I wanted to make some focaccia for an apéritif dinatoire the same day, and my sourdough starter was dozing in the fridge. What to do? A spot of research, and I found a no-knead recipe on the blog Un déjeuner de soleil — in French, but written by an Italian. It looked just the ticket — quick and easy, with little hands-on time. I was very impressed by the result too — crisp on the outside, with a chewy, open crumb. It went down very well.
So here’s my English version. Note, it makes a very large focaccia. You could easily halve the recipe if there are only a couple of you. I have about a third of it left over, so I’ve frozen it and we’ll see how well it survives reheating.
A note on the flour: I used mostly Italian 00 pizza flour, with some French T65 (organic white flour). If you can’t get hold of pizza flour, it will probably still work with as gluten rich white flour as you can find, but may not be so bubbly.
400 g Italian 00/pizza flour
100 g organic white flour
360 ml room-temperature water (my room wasn’t that warm, so I gave it a few seconds in the microwave)
6 grams instant dried yeast
10 g salt, plus Maldon salt/fleur de sel for sprinkling
About 6 tbs olive oil
Topping of choice (see recipe)
The original recipe says to soak the yeast in some of the water for 10 minutes till it froths. With instant yeast I don’t think it’s necessary, but if using fresh yeast you do need to do this. Anyway, put the flour and salt plus 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large bowl and add the yeast either now, or with the water. You can add chopped herbs to the dough if you want — I didn’t as I was topping it with herbs. Pour in the water.
Now stir well with a wooden spoon until all the water is absorbed, the ingredients are well blended, and there’s no dry flour. The dough will be extremely sloppy and not smooth or supple. This is normal. No need to mix further. Use your hands to spread another tbsp of oil over the surface of the dough and cover the bowl with a teatowel (or shower cap in my case). Leave to rise in a warm, draught-proof place. I used the bread proving setting on the microwave. It should take 1 1/2 to 2 hours to double in size.
You’ll need a large baking sheet about 28 x 36 cm (if you don’t have one, of course you can use two smaller ones). If it’s not non-stick, place a sheet of baking parchment on it. Smear it liberally with oil. Tip the dough onto it and spread it out gently with oiled hands, so that it is well lubricated with oil. It doesn’t need to reach the edges of the sheet at this point; if it resists, stop stretching. Leave it to rise for another 30 minutes (the switched off oven is a good place to do this).
Oil your hands again and stretch the dough further. If possible do this by lifting from underneath to minimise pressure on the bubbles Use a finger to make dimples on the surface. I like to have a good proportion of crumb to crust, so I didn’t stretch it too thinly; maybe 1 cm thick. Leave to rise for another 10-15 minutes. But take it out of the oven because you need to preheat it to 220C.
In a cup, whisk 3 tbs of water and 2 of oil. At the end of the 15 minutes, brush the surface generously with this mixture, saving some for later. Then you can add your toppings. I sprinkled half of it with za’atar and oregano, and the other half with chopped rosemary and finely sliced spring onion before sprinkling all of it with fleur de sel. But feel free to embellish to taste (I often like to use sliced marinated artichokes from a jar). Just remember it’s not a pizza.
Bake for about 20 minutes, till crisp and golden. You might need to turn it round halfway through. Brush the top with the rest of the water and oil mixture, then put on a cooling rack. Serve warm or cold — I added a bowl of seasoned olive oil for dipping.