Mashed Potato Focaccia Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What is the best baking dish for focaccia bread? ›

I like to use a straight-sided 9 x 13-inch metal baking pan for this recipe, but a Pyrex 9 x 13-inch baking pan will do in a pinch. Before you start on the recipe, be sure to read all of the tips at Baking Together #28: Making and Baking No-Knead Focaccia.

Venetian focaccia is sweet, baked for Easter and resembles the traditional Christmas cake panettone. Sugar and butter are used instead of olive oil and salt. Focaccia barese, which is common in Puglia in southern Italy, is made with durum wheat flour and topped with salt, rosemary, tomatoes or olives.

The primary difference is how much yeast is added to the dough and therefore how much the dough is able to rise. Focaccias use more yeast, which gives it a lighter, fluffier texture than a traditional pizza dough and is more closely resembles leavened bread.

Focaccia made with high-protein bread flour produces the best results, but all-purpose flour will work as well.

This recipe, originally from Alexandra Cooks has been our go-to focaccia recipe. A pyrex glass casserole dish is perfect for a thicker bread that can be sliced for making sandwhiches. If not preparing overnight, let the mixed dough rise at room temperature for about 1.5 to 2 hours until doubled.

A moderate consumption of focaccia bread can be healthy. It is because complex carbs in focaccia offer the body energy slowly and help control blood sugar levels. In addition, it gains an advantage if it contains whole wheat flour. It is also rich in vitamin, mineral, and fibre content.

Focaccia bread can be topped with anything: olives, caramelized onions, herbs, sun-dried tomatoes or spinach. Today, I am sharing a simple focaccia bread recipe that is crispy on the outside and airy melt in your mouth inside.

Pizza Bianca

This classic bread is similar to focaccia, but it's not enriched with olive oil. Pizza bianca is chewier and less moist, but it makes a perfect snack (especially if you sprinkle it with a little sea salt and rosemary).

Potato bread hits each mark, with each bite somehow tender and substantial. Plus, adding potato to bread boosts its nutritional profile. Potatoes provide fiber comparable to whole-wheat bread, along with zinc, iron and a healthy jolt of potassium, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

So when you add potato to your bread dough you're upping the dough's starch content, effectively increasing the resulting loaf's total liquid retention — which translates to bread with soft, moist texture and a long shelf life.

Does focaccia contain potato? ›

Mashed potato – The unique inclusion of potato in the dough is what adds chew and body that you you don't otherwise get with a straight flour focaccia. It also helps the crumb retain moisture; Lots of olive oil! Any focaccia recipe worth its salt (or oil?) will call for lashings of olive oil for flavour.

But though pizza can stand in for a meal, focaccia is more of a snack, or at most an appetizer. In Italy, it's a popular walking-around food. Also, though cold pizza may have a certain raffish charm, focaccia really needs to be eaten when it's hot to be at its best.

Bread flour is slightly higher in protein than All-purpose, so gives the focaccia just a little more chew. I love the mix of both, but just AP flour works just fine too! See FAQ for using only AP flour in the recipe if that is what you have.

My bread tastes sour and yeasty

If your bread has a sour, yeasty flavour and smells of alcohol then you have either used too much yeast.or you may have use stale yeast or creamed fresh yeast with sugar.

Line a square ceramic dish (a brownie pan is perfect) with baking paper. This is not essential but I have had my bread stick to the bottom of the pan. Bake for 20-25minutes until golden and hollow when tapped.

If you are using glass baking dishes be sure to grease the dishes with butter before pouring a tablespoon of olive oil into each. (The butter will ensure the bread doesn't stick.) Don't touch the dough again for 2 to 4 hours depending on your environment.

Our favorite loaf pan is the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Loaf Pan, which baked picture-perfect loaves. We also liked the round-edged Nordic Ware Treat Nonstick Loaf Pan. It had handles, making it easy to pull out of the oven.

Most bakers prefer to bake loaves of bread in metal pans. Metal loaf pans conduct heat quickly and easily, which helps bake loaves evenly by allowing the heat to pass through the pan and into your dough.