For the last few months, I’ve been baking loaves of schiacciata, a Tuscan flatbread similar to focaccia, mainly because it’s fairly straightforward and delicious and makes for a pretty excellent sandwich bread. Last fall I found myself wanting to make a loaf of focaccia to make panini sandwiches and I wasn’t happy with the recipes I had, so I decided to search to see if I could find the type of bread that All’Antico Vinaio uses, as their sandwiches are epically good. That led me to Urban Farm and Kitchen’s recipe, and now I’m going to sing its praises below the jump.
You start by making a Poolish starter in which you mix yeast, flour, and water together and let it sit for 12-14 hours until it’s nice and bubbly. I really like this because it’s not nearly as time-consuming to fuss over like a sourdough starter, but you get a lot of flavor development all the same. (Truth be told, I once only had time to let it go for six hours, and it still came out pretty well.)
You then combine the Poolish with more flour, water, olive oil, and salt, where it will form a very shaggy dough:
Then starts a process of resting, stretching, and folding. After you stir together the dough once, cover it, let it rest for 30 minutes, and then uncover and do a 360 stretch and fold. Lightly wetting your hands, stretch the dough in your right hand, folding it over on itself, and then turn the bowl 90 degrees. Stretch the dough again and fold it onto itself, and repeat this two more times until you’ve gone around the bowl. Cover the dough and let it sit for another 30 minutes before doing another stretch and fold session, let it rest, and then repeat this sequence two more times. Ideally, you’ll have four stretch-and-fold sessions over two hours, and the dough will look far smoother and more pliable:
You'll then want to preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and while it’s coming to temperature, generously grease a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil and gently guide the dough into the pan. If you can’t easily stretch it to fill the pan (I have yet to see this happen myself), let it rest for 45-60 minutes (the full hour is better in my experience) so it can relax and you’ll find it far easier to stretch and form into your loaf, dimpling it with your fingers and making sure that the olive oil gets all over. Sprinkle with some flaky sea salt or kosher salt, and then bake for 20-25 minutes until it’s nice and warm and golden brown. Remove from the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack before cutting into it either with scissors or a bread knife.
I love how this bread recipe requires no fancy equipment save for an oven, and if you want further detail, definitely check out Luay Ghafari’s recipe linked above for even more photos. Stay tuned for some ways I’ve been enjoying this bread so far!
