No-Knead Beet Focaccia Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Does focaccia need kneading? ›

Unlike sourdough, which requires that you feed a hungry little starter gremlin every day, focaccia is mostly hands off. It also doesn't require any special equipment besides a digital scale. Made with a high-hydration (80% in this case) dough, it comes together quickly in a bowl and doesn't need to be kneaded.

Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.

Cold fermentation, however, and the reason why this focaccia takes 3 days, is a great lesson in both patience paying off and flavour. To understand this, we have to remember that yeast is a fungi and loves a warm environment and that temperature is really the only real thing that speeds up fermentation.

Why is my Focaccia dense and tough? Not allowing the focaccia to proof long enough in the fridge will prevent enough gluten from being formed. This causes flat and dense focaccia once baked.

Use your favorite kind—I prefer extra virgin olive oil. Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour: I tested this focaccia with both and prefer the bread flour variety. Both are great, but bread flour has a higher protein content so it yields a chewier texture.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier.

Tips for the perfect homemade Focaccia.

Don't over-knead your dough– In the first step, make sure the dough has come together enough that it's sticky but not smooth, this will help to make the much desired air bubbles.

Traditionally Tuscan focaccia is medium thick and medium soft but crispy on the outside. Salt and rosemary are its usual companions. However, throughout Tuscany you can also find a thin and crispy version as well thick and very soft. Tuscan panini with cheese and cold cuts often use focaccia for a base.

After the first rise, many recipes call for the baker to deflate — or "punch down" — the dough. It's an important step: When the dough is punched down, the yeast cells are redistributed. They form a closer bond with the moisture and sugar, which aids fermentation and improves the second rise.

Can you let focaccia dough rise too long? ›

Let the focaccia continue rising for another hour away from the stove — you don't want the yeast to burn through the new sugar too quickly! Avoid dimpling again before baking — an overproofed dough will lose air quickly, and you want to preserve as much of it as you can.

Finally, if you overproof the dough, your focaccia will not rise, and turn out dense.

Knead the focaccia dough for about 8-10 minutes until it becomes smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky. This will help develop the gluten in the dough, resulting in a light and airy focaccia.

Because under-kneaded dough doesn't spring up as much in the oven, it often results in a flatter loaf with a dense texture.

Knead for 5-10 mins until your dough is soft and less sticky. Put the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for 1 hr until doubled in size.