You can create soft, fluffy focaccias using any of our ready-made doughs: Rosemary Dough, Classic Pizza Dough or Beetroot Dough. With this guide we’ve prepared, you’ll be making delicious focaccias in no time!
As you know, our dough is prepared fresh in our bakery using premium quality ingredients and tried and tested processes. Everything is carefully selected and made to achieve the best possible results.
After kneading all the ingredients and the initial development of gluten, the dough is rested for hours (usually from 24 to 48 hours, depending on recipe) in cool temperatures, slowing down the fermentation process so that structure and flavors can develop in a more controlled way.
When the proofing process is completed, we create the dough balls and after a short rest, we flash freeze them. This way, the dough arrives to you with all the freshness and the quality locked in, ready to create amazing pizzas, focaccias or a variety of recipes in your own oven.
In this guide we explain how to prepare and shape the dough, what to use, and how to set up your oven to create an italian specialty – the amazing Focaccia!
Step 1: Defrosting the Dough
First thing to do is to defrost the dough ball. The best thing to do is to remove the dough from the freezer and place it in the fridge for about 12 hours, still in the bag it arrived in. Alternatively, leave it at room temperature for about 3 – 4 hours until it thaws completely.
If you need to defrost the dough in a hurry, you can place it in some lukewarm water. It should thaw in about an hour. This method does not provide the best results, so best to stick with the slower methods.
When it comes to dough, it is all about time and temperature. Given enough time and a cosy room temperature, you will get amazing results from your dough.
Step 2: Reaching the right temperature
Once thawed, your dough will need a few hours at room temperature to rest and relax (don’t we all?). Remove the dough from the bag, place it in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth. It will take about an hour for the dough to be ready for baking, but given more time, the end product will be even better.
Tip: Our dough is made in standard 220 gram portions, but if you want to make a bigger focaccia, just use more dough balls together in this step. While proofing, they will stick to each other forming a single mass of dough.
Once you notice the dough has risen, and it is nice and relaxed, it is ready to go. How do you know when the dough is relaxed, you ask? Do the poke-test – poke the dough with your finger, and if the dough springs right back, it’s not yet ready. If it springs back slowly, leaving a small indent where you poked it, it’s good to go!
Step 3: Shaping the Focaccia
Now we’re getting to the fun part and what is the first step in shaping your focaccia. This is when you want to turn on your oven (set it to 220˚ C), so it heats up by the time your focaccia is ready to bake.
Place the dough in an oiled baking pan and start gently pressing it out with your fingers. Use the bottom side of the tips of your fingers, and press down and out at the same time, spreading the dough to fill-in your whole baking tin.
Tip: For a nice, tall focaccia use a well fitting baking tin. For one portion (220g) of our dough, use a tin that is about 10 – 15 cm in diameter. If your baking tin is around 20 x 20 cm, you will want to use two portions of dough.
Once stretched, let it rest for another 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare your oil emulsion that you’ll use to finish the focaccia. Equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and water, mixing it until you achieve a uniform emulsion. Best done in a small bottle.
Step 4: Baking the Focaccia
Your dough is now rested and ready to bake. It is time for your fingers to get busy again. Cover the focaccia generously with your oil emulsion, this will make the top of the focaccia nice and crusty, simply delicious! Use your fingers to create those characteristic dimples in the focaccia – just press down, allowing the oil emulsions to fill in the indentations left by your fingers.
Sprinkle with some salt flakes, bits of fresh rosemary, and transfer it to you pre-heated oven. It will take 12-15 minutes for your focaccia to be fully baked on 220˚ C.
ENJOY! Your focaccia is baked! You don’t need instructions for what’s next 🙂 Please share your creations using hashtag #truepizza
Frequently Asked Questions about Focaccia
Can I reheat the focaccia?
You most definitely can reheat your focaccia, and here’s a trick that will work for any type of stale bread. Heat up the oven, get it to 220˚ C. Run the bread under running water, directly under the faucet just for a second, don’t soak it, just get the crust wet.
Place the focaccia in the hot ove, on a rack placed in the middle of the oven. It will need about 8 minutes in the oven, depending on the thickness of the bread.
My dough doesn’t stretch, it tears and resists shaping
If your dough is resisting your attempts to shape it, it is probably not yet ready, not relaxed enough or the temperature of the dough is too low.
Best thing to do is to just let it rest some more. Remember the poke test – poke the dough with your finger, and if the dough springs right back, it’s not yet ready. If it springs back slowly, leaving a small indent where you poked it, it’s good to go!
Usually, when working with any rising dough, you want to give it time and a cosy temperature. The more time you allow for the dough to rise, the better the results will be.