Name: Focaccia
Yield: Makes 3 large loaves
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: approx 250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup cool water; 15 ml /1 tbsp malt extract; 100 ml /3½ fl oz /scant 2 cups extra virgin olive oil; 500 g /¼ lb/4½ cups strong white bread flour; 10 ml /2 tsp salt; 500 ml /17 fl oz /generous 2 cups water, at room temperature; 10 g /¼ oz fresh yeast; 500 g /1¼ lb/4½ cups strong white bread flour

Preparation info

Makes
3
large loaves

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Wood-fired Oven Cookbook

By Holly Jones and David Jones

Published 2016

About

These Italian hearth breads are deliciously infused with olive oil and are perfect to bake in a very hot oven. The bread will have more flavour and a lighter texture if made with a pre-fermented starter or ‘biga’, so you need to start 3 days in advance.

Ingredients

For the Biga

500 g /1¼ lb/4½ cups strong white bread flour
500

Method

For the biga, dissolve the yeast in the water, then mix with the flour until all the flour is absorbed. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight. Longer fermentation will give a more complex flavour and add a little acidity to the bread. In this case you can refrigerate the biga and leave it for up to 72 hours.