Recipe Apulian focaccia

[MypinchofItaly]

Serves: 6 | Preparation time: 30 mins + 2 h to rise | Cooking time: 25-30 mins

• Italian 00 white flour: 300 g
• Durum-wheat semolina flour: 200 g
• Water: 300 ml
• Cherry tomatoes: 300 g or whole pitted olives, green or black: 100 g
• Potatoes, small sized: 2
• Dried yeast: 30 g
• Salt: 15 g
• Sugar: 6 g
• Oregano, dried: to taste
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: about 4 tbsp for the dough and to taste for garnishing

Method

Peel the potatoes and boil them in unsalted water until they’re soft and cooked through. Crush the potatoes in a bowl.

Mix the Italian 00 white flour and the semolina flour together in a large bowl; create a hole in the centre of the flour and pour in the crushed potatoes.
Dissolve the yeast in 100 ml of water, making sure that it is lukewarm. If the water is too hot or too cold, it will not activate the yeast, and your focaccia will not rise.

Add the yeast to the dough and start kneading it.

Whilst kneading the dough, gradually add the oil, the salt, the sugar and the remaining water to the mixture. Your dough should be very soft and slightly wet, with a particularly sticky surface.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen cloth and leave the dough to rest for at least two hours. The dough must not be put to rest in the fridge, but rather in a place with a constant mild temperature; it should rise to double its size.

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.

Spread out the dough on a greased baking tray, distributing it evenly: according to the tradition, this step is completed only using one’s hands, and never a rolling pin. The tip of the fingers will help create the characteristic dimples where the oil collects in little puddles.

Distribute the cherry tomatoes on top of the focaccia, gently pushing them into the dough to ensure they adhere to its surface. Add a generous sprinkle of dried oregano, some salt grains and just a drizzle of oil.

Bake the focaccia at 180°C for 25 to 30 minutes and you’re ready to serve!

 

[Morning Glory]

That looks beautiful. Potatoes in a Focaccia dough! I'd never have thought of that. One to try....

 

[Wandering Bob]

Thank you @MypinchofItaly - that looks truly wonderful. I'm hungry ….

That's a very interesting recipe - and full of helpful and informative detail. Like @morning glory I'm intrigued by the inclusion of potatoes. There's also more yeast and olive oil in the dough than I would have expected. The oven temperature of 180C is lower than I'd have used - but I assume that's what gives this focaccia a softer and slightly more dense crumb.

I really don't know if I can source (in my part of France) the two types of flour used - but I will try and find the equivalents. I shall start researching them this afternoon.

 

[MypinchofItaly]

That looks beautiful. Potatoes in a Focaccia dough! I'd never have thought of that. One to try....

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Thank you @MypinchofItaly - that looks truly wonderful. I'm hungry ….

That's a very interesting recipe - and full of helpful and informative detail. Like @morning glory I'm intrigued by the inclusion of potatoes. There's also more yeast and olive oil in the dough than I would have expected. The oven temperature of 180C is lower than I'd have used - but I assume that's what gives this focaccia a softer and slightly more dense crumb.

I really don't know if I can source (in my part of France) the two types of flour used - but I will try and find the equivalents. I shall start researching them this afternoon.

in Puglia this focaccia is traditional (my dad is from Puglia) and in fact the addition of potatoes to the dough is an ingredient that few people expect ... but makes this focaccia special. Of course, to be even more special you should go to Puglia and eat it there, but also homemade can give satisfaction!
In Italy we have a classification of flours, the most common are 00 and 0, they're all good for baking. If you do not find the 00 flour, try to use the 0 flour anyway. It's just a little less refined than 00 but it's ok anyway. Using the 0 maybe you'll need to use a little more water, but then you'll see it during processing.For the durum wheat flour I hope you can find it because it is a key ingredient for this focaccia and is a type of flour widely used in southern Italy for bread, pizza. Now it should be a little everywhere. I do not know what to recommend as a substitute ..

 

[buckytom]

That would go great with a nice, cold Squishy.

