Churro focaccia
Plus some recent focaccia knowledge you're gonna want to know about
If this is your first time tuning in for one of my focaccia recipes, welcome. This is truly the best one that you could have possibly chosen. If you’ve made many, listen up! I’ve changed a few things around here.
Recently, I’ve felt like my dough is over-proofing. I’m not quite getting the lift that I’m used to, which makes sense given the recent heat in Maryland. I’ve also been getting a ton of questions about how to get the bottom of the focaccia dark and crispy. My main thought on this topic is that the darker the baking vessel, the darker your crust. Which means that a glass casserole dish is only ever going to yield a light, spongey crust and a cast iron pan or something like this will automatically give you a darker crust.
My friend Jen, who owns Bakers Bench in LA, imparted some additional wisdom on the topic, that was truly news to me! We need to be mixing our dough longer, people! Mixing strengthens the gluten and leads to a better rise, better structure, and unexpectedly (to me anyways) a better crust. Historically, I’ve been more worried about over-mixing than under-mixing. Because I fold my dough into thirds every 20 minutes for an hour after the dough is mixed, I figured that this was enough.
As a result, I’ve been mixing my dough way longer—about 10-15 minutes for the flour and water and then another 15 minutes after adding the salt and yeast. That, in addition to my usual folds has led to a much fluffier, more elastic dough. Furthermore, the bread has been popping out of the pans so much easier once baked. The more you know.
There’s so much to know about bread and it’s always changing as the temperature and humidity shift. Additionally, because we use a local flour, I find that the character changes season to season more than your standard grocery store flour. I’ve updated the recipe to reflect this change. Let me know if you try it! I’m so excited to hear what you think!
Note, before we get into the recipe: This works best to bake in a smaller baking vessel like this 1/8 tray because it’s easier to fully coat the focaccia in the cinnamon sugar mixture. It’s also best to remove the focaccia from its baking vessel as soon as it’s out of the oven because that yields the crispiest crust.
