Italian Focaccia Bread | Tuscan Home Cookbook, Crispy Outside and Soft Inside

in the days of living in Florence, what I couldn't give up most was not the complicated Italian pizza or the exquisite tiramisu, but the street shops and family tables everywhere. Focaccia (Focaccia). This Italian national bread is not hard and tough as European bread, nor is it greasy as sweet bread. With full olive oil, fresh rosemary and light garlic fragrance, it makes a crisp and soft taste on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It is not only an excellent choice for breakfast with coffee, but also a versatile staple food for lunch and afternoon tea to relieve hunger. It is also a delicious fireworks baked by Tuscan families. No need to knead the hand set film, no complicated tools, kitchen novice can easily re-carve, at home can unlock the authentic Italian country flavor.

Many people confuse Focuson with thick-bottomed pizza, but the two are very different. Focaccia is a pure home-cooked bread, featuring olive oil aroma and soft pores. It does not thicken heavy stuffing. It only uses herbs, garlic and coarse salt to improve its flavor. Its taste is fluffy and moist. It is the basic staple food for Italians' daily belly and catering. Especially the Tuscan version is simple and authentic. It completely restores the original taste of Italian home-cooked bread. Whether it is hot or sliced after cooling, it has its flavor.

First, I 'd like to introduce myself to you. I am Luca Rossi, male, born on August 12, 1988, native of Tuscany, learned to make Italian home baking from his grandmother on a family farm in the suburbs of Florence. Now he works as a lecturer in a local baking studio and shares Italian home baking recipes with zero failure in aifoodnews. My main hit minimal ingredients, homely steps, novice without threshold the Italian traditional formula rejects the harsh requirements of professional baking. It can be easily handled by hand without a chef's machine. The mantra is "good Focaccia depends on olive oil and patient fermentation". I prefer pure wheat flavor and olive oil flavor, which is against fancy improvement. Each recipe is an old-fashioned practice inherited by my grandmother. It is suitable for small kitchen at home. Even if it is baking white, it can be successful according to the steps.

When I first taught myself how to bake Focaccia, I also stepped on many common pits for novices. At first, I thought it was OK to knead dough and ferment it casually. As a result, the bread made was dry and hard, with no fluffy pores at all. Either the surface was scorched and the inside was wet and sticky, or there was no strong olive oil aroma, and it tasteless. Later, following my grandmother's step-by-step study, I found out the core of the success of Focaccia: the water temperature should be moderate, the fermentation should be given enough time, the olive oil should be sufficient, and the baking temperature should be high enough. These points should be well controlled, and the authentic Focaccia with crisp outside and soft inside can be made on a zero basis.

🍞Tuscan homely Focaccia complete ingredient formula (6-8 portions)

dough main ingredients]

• high gluten flour: 400g (protein content 12%-13%, high gluten flour is preferred, and the taste is more fluffy)
• warm water: 300ml (water temperature is about 35 ℃, hands feel warm and not hot, the key to activate yeast)
• dry yeast: 5g (fresh yeast can be changed to 15g, baking powder can be used instead of yeast powder, with high fault tolerance rate)
• extra virgin olive oil: 40ml (for dough, authentic Italian style must be extra virgin, with stronger aroma)
• fine salt: 8g (taste balance, don't put less, otherwise the bread is weak)
• white granulated sugar: 5g (to help yeast activate, not much, only to assist fermentation)

[surface decoration ingredients (soul core)]]

• extra virgin olive oil: 20ml (brush the surface, enough to have crisp edges)
• fresh rosemary: 2-3 sprigs (dry rosemary can be used as a substitute for fresh rosemary)
• garlic: 3-4 cloves (thinly sliced, not grilled, fragrant but not bitter)
• coarse Sea Salt: a touch (more layered than fine salt, the signature flavor of Italian Focaccia)
• optional: sliced small tomatoes, black olives (classic Tuscan match, can maintain the original flavor without adding)

👩🍳Detailed step-by-step approach (hand kneading/cook machine universal, novice zero failure)

step 1: Activate yeast and lay a good fermentation foundation

take a large bowl, pour warm water at about 35 ℃, add dry yeast and 5g white granulated sugar, stir gently, and let stand for 5-8 minutes. Wait until fine foam appears on the water surface, indicating that the yeast is successfully activated. This step is the key to fluffy bread. If there is no foam, indicating that the yeast is invalid, the yeast must be replaced before continuing to prevent the dough from failing.

Step 2: Knead the dough without kneading the film

in the activated yeast water, add 40ml extra virgin olive oil and fine salt, stir evenly, add high gluten flour in several times, stir with a spatula into flocculent, and then knead. Focaccia doesn't have to rub his hand like toast, just knead it. Smooth, non-sticky, soft dough that is, the whole hand rub 5-8 minutes is enough, cook machine low-grade rub 3 minutes, novice completely without pressure.

