A high-flying focaccia. Soft, tender, fluffy, crispy, salty, golden, light… It's perfect and everything you expect from this type of bread.
It can be used to make toast, sandwiches, a base for a tomato pie, etc.
The recipe takes time, like all bread dough recipes.
The ideal amount of dough is for a 46x33 cm pan. If your pan is a little smaller, the focaccia will be thicker. The pan to use is a fairly deep baking sheet.
Ingredients
Focaccia dough
- 600 g of lukewarm water
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast or baker's yeast
- 15 g of honey
- 800 g all-purpose flour
- 18 g of fine salt
- 50 g of olive oil and 2 tablespoons for the mold
- 3 pinches of fleur de sel
- 1 tablespoon of rosemary
Brine
- 5 g of salt
- 80 g of lukewarm water
Preparation
- In a bowl, mix the 600g of lukewarm water, the yeast and the honey.
- In a large bowl, put the flour and salt and mix.
- Add the water/yeast/honey mixture and the olive oil. Mix with a spatula, then knead very lightly with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough. The dough will remain very soft and sticky.
- Store at room temperature with plastic wrap over the bowl. Let rise for 8 to 12 hours.
- In your mold, pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and spread it with your fingers.
- When the dough has risen, gently loosen the edges of the dough from the bowl, without letting it deflate. Pour it onto the oiled baking sheet.
- Using your fingers, gently spread the dough to the 4 corners of the mold.
- Let it rest for another 30 minutes at room temperature. If the dough shrinks, spread it again over the entire surface of the baking sheet.
- Mix the 80g of water with the 5g of salt. Once the salt has dissolved, spread this brine evenly over the focaccia.
- Set aside for another 45 minutes, until the dough has absorbed the liquid.
- Place a pizza stone in the oven (or another upside-down baking sheet) on the middle rack. Preheat to 450°F (235°C).
- Place the fleur de sel on the focaccia along with the chopped rosemary.
- Bake the focaccia on the stone or on an upside-down baking sheet. Bake for approximately 25 minutes.
- Check the doneness by lifting the focaccia with a metal spatula. If the bottom is golden but the top is not browned, brush it with a little olive oil and return it to the top rack for a few minutes.
- Remove the focaccia from the oven, brush it lightly with olive oil and let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Unmold and cut. Serve warm or cold, with a good drizzle of olive oil.
