Focaccia

Bread in one form or another is prepared by almost all nations, but each version of this pastry is unique. If you carefully study the recipes of bakery products that are popular in a particular country, you can say a lot about the gastronomic preferences of the residents, what products in this area are loved and available to the maximum. Focaccia - the card of Italian cuisine. This is a tortilla made from wheat flour with the addition of olive oil, sea salt and herbs. Traditionally, it is baked from yeast dough, but among the classic versions of focaccia, you can also find cakes from dough without yeast. Focaccia can be supplemented with cheese, vegetables, and other ingredients to which Italians have a particular passion. In a number of supermarkets, Italian cakes are presented in an assortment, but even more variety can be achieved by baking it at home. This process is not complicated, even an inexperienced cook will cope with the task.

Cooking Features

Focaccia is no more difficult to cook than pizza, and almost all Italians cook such flat cakes at home. If you know a few moments, the result of culinary creativity will not disappoint you.

• Focaccia, made from yeast dough, has a thickness of 1.5-2 cm, it turns out to be thin and crispy from yeast-free.
• Focaccia dough is used fresh, no eggs are added to cream and eggs, but there can be any filling. The most common fillings are tomatoes, sweet peppers, greens, soft cheese, potatoes. The filling can be on top (then the focaccia looks like a pizza) or between two layers of dough. In the second case, a thin focaccia is usually used.
• Olive oil in cooking focaccia do not regret: add to the dough, grease the form, pour the cake from above. As a result, focaccia becomes useful due to the high content of vitamin E, polyunsaturated fatty acids.
• Most often, focaccia is sprinkled with rosemary before cooking, but it can be replaced with any herbs to your liking.
• If you use yeast dough, it should be allowed to come up and climb. This will happen faster if you put it in the oven, setting the minimum temperature (about 50 degrees). In the absence of this possibility, the dough is left to approach at room temperature, choosing a warmer place in the kitchen.

Serve focaccia warm or cold. It can be eaten as a separate dish, like a pizza or served as bread with meat, fish and vegetable dishes.

Store focaccia in fabric bags. Its shelf life is 2 days.

Classic focaccia recipe with rosemary

Caloric content of the dish: 1594 kcal, per 100 g: 316 kcal.

Composition:

• wheat flour - 0, 25 kg;
• warm water - 150 ml;
• baking yeast - 12 g;
• salt - 10 g;
• sugar - 3 g;
• olive oil - 80 ml;
• dried or fresh rosemary - to taste.

Method of preparation:

• Yeast knead your hands, dilute with warm water.
• Sift flour, mix with salt and sugar. Salt is enough 5 g.
• Pour water with yeast into the container of the bread machine, add flour, add two tablespoons of oil.
• Turn on the unit by selecting “Pizza dough” mode or simply “Dough”. The dough can be kneaded by hand, it will take 7-8 minutes.
• Leave the dough for half an hour to make it fit. During this time, it will increase in volume by about two times.
• Pour the remaining butter on a baking tray. Put dough in it. Dip it in oil on all sides, crush and stretch it to make an oval-shaped, lumpy cake.
• Sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary.
• Heat the oven to 220 degrees. Put a focaccia pan in it and bake a cake for 15-20 minutes.

Focaccia is best fresh. If you do not have time to eat it on the first day, you can sprinkle it with water and warm it in the microwave. On the third day, it is unlikely that it will be possible to reanimate the cake, but for so long you almost certainly will not have it.

Focaccia di Voltri (thin)

Calorie dishes: 1804 kcal, per 100 g: 283 kcal.

Composition:

• flour made from soft wheat varieties - 0, 35 kg;
• water (boiled, but cooled to room temperature) - 0, 2 l;
• olive oil - 60 ml;
• a mixture of Italian herbs - to taste;
• sugar - 10 g;
• salt - 10 g;
• dry yeast - 7 g.

Method of preparation:

• Mix sifted flour with sugar, a teaspoon of salt and dry yeast.
• Pour a tablespoon of oil into the prepared water.
• Make a well in the flour, pour water and oil into it, mix.
• Knead dough, divide into 4 parts. Roll each piece into a ball.
• Leave the dough to rise in a warm place for 1-1, 5 hours.
• Spread one piece of dough on a floured dough mat. Roll in a circle with a diameter of about 30 cm.
• In the same way, roll out the remaining dough.
• Place the dough circle on a baking sheet, brush with butter, sprinkle with salt and herbs, send for 5 minutes in a preheated 250 degree oven.
• Bake the rest of the tortillas.

