Focaccia

This recipe is on the King Arthur Flour website.  I decided to try this recipe because it had Japanese Bread Flakes as a dressing.  Since I haven’t tried much with Sicilian pizza and the King Arthur Flour website said this pizza was a favorite for New Years Eve, I thought the pizza is fitting for tonight.
The crunchy crust was very tasty.  The Japanese Bread Flakes gave this pizza a totally different crunch on top.  We enjoyed the pizza.  The cheese goes on the dough first, sauce with onions, more cheese and Japanese Bread Flakes on top.

Crust

    * 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    * 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
    * 2 teaspoons instant yeast
    * 4 teaspoons Pizza Dough Flavor, optional but delicious
    * 2 tablespoons olive oil
    * 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons to 1 cup + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water*
    * *Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.

Topping

    * 2 large sweet onions
    * 28-ounce can chopped or diced tomatoes
    * 2 teaspoons Pizza Seasoning, optional
    * 2 cups shredded mozzarella
    * 4 ounces provolone, shredded
    * 3/4 to 1 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
    * 3 cups coarse dried bread crumbs, such as Panko
    * 6 tablespoons olive oil
    * 1 tablespoon Pizza Seasoning, optional

Crust

    * 12 3/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    * 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
    * 2 teaspoons instant yeast
    * 4 teaspoons Pizza Dough Flavor, optional but delicious
    * 7/8 ounce olive oil
    * 7 to 9 ounces lukewarm water*
    * *Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.


Directions

1) To make the crust: Combine all of the ingredients and mix and knead to make a smooth, soft dough, using a stand mixer, bread machine, or your hands.

2) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or large 8-cup measure (or leave it in the bread machine), and let it rise till it's very puffy, about 90 minutes.

3) While the dough is rising, prepare the toppings. Start by peeling and slicing the onions, and frying them with a bit of olive oil till they're golden brown. This will take about 20 minutes. Midway through, add salt and sugar to taste, if desired; about 1 tablespoon sugar will heighten their flavor.

4) Add the tomatoes to the fried onions, along with the Pizza Seasoning, if desired. Simmer and stir for a couple of minutes. If the sauce seems overly liquid, continue to cook till it's firmed up a bit. You don't want it totally dry, like scrambled eggs, but neither do you want it swimming in liquid. Use your judgment. Turn off the heat, and let the mixture cool while the dough rises.

5) Stir together the bread crumbs, oil, and Pizza Seasoning, if you're using it. Set it aside.

6) Spray a large rimmed baking sheet (a 13" x 18" half sheet pan is perfect) with non-stick vegetable oil spray. Drizzle it with olive oil, tilting the pan so the oil spreads out a bit.

7) Gently deflate the risen dough, and stretch it into an oval in your hands. Plop the oval onto the baking sheet, and press it towards the edges. When it starts to fight back, walk away for 15 minutes. When you return, you should be able to press it to the edges and nearly into the corners. If you can't, give it another short rest, and try again. You want the dough to cover as much of the pan's bottom as possible (without making yourself too crazy about it).

Cool Cover the dough, and let it rise till puffy, about 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425?F.

9) Uncover the dough, and sprinkle it with the shredded mozzarella and provolone. Then spread the tomato/onion sauce over the cheese.

10) Top with the Parmesan, then the bread crumbs.

11) Bake the pizza for 35 minutes, or until the crust and crumbs are brown. Remove it from the oven, and serve it hot or warm. Hint: to prevent a soggy bottom crust, cut the pizza in half crosswise, then lift each half onto a cooling rack. Cut individual slices with a pair of scissors.


The changes I made to this recipe were to mix the yeast, water, and about 3 tablespoons flour (from the volume measurements ) first and let that rest for about 45 minutes.  Didn’t use the Pizza Dough flavor.  Used 9 ounces of warm water.  Sea salt for pizza dough.  Only one large sweet onion, and added some crispy toasted onion bits near the end of frying the sweet onion.  No pizza seasoning in the topping.  Used Italian seasoning added to the Japanese Bread Flakes with oil. Used provolone, mozzarella, grated Parmesan and shredded Parmesan.  Pam to spray baking sheet, then more olive oil drizzled on baking sheet than they called for. Didn’t bake over a stone, just on the middle oven rack.  The dough was very sticky and tried to open it like a pizza.  That didn’t work, so just put in pan and pushed with my fingers until the dough was spread on the pan.   When the dough was rising the second time on the pan, it rose to about double in size. Added some Italian seasoning, sugar, and sea salt to tomato mixture.  Kneaded the dough by hand.
Some of things I like about this pizza were the really crunchy crust, blend of cheeses, and I really liked the crunchy top made with the Japanese Bread Flakes mixed with Italian seasoning and olive oil.  Will have to try those on another pizza.

Two videos of Pizza  in Italy making the foccacia like dough. http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/-pizza-rium/3866298856   and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgjXuq1ztI&feature=related

This Focaccia type pie was made possible by members Matt (Mattew) and Infoodel (Toby) on www.pizzamaking.com

The pie turned out delicious.  It was almost what I was trying to achieve.  The only thing I want to change the next time I try this Sfincione type Focaccia would be to try an aluminum pan to bake the pie.  I wasn’t satisfied with how the black pan baked the dough.  I had to take the partially baked dough out of the pan and put it onto the screen to achieve a more crispy crust.  I did use olive oil in the pan, but can’t figure out if it was the pan or what.  The last time 2 times I baked the Sfincione type Focaccia in the aluminum pan, there wasn’t any problems with the crust browning.

