There are different ways to make focaccia.
Poolish method, autolysing,
different resting and mixing timings.
It is easy to get confused.
In one of the places I worked,
I met an experienced Italian baker, Manuel,
who shared his knowledge about focaccia.
So this particular way of doing focaccia
and the recipe, comes from Italy.
For focaccia in the bakeries we normally use
high protein flour, which is not widely available.
But since I wanted to make this recipe accessible
to everyone, I used flour from the supermarket,
and in fact, it worked absolutely fine.
Let's see how it's done.
- Okay. I am not gonna lie
I spent a bit of time debating where to buy this KitchenAid,
but I think it will be a very, very good,
addition to my kitchen.
Look at this beautiful.
Mixer - I hope we will have a great time together.
Let's put all excitement aside.
Let's roll the sleeves up and head to the kitchen.
For BIGA, just mix water, yeast and flour together,
roughly for 3 minutes as this is not a very big amount.
But why did we do this step?
BIGA is a type of pre-fermentation used in Italian baking.
It adds complexity to the flavour,
and it helps to achieve light texture
and open crumb of the baked bread.
Once we mix the dough
it looks a bit rough and firm,
but that is only the first stage.
Eventually it will turn into light
and sleek dough and then,
we cover it and keep it for 12-14 hours at room temperature.
So, for focaccia refresh,
we will use 100g of flour,
some sugar to make focaccia more brown.
Salt, olive oil, and water.
Once the BIGA proofed enough,
we are going to break this into smaller pieces.
Gonna mix with the refresh ingredients,
very airy and very light.
Quite elastic dough.
(upbeat music)
Perfect.
And now all flour in.
(upbeat music)
We will use just half of water for now.
We going to mix it now for 4 minutes,
until it comes together.
(upbeat music)
So I will start adding the remaining water,
but very, very slowly.
And increase the speed.
(chill music)
Now let's add salt.
You can either add salt little by little,
or dissolve it in some water and pour slowly.
Then increase the speed,
and keep mixing to develop more gluten.
There is no exact time to when we mix and beat the dough,
we're looking to see clean sides of the bowl,
which means the dough has come together and became strong.
Now it is still sticking. So we keep working on it.
Last ingredient - olive oil.
So how to know when the dough is ready?
It should be one elastic piece,
and this one now is tearing and breaking apart,
because the gluten is not strong enough.
I like to leave the dough to rest for a bit
and then we will continue mixing.
(mixer buzzing)
(chill music)
So the dough is coming together.
It is almost coming out clean of the ball.
Let's check. Let's do the test.
(chill music)
Yeah, it's getting there. It's getting there.
I can almost take the whole thing up, not yet,
but it's very close.
You should always judge the dough by the look,
because even though it is good to follow the recipe,
it is important to feel and understand
when the dough is done
Cameraman if you can come,
and you will see that I can take everything at one go.
You see? The bowl is pretty much clean.
That is definitely done.
So now I will pre-reshape it
and will leave in the same bowl to prove.
Try not to touch too much,
so you will avoid sticky fingers.
(pallet grasping on surface)
Resting time will depend on how warm your place is.
This time it took 2,5 hours
for my focaccia to rise.
And what can we do when the dough is still proving?
So, since I have some time now, it's always there,
like a secret ingredient of anything that I do,
this 'mate' keeps me a company.
I decided to burn some calories before
enjoying my focaccia.
On a serious note,
I find my exercise routine so helpful to cheer myself up,
and Zumba dance exercise would always benefit
to my positive energy level too.
let's go back to the kitchen & check how the dough is doing
So the dough has beautifully risen.
You see here, all wobbly.
We will release the air out and we will put on the tray,
so it will finally rise for the second time
and we will not touch anymore.
(palette grasping bowl)
Look at this.
So bouncy, that's it.
I don't want to touch anymore, and it will start rising.
And once it proves enough,
we're just going to put toppings
and straight to the oven.
Look at this.
(chill music)
So I chose alcachofas, guindillas,
green olives, and obviously olive oil.
Not to forget - romero.
which gives fantastic flavor to any bread.
So the focaccia, has doubled in size already.
Very bouncy.
Has risen in volume a lot.
So now the happy part,
we will literally just add what you like.
Quality control.
(upbeat music)
I'm actually was so looking forward to cook
with Spanish products because people always say,
oh you're so lucky on going to Spain,
you will have delicious quality of food.
Delicious quality of food?
They have such a nice food and so on.
And to be honest, I mean, they are right,
they have such a big variety
and most of the things are grown locally.
So, putting talks aside,
let's be generous with olive oil.
Rosemary.
(chill music)
Very gently.
It's already looking good.
Looks promising.
(chill music)
And this is optional, but I like to add some...
Just a tiny bit of salt.
So I will clean this mess now and leave the focaccia
just for a tiny bit longer, and then straight to the oven.
And the oven is already heating at the maximum I have here,
and I will cook at exactly same temperature.
Oh my God, after two days of work, almost.
Look at this.
(chill music)
I thought this would be a good idea to do some spread.
So, actually earlier today,
I bought rúcula with that in mind.
And we going to do together, five minute rúcula pesto.
No need for any extra preparation for this recipe,
simply blitzing cashews and pine nuts together.
(chill music)
Adding lemon zest and juice.
And then garlic, salt, pepper and rocket.
But just half for now.
You can also add some water,
and then mix everything together.
(chill music)
Now we can add olive oil and the remaining rocket,
as simple as that.
(chill music)
And now the most exciting part.
Let's see the result of all the hard work.
(upbeat music)
Thank you for watching and see you next week.