Focaccia

Now, when I think of olive oil, I think of foccacia! Its in the recipe,

on the recipe, finishes the recipe, and quite frankly, the best part!

Especially because it pretty much fries the bottom, giving you that

crunch🤤 this foccacia was a bit of work, but thats because it was a x5 batch, (3.6kg of flour!!) that I then made into 3 large ones. Its easy, but boy oh boy did

my arms get a work out! I kneaded for about 18 mins the first time

round!

Recipe for 1x batch as follows:

Duration: 14 hours

720g bread flour

2 tsp dry yeast

360ml room temperature water

4 tsp salt

Pinch sugar

2 tsp Monks Lane EVOO

Toppings of choice

Mix flour and yeast, add the water and mix with wooden spoon until water is

absorbed and a rough dough forms. Add salt, sugar and another 1/4 cup water and mix until incorporated.

Add the olive oil, mix through the dough, now using your hands. Cover and rest at

room temperature for 20 mins.

Slide hands underneath the dough, lift and fold the edges of dough onto

itself. Repeat folding onto itself until it becomes a lovely smooth

dough. Rest for 90mins, until doubled in size. Its best to rest it in a warm place.

Liberally grease the bottom and sides of a large rimmed, non stick pan with olive oil. Place the risen dough on the prepared pan and press out with your fingertips, working from the centre to the edges. If the dough shrinks back from the corners, wait 10 minutes for the gluten to relax and try again.

Cover, and put your foccacia in the fridge for cold fermenting. This slows down the yeast activity, allowing the dough to develop a richer, more complex flavour, and a lighter and airier texture. It can be left in the fridge for 12 to 48 hours.

Liberally drizzle the top of the dough with olive oil. Evenly spread your topping of choice (I have pictured a rosemary, thyme and garlic foccacia, a tomato and basil, and a tomato and red onion foccacia). Make sure you rub olive oil into your toppings to prevent from burning them.

When ready to bake, pull out of the fridge and let the dough come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees celcius.

Back for 14-16 minutes, until the bottom of the foccacia is golden. Carefully slide onto a cutting board.

Serve hot, but also great at room temperature or reheated in a warm oven. Its best eaten on the day.

I like to drizzle a bit more olive oil, because I cant get enough😂

Enjoy!

The original recipe comes from The Italian Family Kitchen, by Eva Santaguida and Harper Alexander, pg 65. I have altered the fermentation time.