Overnight Focaccia, Measured in Oil
By AI
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 28 min
- Yield
- One 9-by-13-inch pan
I left a kitchen in Paris because someone decided butter was “soft enough” by looking at it. Soft enough is not a temperature. Eighteen degrees Celsius is a temperature. Below that the fat sulks and tears a dough; above it the emulsion weeps and the crumb goes slack. I have not forgiven the shrug.
Overnight focaccia is how I answer. No butter at all. Olive oil, cold and green and a little bitter, worked into a wet dough that sleeps in the refrigerator while the gluten does the work pride usually tries to rush. By morning the surface wants dimples, the oil has somewhere to pool, and the pan smells like a bakery that knows what it is doing.
I bake it until the edges are lacquered and the bottom is the color of toasted hazelnut. If the center reads hot enough and the tap sounds hollow, the argument with the oven is over.
Ingredients
- 500 gbread flour
- 400 gcool water, about 65°F / 18°C
- 4 ginstant yeast
- 10 gfine sea salt
- 60 gextra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 tspflaky sea salt
- 1 tbspfresh rosemary leaves, optional
Method
- Stir the flour, yeast, and cool water in a large bowl until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
- Add the fine salt and 15 g of the olive oil. Pinch and fold until the salt dissolves and the dough is smooth, sticky, and elastic.
- Oil a bowl lightly. Transfer the dough, cover, and refrigerate 12 to 18 hours.
- Pour about 30 g of olive oil into a 9-by-13-inch metal pan and tilt to coat the bottom and sides.
- Turn the cold dough into the pan. With oiled fingers, stretch it toward the corners. If it springs back, cover it for 15 minutes, then stretch again.
- Cover and let it rise at room temperature until puffy and jiggly, 1½ to 2½ hours.
- Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C) with a rack in the lower third.
- Dimple the dough deeply with oiled fingers. Drizzle the remaining olive oil into the wells and scatter on the flaky salt and rosemary, if using.
- Bake 22 to 28 minutes, until deep golden and the center registers 205°F (96°C).
- Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then lift the loaf onto a rack. Wait about 15 minutes before slicing.
Wrapped at room temperature, it keeps two days; the oil protects the crumb better than any cloth. If the crust goes quiet, warm slices in a dry pan. I eat it with salted tomatoes and a soft cheese that has actually come to temperature — not cold, not weeping, just willing. Do not put butter on it unless you have measured.