First time making focaccia,
560g BRM bread flour
470g Water
8g yeast (recipe called for 7, i put 8 by mistake)
2 tsp salt
15ml olive oil.
Did 3 stretch and folds (4-5 folds, stretch till it starts to “give strength”), 30mins apart. Transferred to a bigger bowl, but the last folds kind of disassembled so I redid them, then I put the dough covered in the fridge for 10 hours (overnight). Woke up today, gave it another stretch and fold and let it rest in the tray, smooth side up, covered with another flipped tray, towel on top, in the oven with lights on for a couple of mins (to warm to oven, maybe got to 28°C, cause it’s cold outside). lastly I dimpled it, put the toppings and into the oven at ~200°c, convection for 22mins then 3 minutes under the broiler.
by Novel_Bass6032
22 Comments
The second proof only being a couple minutes seems like the problem. My second proof After an overnight is about an hour. Try the King Arthur focaccia recipe.
**Final proof was two hours, that “for a couple minutes” I wrote was meant for the lights of the oven being on -> then proof for two hours.
Couldn’t edit the text.
8g of yeast is quite a lot if you don’t move quickly enough.
Your looks overproved simply because the fermentation doesn’t stop in the fridge right away but it actually takes a few good hours before it slows down significantly.
This is not an answer to your question but you really should wait to cut the bread until it’s cooled down.
First, for a dough this wet, after you do the initial set of stretch and folds, I would then switch to coil folds every 20 minutes for two to four additional sets until it feels really good. I would omit folds altogether on the second day.
Second, if you’re mixing the olive oil into the dough, don’t. Keep it lean until on the second day, you dump it into a pan coated with olive oil on the bottom, and then after dimpling and the second rise, put a ton of olive oil on top as well. But try to keep the dough lean.
Last, bake it hotter.
Edit: also, maybe use a bigger pan. I wonder if the dough is being weighed down by itself because it’s so tall. Looking at it more closely, your gluten formation actually looks pretty good.
Just to jump on the bandwagon, King Arthur is well written and always ends up good – great. I find it’s helpful to start with a known good recipe, then learn how to play with all of the many other variables slowly until you find your own recipe tweaks that work best for your taste, equipment, house, ingredients, etc.
I actually use a higher yeast ratio than you and get giant fluffy bubbles, so I don’t think it’s the amount of yeast
Some things I might do differently than you:
– higher hydration dough (89%) enables bigger bubbles
– water is 77F-80F (temp with thermometer, critical)
– autolyse flour+water for 30min before adding yeast and water (important for developing gluten structure before slap and folds. Structure holds the bubbles)
– mix for 4min in stand mixer
– 4x slap and fold every 30min
After taking it out of the fridge, the dough needs to fully come up to room temp before you consider it starting to proof. Otherwise, you’re not really proofing it as long as you think you are. You should be able to see big bubbles in your dough before dimpling. If you don’t have big jiggly bubbles before putting it in the oven, you won’t have big jiggly bubbles after.
too much dough too short proofing
Slicing hot bread like a psychopath
It at least looks cute on the outside!
What do you mean by the folds “disassembled themselves so you redid them?” Focaccia will slacken while resting due to its moisture content, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to add more folds than the recipe calls for. More developed gluten = fewer big air bubbles in my experience.
Pretty sure that’s just under proofed especially depending on what the temperature of your water was when you did the initial mix. I am a big fan of the king Arthur focaccia recipe, where I get very large bubbles and a very good crumb.
To compare I use 95°f water and the folding section takes about an hour with folds every 15 minutes. And then it needs to bulk proof for about an hour. And then you dump it onto the pan it’s going to cook and proof for a further 1.5 hours. So it looks like your initial bulk fermentation is quite a bit less and then it’s not going to prove that much in the fridge depending on the temperature your dough was when you put it in there. And then even if you proof it for a couple hours once you take it out of the fridge sometimes takes even longer. You really want the dough to be a little bit jiggly and wobbly. Don’t be afraid to let it go for a while because it’s very difficult to over proof focaccia.
As karma for slicing steaming hot bread on a cooling rack.
When you took it out of the fridge, did you let it sit to room temperature first?
I let mine sit to room temperature instead of putting it in the oven
Yup it’s ruined. Too bad. You can send it to me for proper disposal.
Jk, that looks delish and now I want to make bread.
You cut it on the cooling rack?
It’s not underproofed, obviously. With 8 g of yeast that it impossible. You simply have too much yeast, for this amount of dough use 2g. When dough raises too fast you get this type of even structure with small bubbles.
Help my steak is too tender in my lobster too buttery
for the future dont cut bread open still steaming thafs a quick way to get steam burns.
second, dont cut it on the cooling rack. your poor knife.
Knew as soon as I saw that steam there’d be critiques, comment section didn’t disappoint.
I would say more mixing time, more folds, and more development time.
You have bubbles at the top, your gas just isn’t well distributed throughout. Likely due to handling and degassing, or not enough organisation of the gluten in the beginning. (Do more, or better folding).
It still looks good, and I’m sure it will taste great. I’d happily eat it. Just keep practicing your folds and handling. Learn to read your dough.
Not cutting it warm helps “set the crumb” but waiting until it’s cool isn’t going to make any difference to York gluten structure. I like warm bread too, I normally make two loaves and get stuck in to one straight from the oven whilst the other one cools – you’re in your own house; eat and cut your bread how, when and where you want 😂