ChefSteps

Cast-iron pan or skillet

Oven

Bread flour

Active dry yeast

Salt

Fennel seeds

Chile flakes

Water

Honey

Extra-virgin olive oil

Neutral oil

Semolina flour

Toppings

Egg(s)

Milk

Flake sea salt

Why bread flour?
 
The higher gluten level in bread flour gives more structure to your dough, meaning lots more of those fun air bubbles. Wait, what temperature should my water be for the yeast?
 
Yeast get excited by a little heat, which is why many recipes call for water that&#39;s about [c 32] to [c 38], or just above body temperature. But yeast will do their thing even in colder water—it just takes longer. The bonus is that when yeast are moving slowly, they have more time to create all their great flavorful byproducts. Our recipe calls for a nice, long overnight rise, so cool or slightly warm water is fine. Just make sure it&#39;s not hot.Why a cast iron skillet?

Our love for baking in cast iron is well-documented, but to recap—cast iron pans do a brilliant job of capturing and retaining heat for shattering crusts and golden finishes. We definitely recommend it here. Egg wash? On focaccia?
 
It&#39;s a little unconventional, but in our testing we vastly preferred bread that had been given a coating of egg wash before going into the oven. Not only did it give a gorgeous color, but it helps prevent the bread from absorbing the oil like a sponge, keeping a nice crust and lending additional texture.

Before we begin

Combine dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and mix by hand or with a spatula.

Combine dry ingredients

Combine ingredients in a cup and mix thoroughly to dissolve the honey. Slightly warm water can help dissolve honey, especially if it&#39;s crystalized.

Combine wet ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix by hand or with a spatula until fully incorporated. This should only take about a minute or two.

Mix the dough

Once mixed, tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to proof overnight. We like a minimum of 12 hours, though we usually opt for closer to 16. The dough will be roughly 3-4 times its original size.

Let the dough proof overnight

Gently transfer the dough to a shallow dish, taking care to not overly deflate the dough. Grabbing the end of the dough furthest from you, gently stretch the dough and fold it toward you. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and repeat. Do two more folds, one on each side, so that every side of the dough has been folded over onto itself. Let the dough rest 30 min, and repeat the entire folding process. Continue until you&#39;ve folded and rested the dough 4 times, letting it rest a final 30 min before adding it to the baking pan.

Fold the dough, let it rest, repeat

Proofing

A bunch of things are happening during the overnight proof. The yeast are feeding off of the starches in the flour and multiplying, creating lots of helpful byproducts. Carbon dioxide creates those beautiful air bubbles, alcohol makes the bread more flavorful, and the acid glutamathione contributes to the dough&#39;s elasticity. The gluten chains in the dough are also repairing and swelling, capturing the gasses and giving the bread its structure. So if you notice a fun doming of your plastic wrap in the morning, that&#39;s just the yeast partying hard. Folding

Gluten has already started to develop during the proofing stage—you&#39;ll notice that without any additional mixing, the dough is already stretchier and more cohesive in the morning. Stretching and folding the dough helps encourage the gluten proteins to form longer and more robust chains, capturing even more of that gassy goodness and lending a beautiful crumb structure to your dough. We also give it time to rest and form those new gluten chains between each turn.

Bread-Time Magic—What's Happening During Proofing and Folding?

Generously coat your cast iron skillet with oil, and sprinkle with semolina flour. This adds texture and helps the dough release from the pan when it&#39;s done cooking. Gently transfer the dough to the pan and press it all the way to the edges with your fingers.

Prepare your baking pan and transfer the dough

Stud your focaccia with toppings of your choice—we love all kinds of preserved goodies, but avoid fresh herbs, since they&#39;ll just burn. Prepare the egg wash by whisking together the egg, milk, and honey in a small bowl. Strain if desired. Brush the egg wash over the dough. Right before it goes in the oven, sprinkle the top of the dough with flaky sea salt.

Add toppings and egg wash

Adjust two oven racks to upper and lower thirds, and preheat your convection oven to 420 °F / 216 °C. Place a tray of water on the lower rack. This will add steam to the oven as the bread bakes, helping the rise and preventing the outer edges of the dough from drying out too quickly. Add the dough to the oven on the upper rack. Bake for 10 min with convection. Remove the steamer tray and bake for another 10 to 15 min, until the dough reaches an internal temperature of [c 96].Remove the bread from the oven and carefully—remember the pan is very hot—take the dough out of the pan to prevent it from getting soggy. Let it cool on a wire rack for 30 min.

Bake

Brush the top of the bread with a bit of olive oil for extra sheen, and dig in.

Serve it up

Get up in there

Focaccia is a chewy, flavorful, perfectly salty flatbread that pairs just as beautifully with lazy summer antipasto as it does a hearty plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Its charming dimples and craggy, bubbly interior make it a perennial crowd favorite. In Italy, focaccia is a hyper-local food, with a wide variety of textures and toppings. Think olives, peppers, little fishes, potatoes, onions, salt, herbs, and even some sweet toppings like raisins, anise, and lemon peel. Smother it in toppings for a pizza-adjacent experience, or keep it simple and use as a versatile sauce-dipping side. Our recipe is adapted for ultimate flavor and texture. Our favorite ingredient—time. We use a long, overnight rise to let the yeast really do its thing, and a series of gentle folds for maximum air bubble retention. Focaccia textures range from thick and plush, to thin and almost cracker-like. Ours is nice and puffy, but an egg wash ensures the crust keeps its chewiness, even under a healthy dousing of olive oil.

Fully-Loaded Focaccia