Authentic Garlic Focaccia
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Focaccia is an Italian flatbread, served along with balsamic sauce or olive tapenade. Check out the recipe for authentic garlic focaccia.
Garlic focaccia! The minute I hear focaccia, I go back to the beautiful time spent in Italy in 2015. The breeze, the scenery, the people, and most importantly the food. We were introduced to Focaccia during our trip to Sienna and our winery tasting experience. They served us a super tasty wine with slices of garlic focaccia along with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic. Ok, I know I triggered you. So let’s talk now about Focaccia.
What is focaccia?
Focaccia is an Italian flatbread baked in the oven. It can come plain, or with different flavors such as garlic, rosemary, and thyme… Italians usually serve Focaccia along with oil and balsamic sauce or olive tapenade. However, you can have it as a sandwich bread or a side dish.
How to make this garlic focaccia?
The process of preparing focaccia is very simple. The preparation part does not take more than 15 minutes. However, letting the dough rest requires ample time. If you are using instant yeast, all you need to do is to combine all ingredients and knead until the dough is ready. On the other hand, you may need an additional 15 minutes to activate the yeast if you are using an active dry yeast for the dough.
Once the dough has risen, you will need to spread the dough, create dents, and let it rest for additional 20 minutes. Finally, come the baking time and your focaccia which is considered one of the healthy food recipes, is ready.
What are the main ingredients of Focaccia?
Just like other bread recipes, the list of ingredients includes flour, oil, yeast, salt, sugar, salt, and water. In this easy food recipe, I am adding as well garlic powder to the list of ingredients as we all love garlic focaccia at home. However, you can improvise by adding other seasonings such as onion powder, thyme, rosemary, tomato paste… the sky is your limit.
In addition, I am using white flour in this recipe. However, you can opt for whole wheat, gluten-free, or oat flour for example for healthier focaccia.
How long does homemade focaccia last?
It is best to keep Focaccia for 3 days at room temperature. However, make sure to keep it in an air-tight container or wrap it with plastic wrap. You can have focaccia at room temperature or warm. Nevertheless, use the oven to warm it up instead of a microwave for the best results.
If you are aiming to freeze focaccia, make sure to wrap each slice with plastic wrap and save them in a zipper-lock plastic bag. This way, you can keep the focaccia in the freezer for up to a month.
What factors result in successful focaccia?
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- Dough rising process: Mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough will take a maximum of 5 minutes. However, cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise in a room temperature environment for an hour. You will notice that the volume of the dough has doubled once these 60 minutes pass.
- Cooling process: Once the dough has risen, take it to the refrigerator and let it rest overnight. Letting the dough cool in the fridge between 20 to 24 hours yields the best results when it comes to focaccia.
- Resting the dough after the second rise: Once taken from the fridge you will need to roll the dough. Though it will be up to you to transfer it to the pan to rest there and accordingly create the dimples at this stage or let it rest first and create the dimples after the rest, it is essential to mark that resting the dough between 3 to 4 hours is mandatory. Therefore, do not skip this step.
- Dimpling the dough: Frankly, these dents are essential to reduce the air and allow the bread to rise in the right place. I roll the dough, transfer it to the baking pan and create the dimples before the second rise. Moreover, once the dough is ready to be baked, I intend to drizzle the oil, salt, additional garlic powder, and rosemary in these dents. Consequently, the dough absorbs these flavors and rewards me with flavorful delicious garlic focaccia.
I’ve prepared a small video for easy directions on how to make this authentic garlic focaccia:
More international dishes? Check these out:
- Spanakopita from Greece
- Juicy Spinach Fatayer from Lebanon
- Shepherd Pie from Ireland
- Mushroom Quiche from France
- Ravioli from Italy
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In this recipe, I am sharing with you tips, ingredients and instructions to prepare an authentic Italian garlic focaccia at home to enjoy. It is few of the best healthy dinner ideas for family.
Ingredients
- 3 & 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsp sugar. You can swap with honey
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cups olive oil divided into 2 equal amounts
- 1 & 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 1/2 tbsp yeast
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- A bunch of fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Proof the yeast: If you have a thermometer, it is better to use it to measure the water temperature. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in water at 43 degrees temperature in a large bowl, or in the stand mixer bowl. Then, wait for 15 minutes until a foamy texture forms.
- Knead the dough: Add the flour, salt, garlic powder, and olive oil to the yeast and start kneading. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then shape it into a ball and transfer it to a greased bowl.
- The first rise of the dough: Cover the dough and let it rest for 60 minutes or until it doubles in size in a room temperature environment. I let my dough rise next to a window or glass door.
- Refrigerate the dough: Transfer the covered dough to the fridge. Let it cool for 20 to 24 hours.
- Second rise: Take the dough out of the fridge and start rolling the focaccia on a flour-dusted work surface. Transfer the focaccia to a greased baking pan to rest for 2 to 4 hours.
- Create the dimples: You can create the dimples once you transfer the dough to the baking pan or after it rises completely. Using your fingers, press down in the dough until the bottom to create the required dents.
- Prepare for baking: Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees C. First, drizzle ¼ cup of olive oil evenly on the surface of the dough. Then, sprinkle some garlic powder and salt. Finally, place some leaves of rosemary on top of the focaccia dough.
- Bake the garlic focaccia: The baking process takes between 15 and 20 minutes. In the end, the focaccia will be golden or brown.
Notes
- The thickness of the bread: Roll the dough to half-inch thickness. Once the dough rests, it will rise again to the required thickness.
- Manual kneading: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can easily knead the dough manually. I suggest you add the oil, salt, garlic powder, and half the amount of the flour. First start kneading with half the amount of the flour, then start adding the remaining amount of the flour and continue kneading. The kneading process requires 5 minutes.
Nutrition
Calories: 168 kcal per serving | Serving size: 1 slice | Number of servings: 16
Total Fat 7 g | Saturated Fat 1 g | Cholesterol 0 mg | Sodium 293 mg | Potassium 48 mg | Total Carbohydrate 23 g | Dietary Fiber 1 g | Sugars 13 g | Protein 3 g | Vitamin A: 1% | Vitamin C: 1% | Calcium: 6% | Iron: 1%
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
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