Hand full of chopped olives.
280 flour.
175 water.
TSP yeast.
TSP salt (but I opted for less.)
TSP sugar.
2 Tbsp olive oil (I used rapeseed as higher smoke point and had at hand.)
Added yeast, suger to warm water and left to sit, added the yeast mixture after foaming to the flour I mixed and it wasn’t as watery as expected. Then added chopped olives, and rapeseed oil, every 30 minutes i gentally folded the dough, after2 hours i then placed in well oiled baking tray stretched dough to size, dimpled and let sit for 30 minutes - second rise. Placed in preheated oven at 200c for 25 minutes.
The result was a crispy outer, and a cake like crumb cooked through.
I knocked up a batch to cook tomorrow which is wetter and leaving in the fridge to later cook tomorrow.
That hydration is way too low. The recipe I use is 710g water and 850g flour which is over 83% hydration, your recipe is only 62.5% hydration. Even my normal bread recipe is higher hydration than that.
Also it’s focaccia, you can’t swap out the olive oil that is the defining ingredient and you need a ton of it. The bread should essentially be frying in oil while cooking.
I would also agree with stealth_cookies. In terms of hydration we just calculate the ratio of water / flour in a percentage form. So 175 / 280 is definitely too low for a bread-like food, just like focaccia. By using a higher hydration ratio we can get way more airiness on the cost of harder folding due to stickiness, but we use a simple trick for that. In my case I use the same methods and similar ratios as her, but with sourdough (https://youtu.be/O1WQTKuWWfM).
If you feel unconfident with handling high hydration doughs, then you could just start with 200g water, which would be 71.5%. I always go with a 75% or a bit higher hydration tbf. I would try to follow the steps as shown in the video, but generally speaking your steps seems to be good. Also to combat the stickiness when you’re folding, you can just sprinkle your hand with some water and do the folding via that way. Don’t worry, after every 20-30 min of resting, the stickiness of the dough will noticeably decrease or even vanish away completely.
stealth_cookies also mentioned the requirement of using olive oil. I would generally agree with this as well, but since olive oil is the “liquid gold”, I tried using a simple vegetable oil as a replacement on my last focaccia and while the taste difference can maybe be a bit noticeable if you’re examining it thoroughly, but it’s still really great without strictly using olive oil as well.
EDIT: Also preferably use a bread flour instead of all-purpose, since the former can make a better gluten network structure and provide more airiness, but it’s not the end of the world if you prefer to remain with all-purpose.
I believe its
Hand full of chopped olives. 280 flour. 175 water. TSP yeast. TSP salt (but I opted for less.) TSP sugar. 2 Tbsp olive oil (I used rapeseed as higher smoke point and had at hand.)Added yeast, suger to warm water and left to sit, added the yeast mixture after foaming to the flour I mixed and it wasn’t as watery as expected. Then added chopped olives, and rapeseed oil, every 30 minutes i gentally folded the dough, after2 hours i then placed in well oiled baking tray stretched dough to size, dimpled and let sit for 30 minutes - second rise. Placed in preheated oven at 200c for 25 minutes.
The result was a crispy outer, and a cake like crumb cooked through.
I knocked up a batch to cook tomorrow which is wetter and leaving in the fridge to later cook tomorrow.
That hydration is way too low. The recipe I use is 710g water and 850g flour which is over 83% hydration, your recipe is only 62.5% hydration. Even my normal bread recipe is higher hydration than that.
Also it’s focaccia, you can’t swap out the olive oil that is the defining ingredient and you need a ton of it. The bread should essentially be frying in oil while cooking.
Just realised what I did, so I made two batches one after the other. My first batch:
235g Warm Water 1 tsp Salt 1.5 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (plus more for the tray) 3.5g Yeast 280g Bread Flour TSP sugarThis is the one thats water and sitting over night in the fridge.
Then on to the second batch. Which I felt I could do again from my brain and completely fumbled 😂😭😂
I will hopefully have a post tomorrow with picture. No olive oil as I am broke.
I would also agree with stealth_cookies. In terms of hydration we just calculate the ratio of water / flour in a percentage form. So 175 / 280 is definitely too low for a bread-like food, just like focaccia. By using a higher hydration ratio we can get way more airiness on the cost of harder folding due to stickiness, but we use a simple trick for that. In my case I use the same methods and similar ratios as her, but with sourdough (https://youtu.be/O1WQTKuWWfM).
If you feel unconfident with handling high hydration doughs, then you could just start with 200g water, which would be 71.5%. I always go with a 75% or a bit higher hydration tbf. I would try to follow the steps as shown in the video, but generally speaking your steps seems to be good. Also to combat the stickiness when you’re folding, you can just sprinkle your hand with some water and do the folding via that way. Don’t worry, after every 20-30 min of resting, the stickiness of the dough will noticeably decrease or even vanish away completely.
stealth_cookies also mentioned the requirement of using olive oil. I would generally agree with this as well, but since olive oil is the “liquid gold”, I tried using a simple vegetable oil as a replacement on my last focaccia and while the taste difference can maybe be a bit noticeable if you’re examining it thoroughly, but it’s still really great without strictly using olive oil as well.
EDIT: Also preferably use a bread flour instead of all-purpose, since the former can make a better gluten network structure and provide more airiness, but it’s not the end of the world if you prefer to remain with all-purpose.