According to this recipe, focaccia is thin and crispy, with air bubbles unevenly distributed on its surface. Instead of butter and herbs, you can use pesto sauce. They grease the dough before putting it in the oven.

Focaccia di Recco with cheese

Calorie dishes: 2063 kcal, per 100 g: 287 kcal.

Composition:

• flour - 0, 25 kg;
• water - 120 ml;
• olive oil - 50 ml;
• salt - to taste;
• soft cheese - 0, 3 kg.

Method of preparation:

• Mix flour with a small amount of salt before sifting.
• Mix water with 30 ml of olive oil, pour it into a container with flour.
• Knead the dough, leave it for half an hour at room temperature, covered with cling film.
• Divide the dough in two. Roll each into a circle. The result should be two dough disks of approximately the same diameter.
• Put the cheese on one circle of dough, distribute it, leaving free edges.
• Cover the cheese with the second round of dough. Seal the edges of the layers.
• Put the future focaccia on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining butter. You can sprinkle with herbs or herbs, spread out on top half of the olives or olives.
• Place the focaccia on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place the focaccia pan in it and cook for 15 minutes.

According to this principle, it is possible to prepare focaccia not only with cheese, but also with other types of fillers. In Italy, they often make a cake stuffed with mashed potatoes.

Sweet focaccia

Calorie dishes: 2747 kcal, per 100 g: 287 kcal.

Composition:

• flour - 0, 5 kg;
• water - 0, 25 l;
• dry yeast - 7 g;
• salt - a pinch;
• sugar - 50 g;
• olive oil - 80 ml;
• honey - 20 ml;
• fresh or frozen pitted cherries - how many will leave.

Method of preparation:

• Sift flour, mix with salt, two tablespoons of sugar, yeast. Grind the remaining sugar with a coffee grinder, turning it into powder.
• Mix water with three tablespoons of oil. Pour into flour.
• Knead the dough, divide into 2 parts, leave to rest.
• Grease a baking sheet with butter, put dough on it, spread it on half of the baking tray. Next lay out the second layer of dough.
• Make deep dents on the dough.
• Put a berry in every dent.
• Mix the remaining butter with honey melted to a liquid state, smear the focaccia with a sweet mixture. The most convenient way to do this is with a silicone brush.
• Place the baking sheet in the oven warmed to 220 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
• Sprinkle focaccia with icing sugar and serve.

Instead of two small cakes, you can make one large, full baking tray. Cherry can be replaced with any other berry or even dried fruit.

Focaccia classic: recipe with photo

Calorie dishes: 592 kcal, per 100 g: 220 kcal. Ingredients for the dough (for two breads with a diameter of 15 cm):

• water - 100 ml;
• dry yeast - 0.5 tsp;
• sugar - 0.5 tsp;
• salt - 0.5 tsp;
• vegetable oil (olive or sunflower) - 1 tsp;
• flour - 150 g.

Cooking:

1. If you have taken active dry yeast, the dough can be prepared without sponge. Pressed and dry inactive yeast must first be dissolved in warm water with sugar.

After that, add the rest of the ingredients in the water with the yeast, and then the flour. When using active dry yeast, mix them directly with flour.

Stir the dough thoroughly with a spatula until it turns into a homogeneous lump.

2. Leave it to rise in a container whose volume is at least three times the initial volume of the test. Cover the container with the dough with a lid or obtyan its top with cling film.

After 2.5 - 3 hours, the focaccia dough will increase about three times.

3. Put it on a table sprinkled with flour and form a smooth lump. If you want to make some small loaves with different seasonings or you just like small small loaves, divide it into several parts, making a lump of each part.

Leave the dough to settle for another 30 minutes.

4. In the meantime, prepare a baking sheet, making it parchment. From the lumps of dough, stretch the round tortillas about 1 cm tall and put them on the parchment.

5. Leave the blanks in this form for 10-15 minutes, and then make recesses on them, lubricate the surface with vegetable oil and sprinkle with spices.

6. Bake at 150 ° C until golden brown. Lubricating the surface of the dough with oil gives the bread an aromatic crust and, at the same time, it does not have the taste of burning oil, which remains if you smear the baking sheet with oil.

Italians like to use rosemary as a seasoning for focaccia, but other herbs are also perfectly combined with this bread - it will be delicious even with ordinary dried dill and parsley. You can also sprinkle the surface of bread with crushed garlic.

Video: Italian Foccata Bread. Simple recipe