Raise your hand if you wouldn’t enjoy a soft and delicious slice of freshly baked focaccia. Focaccia with olives is really very, very soft, easy, and can be made with either yeast or natural leavening. It’s perfect for Saturday night dinner, as a snack for appetizers (cut into small squares), as a snack or as a finger food appetizer. Long fermentation contributes to the lightness, lasting softness, and digestibility of the final product. Focaccia with olives is completely vegetarian in its basic version, but we can enrich and personalize it as we like best.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 18 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 9
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 5.3 oz natural leavening
- 14.1 oz Type 1 flour
- 1 1/4 cups room temperature water
- 0.4 oz fine salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 12 green olives
- to taste sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
- 3.5 oz Type 1 flour
- 0.07 oz fresh yeast
- 1/4 cup room temperature water
Preparation
Procedure with natural leavening
Refresh the natural leavening, take only the amount you need, and let it rise until it doubles.
When the natural leavening is ready, transfer it to a large bowl along with the well-sifted flour and 200 ml (7/8 cup) of water.
Coarsely mix the ingredients, cover, and let rest for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, dissolve the fine salt in the remaining water and add it to the dough. Knead for about 10 minutes until all the ingredients are perfectly combined. You will get a very soft, sticky, and hydrated dough.
Cover the bowl completely with food wrap and place it in the fridge to mature for 12-16 hours.
After the resting time in the fridge, take out the bowl and let it stand at room temperature for an hour. After an hour, dust a work table with durum wheat semolina (it helps dry out the dough) and turn out the very soft dough; using a scraper and the durum wheat semolina, work it briefly, rolling it onto itself.
Oil a rectangular baking tray well and stretch the dough (slightly oil your hands).
Embed the pitted olives (left whole or halved) into the dough of our focaccia (you can also add other ingredients, such as sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies in oil, etc…) and let it rest for about half an hour.
Bake the focaccia with olives halfway up, in a preheated oven, at the maximum temperature. Let the focaccia cook for about 10/12 minutes or until it is evenly golden.
Procedure with yeast
Make a starter by mixing the 100 grams (3.5 oz) of flour and the water in which you have dissolved the yeast. Mix well and let rise (the dough will be very soft) well covered.
When the starter has doubled in volume, put it in a bowl, along with the 400 grams (14.1 oz) of well-sifted Type 1 flour and 200 ml (7/8 cup) of water. From this point on, we will follow the same procedure described for natural leavening.
We remind you that not all flours absorb liquids in the same quantity. If we decide to use another type of flour (for example, all-purpose, whole wheat, etc…), remember to pour the water gradually, until you get a very soft and sticky dough but not hard.