 

[Morning Glory]

.For the durum wheat flour I hope you can find it because it is a key ingredient for this focaccia and is a type of flour widely used in southern Italy for bread, pizza. Now it should be a little everywhere. I do not know what to recommend as a substitute ..

Its basically semolina which has been milled very finely. I've managed to track some down, here in the UK. But @Wandering Bob is in France.

 

[Morning Glory]

...I think @Wandering Bob should be able to get it. A bit of research reveals its called Semoule Fine in French (I think!)

http://www.panzani.fr/produit/panzani-semoule-fine/

 

[Wandering Bob]

I think @Wandering Bob should be able to get it. A bit of research reveals its called Semoule Fine in French (I think!)

Grazia tanto @morning glory

I buy Panzani pasta here - so it sounds like it's the right stuff from the right people. I'll ask E when she comes for the cornbread - she's currently working on top of her roof - in this heat …

Did you also find an approximate translation of tipo 00 flour in the UK? I think strong white bread flour would probably do - but I haven't checked (perhaps plain flour would be closer?)

 

[Morning Glory]

Morrison's sell it, Here is what the BBC website says

 

[Morning Glory]

This French website lists brands:

https://www.bienmanger.com/1L280_Epiceri

This is just the top of the page - there are lots more:

 

[Morning Glory]

Dried yeast: 30 g

@MypinchofItaly - this bread looks so delicious. I was looking at this recipe again with a view to trying it - is the 30g dried yeast a typo perhaps? Maybe not - its just that the dried yeast here comes in 7g sachets - for focaccia I use a bit more than the usual ratio for bread of 7g dried yeast to 500g flour - I use 7g to 300g flour.

Your recipe is for 500g flour plus 2 potatoes so if I double my usual amount of yeast that would be 15g. It may be, of course, that the yeast you are using is different from the one I buy.

 

[medtran49]

Sorry it took me so long, but I finally remembered to get my Focaccia book out. For 8 oz boiling potatoes, 500 grams of durum flour, they used 1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast with a first rise of 1 to 1-1/2 hours for both recipes using potatoes as part of the dough, although 1 of them also uses a biga.

 

[Karen W]

Serves: 6 | Preparation time: 30 mins + 2 h to rise | Cooking time: 25-30 mins

• Italian 00 white flour: 300 g
• Durum-wheat semolina flour: 200 g
• Water: 300 ml
• Cherry tomatoes: 300 g or whole pitted olives, green or black: 100 g
• Potatoes, small sized: 2
• Dried yeast: 30 g
• Salt: 15 g
• Sugar: 6 g
• Oregano, dried: to taste
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: about 4 tbsp for the dough and to taste for garnishing

Method

Peel the potatoes and boil them in unsalted water until they’re soft and cooked through. Crush the potatoes in a bowl.

Mix the Italian 00 white flour and the semolina flour together in a large bowl; create a hole in the centre of the flour and pour in the crushed potatoes.
Dissolve the yeast in 100 ml of water, making sure that it is lukewarm. If the water is too hot or too cold, it will not activate the yeast, and your focaccia will not rise.

Add the yeast to the dough and start kneading it.

Whilst kneading the dough, gradually add the oil, the salt, the sugar and the remaining water to the mixture. Your dough should be very soft and slightly wet, with a particularly sticky surface.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen cloth and leave the dough to rest for at least two hours. The dough must not be put to rest in the fridge, but rather in a place with a constant mild temperature; it should rise to double its size.

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.

Spread out the dough on a greased baking tray, distributing it evenly: according to the tradition, this step is completed only using one’s hands, and never a rolling pin. The tip of the fingers will help create the characteristic dimples where the oil collects in little puddles.

Distribute the cherry tomatoes on top of the focaccia, gently pushing them into the dough to ensure they adhere to its surface. Add a generous sprinkle of dried oregano, some salt grains and just a drizzle of oil.

Bake the focaccia at 180°C for 25 to 30 minutes and you’re ready to serve!

View attachment 17984

Beautiful!

 

[Morning Glory]

although 1 of them also uses a biga.

What is biga?