Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia

I had a jar of leftover sun-dried tomatoes in the fridge, and needed an excuse to use them up. A pasta dish, or some form of bread were both possible ideas, but recently I felt motivated to revisit making focaccia. After a few failures and misses, I’ve been a little circumspect with no-knead bread with super wet dough. I simply couldn’t figure out the stretch and fold method, and my loaves end up stunted and dense. Since then I’ve avoided those recipes, but perhaps it was high time I got back up and faced this challenge.

I found a very informative, easy-to-follow video by Emma’s Goodies for focaccia, and used that as a base. One of the comments for that video suggested using the oil from the jar of the sun dried tomatoes, which I thought was an excellent idea. The aroma of the sun dried tomatoes became a real highlight and the bread smelled wonderful in the oven. The tomatoes did darken a bit too much this time around, so I’ve added a note here to tent the focaccia towards the end of baking.

Another thing I adjusted for future reference was the baking temperature and time. This focaccia didn’t turn out as crispy as I had expected, and I suspected that it was because the oven temperature was a little too low in the original recipe. I definitely want to make this again.

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Step by Step

In a large mixing bowl, add the water, salt, olive oil, and yeast. Whisk to thoroughly combine, until salt is completely dissolved.

Add the flour and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir to combine. The dough will be shaggy and sticky.

Scrape down the dough from the sides of the bowl. Cover and let rest, 30 minutes.

Perform the first series of stretch and folds. Wet your hand with water and, starting from the 12 o’ clock position, scoop up the dough and gently stretch upwards. Fold the dough towards the 6 o’ clock position. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat the stretch and fold. Rotate and repeat 2 or 3 more times, then cover and let rest, 30 minutes.

After a total of four series of stretch and folds, and a total rest time of about 2 hours, you can cover and let rest, another 30 minutes, or refrigerate overnight.

In a 9- by 13-inch tray lined with parchment paper, drizzle 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I used the oil from my jar of sun dried tomatoes. Spread the oil all over the base and sides of the tray.

The dough will be very puffy and bubbly at this point. Resist the urge to pop the bubbles. With the same oiled hand used to grease the tray, perform another series of stretch and folds on the dough, careful to maintain as many of the bubbles as possible.

Using two well-oiled hands, scoop up the dough and transfer to the oiled tray. Drizzle with more olive oil, and gently spread out. Cover and let rest, about 1 hour.

While the dough is resting, prepare the toppings. In a medium-sized bowl, add the sundried tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to thoroughly coat all the ingredients. Oiling the toppings will prevent them from burning while baking.

Place the oven rack on the bottom rung. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees C (fan 210 degrees C). It is highly recommended to choose the fan setting, if available.

When the dough is done resting, dimple the focaccia. Thoroughly oil both hands and, with your fingers spread out, gently press all 10 fingers into the dough to create indentations or ‘dimples.’ Do this all over the focaccia.

Spread all the toppings in an even layer. You can even stuff some of the toppings inside the dimples. Sprinkle with the salt flakes, if desired.

Bake in the oven until golden, 15 to 18 minutes. If the tomatoes are browning a little too fast, tent with aluminum foil.

When done, transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Wait for at least 10 minutes before slicing.