Focaccia Bread

This recipe is for a savory focaccia appetizer topped with red pizza sauce, roasted red peppers, and minced pepperoni on golden Durum flour bread. This attractive 12-inch square bread is perfect for entertaining, and you can easily cut it into 9 or 12 servings.

 Semola Rimacinta flour, made from Durum wheat, is typically associated with pasta. When making bread like Pane Siciliano, Italian twice-milled Semola Rimacinata is the flour of choice. It is a high-protein, double-milled hard wheat flour that can hold much water. Double-milled durum flour is excellent for high hydration (100% hydration) focaccia, resulting in a perfect texture, appearance, and flavor. This type of flour allows you to create thick bread. Characterized by oil-rich dough, Focaccia differs from pizza because it has less sauce, cheese, or toppings. It also has the traditional dimples made with your fingers.

 The focaccia appetizer is topped with a light coating of red pizza sauce, roasted red peppers, minced pepperoni, and shaved Parmesan cheese. The red peppers and sauce complement the golden color of the Semola focaccia bread. You sauté the red peppers with a generous amount of coarse ground black pepper and Italian seasoning. This recipe uses a square Sicilian pizza pan with high walls instead of a rectangular focaccia pan. The Sicilian-style pan accommodates the thick, puffy, soft dough.

To make the 100% hydration dough, equal amounts of double-milled durum flour and water are needed. It involves some extra steps to get the dough to maximum hydration. Using a kitchen scale and measuring the appropriate amounts of water and Semola Rimacinata flour in grams is much easier. You will need a spiral dough hook for your mixer and a Sicilian-style pizza pan; see the equipment below.

 This recipe also requires you to start the day before with a preferment of one-third of the water and one-third of the flour. Suppose you are preparing this appetizer for entertainment and would like not to be time-constrained while preparing other dishes. In that case, you can follow the recipe to complete the dough in the morning, pressing it into the Sicilian pizza pan, refrigerating until final prep, and cooking for an evening meal. The appetizer is good to keep your guests occupied while you prepare the main dish and sides.

Ingredients for Durum wheat Focaccia

 - 450 grams Semola Rimacinata Flour, divided

 - 450 grams of water divided

 - 1/8 tsp plus 1/2 tsp Brown Rice Syrup (malt syrup)

 - 1 tsp Sea Salt

 - 2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast, divided

 - 6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil, divided

 - 1 tsp ground dried Rosemary

 - 1 tsp dry Italian seasoning

 - 3.5 oz pre-cooked jarred roasted red peppers

 - 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

 - 4 ounces of Canned Pizza sauce

 - 2-3 ounces shaved Parmesan cheese

Instructions for high hydration Durum wheat Focaccia

 1. Create a preferment with 150 grams of flour and 150 grams of water. Heat the water in a microwave for about 45 seconds, achieving a temperature of 120°F but not exceeding 130°F. Dissolve 1/8 tsp Brown Rice Syrup into the water. Add 1/4 tsp of yeast, stir in, and place in a preheated oven on proofing for 12 minutes. After the mixture froths, add 150 grams of flour in a transparent one-quarter culinary container. Stir the mixture well and refrigerate overnight. The preferment should double in size overnight. A clear container lets you visually monitor if the dough has doubled.

 2. The following day, add to your stand mixer bowl 300 grams of flour, 150 grams of room-temperature water, 1 tsp rosemary, and 1 tsp sea salt.

 3. Add 150 grams of water heated to 120°F to 130°F to a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Dissolve 1/2 tsp brown rice syrup in the water. Stir in 2 tsp yeast. Let this mixture proof for 15 minutes in the oven with a proofing function or leave it on the counter at room temperature for 20 minutes or until a healthy froth forms on the mixture, increasing in volume in the mixing cup.

 4. Add the preferment and the frothing-yeasted water malt syrup mixture to the mixer bowl with the dry ingredients. Slowly add the remaining 150 grams of water while mixing, totaling 450 grams of water to 450 grams of double-milled durum flour.

 5. Run the mixer at a low speed (speed 1 or 2) with a standard dough hook for 3 minutes. Stop the mixer as needed to scrape the bowl walls of the dough to help thoroughly combine the dry ingredients into a stiff dough.

 6. Change the mixer attachment to a spiral hook. Slowly add the olive oil and the final 150 grams of water and continue mixing until the dough is thoroughly combined.

 7. Place the dough in a 5-quart bowl coated with olive oil, cover with transparent plastic wrap, and put the bowl into your proofing oven for 1 hour.

8. Turn the dough onto a cutting board coated with Olive Oil. As this is a high-hydration dough, the work surface and your fingers must be oiled to prevent it from sticking.

 9. Gently spread the dough to elongate it into a rectangular shape and letter-fold it. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and stretch it to elongate it in the opposite direction. Then, letter-fold the dough again. You do not want to overwork the dough; this will cause it to resist stretching into the pan.

 10. Once the dough is ready, spread 3 tbsp of olive oil evenly in the 12" x 12" pan and up the walls. Put the dough into the Sicilian pizza pan and press it evenly to the edges and corners of the pan. The hydrated dough should easily stretch across the pan's bottom. If it resists, let it rest for 5 minutes and stretch more; repeat as necessary.

 10. Spread a sparse coating of pizza sauce over the Focaccia dough and dimple the top. Put olive oil into a bowl and dip fingers into the oil before dimpling. The oil keeps the dough from sticking to your fingers. Press some olive oil and sauce down into the dough. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour at room temperature. The dough should rise back up near the pan walls.

 11. Rinse the red peppers thoroughly to remove the marinade and seeds. Dry and dice into about 1/2-inch pieces. Heat the oil in a 9-inch pan over medium heat. Add the diced red peppers, 1 tbsp of dry Italian seasoning, and 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper. Stir with a spatula to combine. Sauté for about 5-8 minutes, stirring often. Let the sautéed red peppers cool.

 12. Complete your Focaccia with sauteed red peppers, diced pepperoni, and shaved parmesan cheese toppings.

 13. Place the Focaccia pan on the center rack of a preheated 425°F oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

Tips and comments for making Focaccia bread

If you are entertaining on Saturday evening, this three-day cold fermentation process, starting Thursday evening, yields excellent flavor and texture and spreads the prep time. On day one, make the preferment and refrigerate overnight. Complete and form the dough into the Sicilian pizza pan on day two. Seal the pan with the dough using transparent plastic wrap and a mummy Wrap style by taking the plastic wrap over and under the pan several times to fully secure the wrap and seal the pan. Wrap twice in one direction, assuring you go over the pan walls some. Rotate the pan a quarter turn and wrap it a few times the other way. This wrapping method works well using the square Sicilian pizza pan. This wrapping method is also excellent for the cold fermentation of pizza dough when making a Sicilian-style pizza using the same pan type. On day three, remove the pan from the refrigerator a few hours before cooking, then when the Focaccia dough has warmed, proceed with dimpling and the rest of the recipe.

 This recipe uses a Lloydpans Sicilian-style Pizza Pan with a dark coating. This dark coating is essential as it increases emissivity. A high emissivity allows a quick heat transfer from the oven into the food for faster cooking and browning. A dark-coated Lloydpans would meet or exceed the emissivity of a cast iron pan, known for good heat transfer to foods.