Focaccia

Making homemade baked goods has been a very popular hobby for many people nowadays. If this is you, then you should definitely try making this focaccia bread. This is a flatter and lighter bread, made with lots of olive oil. You can eat it just as it is or make sandwiches from it – and it’s really good to serve as a side for pasta dishes too. 

Of course, the main ingredient of focaccia is the olive oil – so it is very important to use a good quality olive oil to make this bread. So, for this recipe, we have used Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil, provided to us by one of our partners, Sosun Fihaara. The Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil has a rich and vibrant taste of olives, making it great to use in pastas, salads, and sauces.

Serving size: 4-5

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water (at room temperature)
• 4.5g dry active yeast
• ¾ tsp sugar
• 2 ¼ cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil (to fold into the dough)
• 2 tbsp Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil (to grease the pan)
• 1 tsp Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil (for stretching the dough)
• ¼ tsp salt (to sprinkle on top of the dough)
• ½ tsp garlic granules  
• 30 fresh oregano leaves
• 1 sprig of rosemary (only the leaves)
• 8 sprigs of thyme (only the leaves)

Instructions

1. To a small glass or pitcher, add 1 ¼ room temperature cup water along with 4.5g dry active yeast and ¾ tsp sugar. Mix until the yeast dissolves and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Then, sift 2 ¼ cup flour and 1 tsp salt to a bowl. Mix well and add in ½ tsp dried oregano and ½ tsp rosemary. Give it another mix.
3. Now, pour the yeast mixture you prepared earlier into the flour mixture and mix using your hands until it forms a sticky wet dough. Add 1 tbsp Ondoliva Olive Pomace Oil to the dough and mix until the oil is fully incorporated into the dough. Cover the bowl with a cloth or food wrap and leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes. The dough will rise a little bit during this time.
4. After the dough is fully rested, soak your hands in clean water and grab the sides of the dough and fold them into the centre. To prevent sticking, it’s best to soak your hands in water after every fold. Stretching the dough like this will help for the gluten to develop, resulting in an airy bread.
5. Then, lift the dough from its centre and slap it into the bowl a couple of times. This will create air bubbles in the dough. Cover the bowl again and let it rest for another 30 minutes. The dough will rise a little bit again during resting time as well.
6. To bake the dough, first grease a baking tray of 8×8-inches with 2 tbsp olive oil and put the dough in.
7. Then, reach under the dough, lift, and fold it in. Rotate the tray to 90 degrees (for the right or left side to face you) and repeat it three more times.
8. Once folded in, pull the dough towards the edges of the tray to make it more even. The dough will be a bit hard to stretch and have air bubbles in it at this point. Then, cover the tray and let the dough rise for 30 minutes again.
9. After resting, drizzle 1 tsp olive oil and sprinkle ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp garlic granules on top of the dough. Poke the top of the dough using your fingers to make dimples on top. This will help to prevent the dough from rising too quickly and collapsing during baking, while also creating pockets to hold the toppings.
10. Then, sprinkle 30 fresh oregano leaves, leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary and leaves from 8 sprigs of thyme on top.
11. Preheat the oven at 230 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
12. Then, bake the focaccia for 20 minutes at 230 degrees Celsius, until the top turns golden brown in colour and becomes crispy.
13. Once baked, remove the focaccia from the oven and let it cool down for a few minutes before slicing. When you cut into it, the top of the bread should make a crackling sound and have open air bubbles on the inside. Dip into some olive oil and enjoy!