Saturday Bake: Focaccia, Two Ways Working thread

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Morning, everybody. Today we’re baking focaccia, and we’re doing it two ways so nobody sits this one out. If you keep a starter alive, there’s a path for you. If you don’t, there’s a path for you too. Same bread, two roads, and neither one is the lesser version.

Here’s how the day works.

The yeasted path (bake today). This is your same-day bake. Mix this morning, let it rise while you go about your Saturday, dimple it, oil it, bake this afternoon. Warm focaccia on the table by dinner. If you’ve never made focaccia before, start here. It’s the most forgiving loaf you’ll ever pull out of an oven.

The sourdough path (start today, bake tomorrow).

Focaccia with a levain is an overnight bread. Mix it today, let it bulk slow, cold-proof it in the pan overnight, and bake tomorrow morning. If you fed your starter last night and it’s ready to go, you can run it on a longer same-day schedule, but don’t rush it. The tang and the open crumb come from the wait.

Two things that decide whether your focaccia is good or just fine, no matter which path you take:

More oil than feels reasonable. In the pan and on top. Focaccia fries a little on its bottom. That’s the point.

Bake it darker than feels comfortable. Pale focaccia is underbaked focaccia. Push the color.

Now the part that makes it a bake-along. Post in this thread as you go. Show me your dough after the first rise. Show me the dimples before it bakes. Show me the crumb when you tear into it. If something looks off, post it and ask. Somebody here has hit the same wall and climbed over it, and that’s the whole reason we bake together on Saturdays.

Recipe’s here so you’re not guessing:

Free Recipe Pantry, focaccia recipe: https://recipepantry.app/recipes/summer-garden-focaccia

https://recipepantry.app/recipes/sourdough-summer-garden-focaccia

Hunter

Members, the market version with the scale slider and cost math lives in Recipe Pantry Pro: https://from-oven-to-market.lovable.app/pro

I’ll be in the thread all day. Post your bakes.

Perfection is not required. Progress is.

Henry.⭐️🔥

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Saturday Bake: Focaccia, Two Ways Working thread