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Spicy Garlic Focaccia

food
5
food
245 mins
bread
side dish
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by Natasha
Published on 18 August 2022
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I’ve recently dug deeper into bread-making this past month. In the past, I’ve always thought of bread as something that’s very plain and dull, but boy have I been proven wrong. Now, I think I like making bread because my house has no more room to store them anymore!

The recent bread that I’ve made is called Focaccia. I’ve seen it a lot lately, scrolling through Instagram and TikTok. What caught my eye was the method of making Focaccia. The moment before baking, you need to dimple the dough and make little holes in the dough and bubbles of gas come up to the surface. Making a very interesting texture, indeed.

So what is Focaccia? Focaccia is a type of flatbread, which originated in Italy. The texture might be slightly similar to a pizza dough but it has a much crispier outer layer and the most fluffy interior. Focaccia is one of the most common Italian bread that’s used as a side dish or in sandwich-type dishes. The ingredients are fairly simple: bread flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt. These are the main components of making Focaccia. The other ingredients are add-ons/customized.

To be honest, I’ve never tasted one before so I was also curious to see how good it was since the internet has been over-hyping it for the past few years.

As I’ve searched and searched through the internet, I find that it’s usually paired with either garlic or herbs and always and only uses olive oil.

Keep in mind that other ingredients in this recipe besides the 5 main components are just add-ons so you can always substitute to your own liking. And what’s great is that you don’t need any electric mixers, whatsoever. There’s also no kneading when it comes to this bread.

This bread will be 22x15cm in size (rectangle), but feel free to use any flat surfaced baking pans you want.

Since I love to eat spicy food so much, I decided to make this Focaccia spicy. I used chilli oil instead of olive oil for the top and added chicken bouillon powder, garlic slices, bird’s eye chilli pods and black pepper.

If you love spicy food and want to try something new, this is the perfect recipe for you!

Additional notes*

  1. There is no sugar in this recipe so the dough needs a longer time to rise.
  2. You have the option to use a mixer but it’s not needed.
  3. Folding/stretching the dough and turning the bowl 90 degrees helps to get all sides of the dough evenly.
  4. This bread has a lot of moisture so it’s more sticky than other doughs.
  5. Feel free to use any flat baking pans you want.

Spicy Garlic Focaccia

by Natasha
servings
8 people
prep time
210 mins
dish type
Bread
cook time
35 mins
course
Side dish
total time
245 mins

ingredients

  • For the focaccia

    • 237 gramwater
    • 2.3 gramyeast
    • 260 grambread flour
    • 6 gramsalt
    • 0.13 tspchicken bouillon powder
    • 10 gramolive oil(for dough)
    • 20 gramolive oil(for bowl)
    • 20 gramchilli oil
    • 3 clovesgarlic
    • 2 podsbird's eye chilli
    • 0.5 tspsalt(for topping)
    • 0.25 tspblack pepper(for topping)
    • 10 gramolive oil(for pan)
    • 10 gramolive oil(as needed, for working the dough)

instructions

Making the spicy garlic focaccia

  1. Take the water and heat it up on the stove until it reaches about 105-110 degrees celsius (lukewarm).
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  2. In a large bowl, add water and yeast together. Mix it.
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  3. Add your flour gradually, in 3 parts. Pour 1/3rd for each part. You want to mix after each part.
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  4. Mix the mixture for about 5 minutes, or until it comes together.
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  5. Add the salt (6 gr) and mix again until fully incorporated.
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  6. Drizzle in the olive oil (10 gr - for dough) and mix until fully incorporated.
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  7. Keep mixing the dough for approx. 5 mins.
  8. In a smaller bowl, add 20 grams of olive oil. Spread the oil around the bowl until it reaches ⅔ of the edge of the bowl.
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  9. Place the dough in the bowl of olive oil. Carefully add olive oil from the sides of the bowl, and carefully use it to cover the top of the dough.
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  10. This dough is fairly sticky, so add a bit of olive oil from the bowl to cover the surface of the plastic wrap which face the dough so it doesn’t stick to it.
  11. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
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  12. When the dough has doubled in size, to check your dough is ready, poke the surface and the dough should bounce back. If it is still not ready, let it rest for 10-15 more minutes.
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  13. Add a bit of olive oil to cover your hands (about 5 gr) and start to lift the dough up to stretch it, put it down, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this about 5 times.
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  14. In a flat baking pan (22x15cm), add olive oil (10 gr) and use your fingers to spread the oil evenly across the surface of the pan.
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  15. Place the dough onto the baking pan and stretch it, covering the surface of the pan.
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  16. Take plastic wrap that’s covered with olive oil and wrap the pan. Rest in the fridge for an hour to let it rise slowly.
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  17. Slice garlic and chilli pods.
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  18. In a bowl, add chilli oil, sliced garlic, sliced chillies and chicken bouillon powder. Mix until well combined.
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  19. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees celsius.
  20. Take a bit of olive oil on your fingers and make a claw-shape with your hands. Poke the dough to the bottom of the pan with your fingers. Do this in various patterns until you see an even amount of holes in your dough.
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  21. Drizzle and spread your topping using a spoon. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top.
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  22. Bake the bread for about 35 mins. or until golden and crispy on top.
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  23. When it’s done baking, let it cool for 5-10 mins. Then take a knife and run it across the sides of the pan to loosen the bread.
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bread
side dish
spicy
olive oil
bread
garlic
focaccia
flat bread
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Natasha
Bake it till you make it!