands dirty" go ahead !! ) we knead and add the salt. Pour another 150ml of water and knead again. When we get a fairly homogeneous dough, pour 2 tablespoons of liquid gold, extra virgin olive oil to understand 😜!

We knead until all lumps are eliminated and a nice smooth dough is obtained, if you prefer to obtain an even more highly hydrated dough you can easily reach 400ml of water. If raw and wholemeal flour is used, the amount of water must also be changed, as it is absorbed in a different way.

We go to work the dough for about 10 minutes, a great gym for arms and shoulders!

I usually use only one bowl for the whole process, I feel great, especially since I have less things to wash, hahaha 🤣😂🤣😂

After having worked the dough well and obtained a smooth, soft and a little sticky dough, we let it rest for about 15/20 minutes covered, I use this silicone lid , which guarantees me airtightness, because in our home the film is banned and the bowl does not have its own lid. After the time has passed, we have to pick it up and work it a little longer. We take one side, pinching it with our fingers and, stretching it, bring it to the opposite side. About 4 folds will come out. Let the dough rest for another 15/20 minutes and repeat the fold process. This procedure must be done a total of 4 times.

We grease the bowl with oil and let the dough rest in the fridge covered for 2 days (48 hours) so doing the yeast will work slowly, making the dough much more digestible. ( if you can wait, you can get up to 72 hours !! The important thing is that the flour is tough about a W250 better if W300 )

The wait will be worth the result I assure you!

If you want to prepare the focaccia for the evening it is necessary to remove it from the fridge at least at lunchtime because it must return to room temperature. After about an hour (with these temperatures half an hour is enough, I have 28 degrees inside the house) we prepare the pan, cover it with parchment paper, greasing it, and pour the dough gently more or less in the center, if you have a good non-stick pan you can directly oil the pan without using parchment paper. Now comes the part that I like the most, sink your fingertips in the dough !!! This process must be done very gently, stretching the dough slowly, so as not to compromise the bubbles created during levitation.

Once the dough is spread, sprinkle the surface with a drizzle of oil, or we can also enrich it with onions, cherry tomatoes, olives, mushrooms or whatever you like and let it rest in the oven OFF until ready for cooking.

The focaccia, in case you have put a filling that has been agglomerated in the dough, will be further leavened! If you have left it white, now add oregano or rosemary and a little salt crystals, or coarse salt, on the surface to make it even more slurpy !

Let's go cooking !!!

We preheat the convection oven to 200 degrees, when it has reached the temperature we put our focaccia in the middle of the oven and cook it for about 20/25 minutes.

To keep it super soft we put a pan with water, it will guarantee steam that will allow the focaccia to remain soft. In this case I didn't wear it because I wanted a nice crunchy surface 😉.

I just have to wish you to eat it slowly and with your eyes closed and enjoy this marvel of bread making.

We have enriched it with some vegetable stracchino, the best on the market, and you can find it here link , however we advise you to taste all their alternatives to cheese because they are better than the other, the simil burrata SPACCA !! THE CASHEWFICIO is a guarantee!

A few months ago, at a market, we met a wonderful association, Lautari, a therapeutic and recovery community, which deals with helping people with alcohol or drug addiction. At the market they were present with the products they produce, wine and extra virgin olive oil and we decided to support them by buying a bottle of wine, which we gave to my mother and her partner, and one of oil that we kept for ourselves. Both the wine and the oil were very good !!

With this focaccia we used the last drop of their oil and now ... we have to buy it back! We leave you all the information at this link , where you can learn about their history, their locations and how it is possible to support it.

I really hope you do it again and let me know how it went!

If you do it again, and you feel like it, share it on social networks and tag us !! We would love it !!

A floured hug, Sara and the Hairy Crew