FOCACCIA GENOVESE - ORIGINAL ITALIAN RECIPE
Ingredients
Dough
- 120 g (1 cup) bread flour Manitoba type, 14 g protein amount on 100 g flour
- 180 g (1+1/2 cup) all purpose flour 9 g protein amount on 100 g flour
- 2 g (3/4 tsp) instant dry yeast
- 170 g (2/3 cup+1/2 tbsp) water room temperature
- 6 g (1 tsp) honey
- 7 g (1 tsp) salt
- 15 g (1 tbsp+1/2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
Brine Topping
- 80 g (1/3 cup) water
- 6 g (3/4 tsp) salt
- 30 g (2 tbsp+1 tsp)) extra virgin olive oil
- Some exra virgin olive oil for brushing after baking
- Some flake/coarse salt for topping after baking
Instructions
Dough
- In a large bowl, mix the two flours with the yeast.
- Add about 3/4 of water, honey and mix with a spoon; when almost combined, knead by hands and add the remaining water: it could seem that the flour is too much, but keep on kneading until almost combined.
- Add salt and transfer the dough onto the work surface: knead 1-2 minutes until the salt is incorporated.
- Flatten a bit the dough then pour olive oil on top. Enclose the flattened dough and start kneading.
- Keep on kneading for about 10-15 minutes: the oil is completed absorbed, the dough turns out more elastic and soft, it is not sticky and it should be smooth but not completely smooth, just slightly rough.
- Form into a ball and place it into a large bowl slightly greased with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a slightly warm place (about 28°C) for about 1 hour or when it double in size.
- Grease a rectangular 34x26cm baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil. If you have a larger/smaller rectangular baking sheet, to know how many focaccia dough putting in, you should do this mathematical calculation: side(cm) x side(cm) : 2 -> 34 x 26 : 2 = 442 -> I should place about 442 g of dough in my baking sheet, and this recipe fits perfectly this baking tray size. if you add the weight of all the ingredients of the dough, you get 500 g which is fine even if it's not exactly 442 g.
- Roll the rised dough using a rolling pin into a rectangle slightly smaller than the size of baking sheet.I suggest to not sprinkle flour onto your work surface while rolling the dough: if you add too much flour, the dough will turn out too dry. Roll it gently and keep on peeling it off the work surface so it doesn't stick.
- Transfer the dough into the greased baking sheet, seal with plastic wrap on top and let it rest fot about 20 minutes.
- After this resting time, the dough is relaxed: using your fingers, stretch the rectangular dough to perfectly fit the baking sheet. It should be pretty thin (sbout 1 cm thick).
- Seal with plastic wrap on top and let it rise in a warm place (about 28°C) for about 90 minutes. It's ready when it rises a bit: it should be about 2 cm thick.
- Slightly sprinkle on top of your rised focaccia a small amount of flour (this will create a watery batter when you'll pour the topping), then using your fingers, create deep holes: press down until your fingers touch the bottom of the pan (cut your nails short or you'll break the dough :P).
Brine Topping and Baking
- In a pitcher (or a squeeze bottle) mix water and salt until dissolved, then add extra virgin olive oil and whisk hard: you should get an emulsion, water and oil should be mixed and not separated.
- Pour all this brine topping on top of your focaccia: all the holes should be completely filled by the topping.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 20 minutes until preheat your oven. Preheat the oven at 240°C-460°F.
- Bake in preheated oven (NO fan, upper+lower heat) at 230°C-450°F for about 10-12 minutes or until golden on top and at the bottom. Do not overbake or it will turn out dry.
- Remove immediately from the baking sheet, brush the top with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil until shiny, add some flake/coarse salt.
- Cut with a serrated knife in 8 pieces and serve immediately!
Video
Notes
Hello, I am Valentina! Welcome to How Tasty!
I am an Italian girl in love with baking and cooking. I’ve been raised in a cooking family, baking since I was a little girl and learning from my mom and my professional chef grandma.
I created the Youtube channel How Tasty in 2017 to share with you my passion.
You don’t need to be a professional cook to follow all my recipes thanks to the video tutorials and the tips & hints you can find here.
Let’s cook!
Tips:
To make a real Genovese Focaccia, you need a medium strength flour: about W 280.
Since most of the flours found in the supermarket do not report the strength (W) of the flour itself, the trick is to look at the nutritional table under the heading “protein”.
For the Genovese Focaccia you should use a white wheat flour that has about 12% protein.
Since I don’t have a similar flour at home, I combined a part of Manitoba type bread flour (14 g of protein) with an all purpose flour (about 9 g protein).
You can also make a focaccia entirely with an all purpose flour, in this case you will probably have to modify the amount of water. I still recommend looking for an all purpose flour that still has a good amount of protein (at least 9-10%) for a better result.
One of the typical characteristics of the Genoese focaccia is that it is a maximum of 2 cm high, pretty thin for the Focaccias that are often seen lately on internet.
If you are looking for a very tall focaccia, with an almost rubbery consistency, Focaccia Genovese is not for you.
Its external consistency is quite crunchy and the inside soft, but still with a good chewiness.
The other fundamental characteristic of the Focaccia Genovese is its flavor of extra virgin olive oil.
Not only is it kneaded with this, but it is also covered with an irresistible salty brine made with this oil. Its typical dimples are filled with this brine!
For this reason I always recommend using a good quality extra virgin olive oil to have a perfect result.
Surely you are wondering: what does cappuccino have to do with a savory focaccia?
I’ll tell you right away: in Genoa it is tradition to have breakfast with focaccia dipped in cappuccino! It may seem strange, I know it, but try it if you want to be a real Genoese for a day…and let me know!