Step 3: The first basic fermentation (room temperature fermentation, patience is the key)

put the kneaded dough back into a large bowl, brush a thin layer of olive oil on the surface, cover it with plastic wrap or wet gauze, place it in a warm place at room temperature of 25-28 ℃, and ferment for 1-1.5 hours until the dough expands to 2 times its original size. Dip your finger in flour to poke a hole, and the hole will not shrink or collapse, indicating that the fermentation is in place. If the room temperature is low in cold days, you can put the bowl in a warm water bath to speed up the fermentation.

Step 4: reshape the exhaust and spread it into the baking tray.

Take out the fermented dough and gently press it to exhaust the dough without repeatedly kneading the dough to avoid gluten tightening and affecting the taste. Prepare a rectangular baking tray, spread oil paper, brush the bottom and surroundings of the baking tray with olive oil, spread the dough flat in the baking tray, gently press and spread it with your hand, and spread it all over the baking tray. The thickness is kept at about 1.5-2cm, the edge can be slightly thicker, and there will be crisp edges after baking.

Step 5: Wake up for the second time to make the bread softer.

The spread dough is covered with plastic wrap and waked for a second time. It can be waved at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. It does not need to be 2 times as large. It only needs the dough to bulge slightly and feel light. This step can make the internal pores of the bread more uniform and will not be firm and hard to eat.

Step 6: Surface Treatment, Soul Manipulation of Focaccia

after the second awakening, preheat the oven to 220 ℃ in advance. Use your fingers to evenly press small pits on the surface of the dough (don't poke to the end). This is the iconic appearance of Focaccia. When pressing the pits, move gently and don't prick the dough. Then evenly brush 20ml olive oil on the surface, put garlic slices and rosemary branches, sprinkle a little coarse sea salt, like small tomatoes and black olives, and spread on the surface at this time.

Step 7: high temperature baking, outside brittle inside soft

put the baking tray into the middle layer of the preheated oven and bake at 220 ℃ for 20-25 minutes until the surface is golden yellow and slightly charred, the edges appear crisp texture, and the inside is completely cooked. The temperature of each oven is different. In the last 5 minutes, pay attention to the coloring to avoid baking. The freshly baked Focaccia has a tangy aroma. Wheat, olive oil and rosemary are mixed together, and the whole room is full of Italian flavor.

✨Novice Must See Pit Avoidance Tips (Grandmother's Tips)

1. Olive oil must be sufficient, whether it is dough or surface. Without olive oil, the bread will be dry and hard and lose the soul taste of Focaccia. 2. It is strictly prohibited to bake at high temperature. 220 ℃ is just right. Baking at low temperature will make the bread wet, sticky and not fluffy. 3. The method of pressing the pit should be light. Don't puncture the dough hard, otherwise it will collapse easily after baking. 4, it can be kept at room temperature for 2 days. Before eating, it is re-baked at 180 ℃ for 3 minutes. The taste is the same as that of the oven.

Focaccia is the most down-to-earth home-cooked bread in Italy. It originated in ancient Rome and has been circulated for thousands of years. It is still a frequent visitor to Italian dining tables. It is also called the three classic Italian delicacies along with pizza and pasta. It has no complicated technology and no expensive ingredients. It relies on the simplest flour, olive oil and vanilla to make a healing taste. In Italy, whether it is breakfast with espresso, lunch with salad, ham or dinner with thick soup, it is especially suitable. The elderly and children love to eat it. It is low-fat and unburdened. It is a homely delicacy that becomes more and more fragrant.

When I was teaching in the baking studio, many zero-basis students succeeded in making Focaccia for the first time. The fault tolerance rate of this bread is extremely high. It is not necessary to accurately control the degree of kneading. As long as the fermentation is in place, it will hardly overturn. Every time I bake Focaccia, I smell the fragrance slowly drifting out, and I will think of the scene of my grandmother baking bread in the farm kitchen. There are no complicated steps, only simple ingredients and patience. This is the charm of Italian home baking.

If you are tired of sweet and greasy bread and want to try authentic Italian salty bread, or a novice baker wants to challenge the first European bread, you must try this Tuscan homely Focaccia. You can unlock the full Italian fireworks at home without going to Italy.

Do you usually like to make salty bread? Have you ever tried the fancy version with black olives or small tomatoes? Talk to me in the comments section, I will reply one by one, and I will continue to share more zero-failure Italian home baking recipes to accompany everyone to easily make authentic exotic food at home.