The pie was dressed with fresh mozzarella I had frozen. (Terry) tdeane, helped me though that process.  The other two cheesed used in the pie were Parmesan grated and regular Parmesan.  I used my regular sauce that I make each week which also was frozen.  I caramelized onions again because we really liked the taste of them, before.  Panko bread flakes were also used mixed with olive oil, Italian seasoning and oregano.

The pie was parbaked at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes.  Then the dressing were added.

This pie had the airy crust, that I wanted.

This is the formula I used.  I used the Preferment Calculating Tool to figure out how much dough I thought I would need.  It still is confusing to me, but worked out okay.  I am still learning all this math stuff and calculating.

Total Formula:
Flour (100%):    488.62 g  |  17.24 oz | 1.08 lbs
Water (75%):    366.46 g  |  12.93 oz | 0.81 lbs
Salt (1.5%):    7.33 g | 0.26 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.53 tsp | 0.51 tbsp
Total (176.5%):   862.41 g | 30.42 oz | 1.9 lbs | TF = 0.13

Preferment: Natural starter Toby’s rye fed with caputo total 19.18 used for preferment
Flour:    18.91 g | 0.67 oz | 0.04 lbs          This part may not be right..but I used total 19.18 g
Water:    0.27 g | 0.01 oz | 0 lbs                 of preferment when measuring.
Total:    19.18 g | 0.68 oz | 0.04 lbs

Final Dough:
Flour:    469.71 g | 16.57 oz | 1.04 lbs
Water:    366.19 g | 12.92 oz | 0.81 lbs
Salt:    7.33 g | 0.26 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.53 tsp | 0.51 tbsp
Preferment:    19.18 g | 0.68 oz | 0.04 lbs
Total:    862.41 g | 30.42 oz | 1.9 lbs  | TF = 0.13

Matt’s formula

I decided to go with 70% hydration & in keeping with the traditional ingredients I incorporated potato into the dough.  I also decided to add a Sicilian twist & went with 50% semola.  The balance of the flour was Caputo pizzeria.  I also decided to use malt extract instead of sugar.  I went with a TF of .2.  My actual yield was 96% of the total dough weight so in future I will add 4% bowl residue.

After going through numerous recipes, I came up with the following:


Tipo 00   50.00%
Semola   50.00%
Water    70.00%
Salt   0.80%
Malt   0.80%
CY   5.00%
Potato   30.00%


Another formula I tried

Used Starters rye-high-gluten-some-wheat gluten that bubbled over yesterday
added to this starter
starter 80 g
400  grams water
30 g durum flour
5 g vital gluten
330 g AP Flour
1/4 tsp. IDY

Final Dough mixed in with above ingredients

45 g durum flour
330 g AP flour
1/4 tsp. IDY
10 g sea salt
24 g olive oil
100 g water

mixed, starter with other ingredients, let set for 3 hours, mixed in final dough, let 3 more hours, formed ball, let sit for 1 ½ hr.

Baked at 450 degrees F

3rd attempt using a different Formula


Measurement percent of flour      3rd foccacia attempt


Total Formula:
Flour (100%):    475.01 g  |  16.76 oz | 1.05 lbs
Water (85%):    403.76 g  |  14.24 oz | 0.89 lbs
Salt (2.7%):    12.83 g | 0.45 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.3 tsp | 0.77 tbsp
Total (187.7%):   891.6 g | 31.45 oz | 1.97 lbs | TF = 0.1456

note: KAAP 138.35 g    Caputo 257.66 g   Durum 79.00 g

Preferment: Natural Starter   rye-wine 5g used Caputo to feed
Flour:    5.49 g | 0.19 oz | 0.01 lbs
Water:    11.14 g | 0.39 oz | 0.02 lbs
Total:    16.63 g | 0.59 oz | 0.04 lbs

Final Dough:
Flour:    469.52 g | 16.56 oz | 1.04 lbs
Water:    392.62 g | 13.85 oz | 0.87 lbs
Salt:    12.83 g | 0.45 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.3 tsp | 0.77 tbsp
Preferment:    16.63 g | 0.59 oz | 0.04 lbs
Total:    891.6 g | 31.45 oz | 1.97 lbs  | TF = 0.1456

Last and not least, andre’s (andreguidon)  forumla

1kg flour
750ml water
5g IDY
20g salt

mix and let it out for 45minutes then 36 to 48h in the fridge

Total Formula:
Flour (100%):    2108.39 g  |  74.37 oz | 4.65 lbs   702.76g Semola d Grano Duro
                                                                                        1305.63g KAAP
Water (75%):    1581.29 g  |  55.78 oz | 3.49 lbs
Salt (1.50%):    31.63 g | 1.12 oz | 0.07 lbs | 6.59 tsp | 2.2 tbsp   I didn’t use this whole amount of salt and added only this morning.
Total (176.5%):   3721.31 g | 131.26 oz | 8.2 lbs | TF = 0.6077

Preferment:
Flour:    100.15 g | 3.53 oz | 0.22 lbs
Water:    5.27 g | 0.19 oz | 0.01 lbs
Total:    105.42 g | 3.72 oz | 0.23 lbs

Final Dough:
Flour:    2008.24 g | 70.84 oz | 4.43 lbs
Water:    1576.02 g | 55.59 oz | 3.47 lbs
Salt:    31.63 g | 1.12 oz | 0.07 lbs | 6.59 tsp | 2.2 tbsp
Preferment:    105.42 g | 3.72 oz | 0.23 lbs
Total:    3721.31 g | 131.26 oz | 8.2 lbs  | TF = 0.6077
                    
The natural starter used was rye-high-gluten-semolina-durum