Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
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Ingredients
500g strong white flour
1½ tsp fine sea salt
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
8 tbsp olive oil
For the topping
175g Pomodorino tomatoes, halved
½ x 20g pack rosemary, small sprigs picked
1 x 225g pack halloumi, diced
100g pitted mixed olives
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Prep to the end of step 3 the day before, chill overnight. Best served freshly baked but can be reheated to refresh next day, wrapped in foil.
Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, followed by 400ml lukewarm water. Mix with a wooden spoon until you don’t have any pockets of dry flour; it will look sticky and shaggy. Cover and leave to stand for 15 minutes.
Uncover then drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil around the edges of the bowl. Push your fingers down between one side of the bowl and the dough, letting the oil trickle down as you pull the dough up from the bottom and fold it over itself into the centre. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the fold and turn three more times. The dough will become smooth and stretchy, forming a loose ball. Flip the ball of dough over, cover again and leave for 30 minutes, then repeat the folding process (no need for more oil though). Rest for a further 30 minutes, then fold again.
Brush a rectangular box or dish (about 20cm x 30cm) with 1 tablespoon of oil. Transfer the dough, stretching it to roughly fit. Cover and leave to rise for an hour until roughly doubled in size; this helps to pre-shape the dough (you can chill it overnight at this point, see left).
Use another tablespoon of oil to grease a large baking tray, about 25cm x 35cm. Carefully tip the spongey focaccia into the tray. Use oiled fingers to stretch it out gently – it will try and spring back, but persevere, without squashing out too much air. Cover and leave to prove for 45-60 minutes (or up to 1½ hours if chilled overnight).
Preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Use your fingertips to make deep indentations in the dough. Scatter with the tomatoes and rosemary, and drizzle with another 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes then scatter over the halloumi and olives. Bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden, with a crisp base.
Transfer from the baking tray to a wire rack. The focaccia is particularly delicious warm from the oven, but in any event should be eaten within 24 hours.
Serve with
Balsamic courgette, pine nuts and Parmesan salad Porcini mushroom arancini Tomato and peach salad
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If you want to, you should be able to cold-ferment this dough for up to 48 hours in the fridge, for even better flavor development. If you leave it longer than that, you risk it over proofing, which means the dough won't rise in the oven and support big bubbles as it bakes.
For a crispier bottom, bake your focaccia directly on top of a preheated baking steel. Equipment: If you're using a pan that is less non-stick, make sure to put a bit more oil on the bottom and/or lay some parchment paper down.
Using plain flour, as in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, or even finer “tipo 00” flour as in The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook, will give you a softer, more tender crumb; while Richard Bertinet's mixture of strong bread flour and coarse semolina in his book Dough creates a more robust, ...
Thick or thin? The thickness of a focaccia can vary, too, but an authentic focaccia genovese should be rather thin, even if it needn't be quite as thin as my version presented here. So many non-Italian renditions of “focaccia” are more like bread in their thickness.
You can definitely overproof focaccia, but it is difficult. There is so much oil in the dough, and very little sugar, so the yeast is "sleepy" or slow due to both of those elements and less likely to overproof.
Not just for aesthetic flair, dimpling the dough is a vital step because it expels air from the dough, preventing it from rising too fast, giving it that perfect crumb. That, combined with the weight of the oil, will prevent a puffed-up poolish that more closely resembles a loaf than a tasty crust.
If you forget to dimple your dough and bake it, the dough will collapse when the bubbles burst, resulting in sad focaccia and a sad baker. To dimple your dough, oil your fingers or the end of a wooden spoon handle and gently poke the dough.
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.
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.
Because there is a greater edge-to-middle ratio when you bake focaccia in a loaf pan instead of a sheet pan (not to mention the loaf pan has higher sides), you're ensured a lot of crispy, cheesy bites.
focaccia flat, as it should be. Also, those dimples hold. the olive oil coating and help it soak into the dough, which gives your finished bread that crisp and golden.
I like to use a deep pan (as opposed to a baking sheet) so the focaccia doesn't dry out too fast in the oven. My preferred pans: 9″ x 13″ USA Pan Rectangular Cake Pan. Two 10 x 2.25″ LloydPans Round Pans (use the same dough weight as in this recipe, just divide in half and place each half into one pan)
While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.
Wheat flours are usually the first choice of most bakers. This is due to the lightness and high rise created by higher levels of gluten content. However, if you're intolerant of wheat or looking for gluten-free bread options, there are a wide range of low gluten and gluten-free flour options available.
Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, ranging from 12% to 14%. That makes this type of flour ideal for all kinds of bread recipes, including hearty sourdoughs, tender brioche, and lacy English muffins.
All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc. Bread flour, on the other hand, is ideal for bread, pizza dough, pretzels, etc. – items where a strong crumb and a chewy texture are coveted.
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Prep time: 25 mins
