The Best Overnight (Worth it!) Focaccia with Herbs and Shallots
Black pepper herb focaccia is crisp and golden on the outside and light and soft on the inside. It is studded with olive oil, herbs, shallots salt + pepper.
Servings: 1 large sheet pan
Ingredients
- 6 cups all purpose flour more is needed (see notes)
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp room temp water
- 1 package of active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp)
- pinch of sugar or honey
- ¼ cup warm water for the yeast
- 2 ½ tbsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper finely ground
- ¼ cup + 3 tbsp. olive oil divided
- 1 medium-large shallot thinly sliced
- 3 springs of rosemary leaves removed and chopped
- flaked salt + black pepper for topping
Instructions
- Attach a dough hook to your stand mixer. Combine flour and 2 ¼ cups water in the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low speed to just incorporate. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and incorporate dry flour sitting at the bottom of the bowl until a shaggy dough is formed
- Prepare your yeast. Add yeast and sugar to a small bowl. Slowly pour warm water over and stir with a fork to dissolve the yeast. Let that sit 5 minutes, until nice and foamy and the yeast is active
- Once foamy, pour yeast mixture over your shaggy dough in the stand mixer. Mix together on low speed to incorporate all of the liquid, then bump the speed up to medium adding salt and pepper. Let the mixer knead the dough until a very sticky and elasticy dough forms, about 4-5 minutes. The dough will stick to the sides of the bowl
- Add ¼ cup olive oil to a large bowl and coat the entire bowl. Using a bench scraper or spatula, scrape the dough into the oiled bowl, allowing the dough to sit in the olive oil. Cover and place in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 2 ½ hours.
- Once doubled in size, cover a large sheet pan with the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Using a bench scraper or spatula fold the dough over itself 3 times to very gently deflate the dough slightly then scrape the dough onto the baking sheet. Once on the baking sheet fold the dough over itself 2 more times, very gently and cover for 20 minutes.
- After the 20 minute rest, with well oiled hands, gently stretch the dough across the length of the entire baking sheet, working all the way to every corner of the baking sheet, careful not to tear the dough, be super gentle.
- Cover with a well oiled sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper and refrigerate for overnight-minimum 12 hours maximum 48 hours
- Remove from fridge and let the dough(still covered we don’t want it to dry out) come to temp in a warm spot for 45 minutes to 1 hour to let the dough rise again and preheat oven to 450F
- Remove the plastic and drizzle heavily with more olive oil 3-4 tablespoons will be perfect. Firmly press your fingers into the dough all the way to the bottom of the pan to make dimples all over the dough.
- Add your rosemary, shallots and a generous amount of sea salt or flaked maldon salt and bake for 25-30 minutes until it is a golden brown all over the top
- Let cool in pan for 15 minutes and then using a metal spatula loosen the focaccia from the pan and place on a cooling rack to cool entirely
Notes
*Notes about storage and making it in advance all in the blog post!
*All flour is different. You may need a bit more flour if you feel your dough is too wet.
(By that I mean, if there is still water sitting anywhere in your bowl) Add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until you wet a sticky dough.
*All flour is different. You may need a bit more flour if you feel your dough is too wet.
(By that I mean, if there is still water sitting anywhere in your bowl) Add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until you wet a sticky dough.