If anyone is looking for a great focaccia recipe, here it is.

[Vinca]

This is Christopher Kimball's recipe from Milk Street and it's a very weird recipe with lots and lots of olive oil. But it's addictive. Follow the recipe as it's written and you won't be disappointed. I didn't have the kind of olives they call for so I substituted green olives stuffed with blue cheese. I've made this 3 times so far and it came out perfectly every time. I kind of ignore the rising of the dough since it goes so long and had a funny experience last weekend. I was out working in the garden and my husband came out and told me the dough had gone over the sides of the bowl. It's been really hot and humid here and I guess that's perfect for this recipe. We moved it into a bigger bowl and just let it go for a few hours more and it was to die for.

https://www.mastercook.com/app/Recipe/WebRecipeDetails?recipeId=21815740


Oops - I just checked the link and all it gives is the ingredients without the directions. Sorry. Guess you have to go to Milk Street and log in with your email for the whole thing.

[sanatanadharma]

1. More information

I have accessed the pages without creating an account.
This link also gave me pictures and instructions. https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/tomato-olive-focaccia#overview
What follows is cut and paste.

This recipe recreates the light, open-crumbed focaccia we ate in Bari, Italy. To achieve that texture, the dough must be wet—so wet, in fact, it verges on a thick, yet pourable batter. Resist the temptation to add more flour than is called for. Shaping such a sticky, high-hydration dough by hand is impossible. Instead, the dough is gently poured and scraped into the oiled baking pan; gravity settles it into an even layer. If you have trouble finding Castelvetrano olives, substitute any large, meaty green olive.

Don't disturb the dough during its rise. And when transferring the dough to the baking pan, handle it gently. The goal is to retain as much gas in the dough as possible so the focaccia bakes up with an airy texture. Don't use a baking dish made of glass or ceramic; neither will produce a crisp, browned exterior, and glass is not safe to use in a 500°F oven.

To slice the baked focaccia for serving, use a serrated knife and a sawing motion to cut through the crust and crumb without compressing it. If desired, serve with extra-virgin olive oil for dipping. For convenience, the dough can be prepared and transferred to the baking pan a day in advance. After it has settled in the pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The next day, prepare the toppings. Uncover, top the dough with the olives and tomatoes and let stand at room temperature for 45 minutes, then finish and bake as directed.

[Vinca]

2. Thanks. I was going to go back and try to fix my mess when I had a few minutes.

The recipe was featured in this year's series and it's now my all time Milk Street favorite.

[WHITT]

3. From Chef Ed Cotton

He worked in Italy, and here worked under Daniel Boulud, Laurent Tourondel and David Burke. He's a 'Top Chef' alum, and is currently the executive chef of 'Sotto 13' in New York.

You need to be able to weigh the ingredients, that's the way the pros calculate ingredients for any type of bread recipe, eliminating discrepancies involving humidity, sifted/un-sifted flour, etc. Plus he utilizes a convection oven. Obviously you can substitute different toppings.

Focaccia

1895g flour
1438g water
38g salt
20g yeast
15g sugar
188g olive oil

Toppings: chopped rosemary and sea salt


Add warm water to yeast, oil and sugar. Place in mixing bowl and let yeast activate. When activated add flour and mix. When almost incorporated add your salt. Mix until well kneaded. Scale out dough to 1400g per well-oiled 1/2 size sheet pan. Spread the dough to the edges and let proof. Sprinkle sea salt and fresh chopped rosemary over the top of the proofed focaccia then bake on high fan at 375F for 12-15 minutes or until fully cooked. (Note) Rotate the bread in the oven half way thru the cooking process.

[Pobeka]

4. Made it yesterday -- it was awesome. Could've been in Rome :-)

I topped it with a mix of tomato, sun dried tomato, grated parmisan and basil.

Also, I hand mixed it, if you know how to handle a wet dough -- just wet your hand and fold the dough, turn the bowl, fold the dough, turn the bowl...

Oh, and I put it in a sheet cake pan instead of a 9x13 pan, made for a focaccia that is about 1 inch thick. Yum!

Thanks!

[Vinca]

5. Sun dried tomatoes sound perfect for this. I'm going to use fresh basil from the garden

next time instead of oregano and throw on a little grated parm or asiago. I love the way it makes a crunchy bottom crust.

[Pobeka]

6. Next time I'll make it with dried basil.

We found the sun dried tomatoes were so strong we could hardly taste the basil, and I used a fair amount of fresh basil that I put on immediately after bringing it out of the oven.