Focaccia Journey - Second Batch With Mixed Results - January 2025

Last week, I included a mention of _Laceybakes_ - the focaccia baker on TikTok amongst other little pizza-related tidbits in a round-up post.   Her videos influenced me to make a batch of focaccia this past weekend.  I opted for a simple olive oil and garlic butter-topped bread.

I was too impatient (and didn't plan well-enough), so I ended up doing a same-day dough - which lead to an underwhelming hole-structure.   

Below are a few photos.  

This is the second-ever batch of focaccia that I've made - with my original research back in 2022.  

Some notes:  I used the stand-mixer to do the initial incorporation.  That was a mistake.  Think I over-worked this dough.  I did about five-or-so rounds of stretch-and-folds.  That was probably fine.  I dimpled this focaccia *and then* let it keep rising.  Pretty sure...that I should have dimpled-it right ahead of the bake. Also, as I mentioned above, there was no cold ferment.  I used ADY, so the hole-structure was pretty uniform and a little...'stodgy'.  There was some okay oven-spring, but not enough.  The bake, however, was great.  Crisp top, crackle-y bottom and a soft, chewy middle.   Lastly, I didn't incorporate anything *into* the dough.  That's for next time - 'stud'ing' with some cheese cubes during the final stretch-and-fold/envelope-fold in the pan.

I used my Detroit pizza pans, which I think are great for focaccia (for me, at least).  

I'll make another batch of dough, but this time, I'll correct some of the problems I outlined above.

Where I'm headed is towards two things:  First...sandwich bread like this (in my wood-fired oven).  And...something closer to Sfincione - or a more Sicilian-style pizza.   

Look back at this post from 2022 when I talked about all of this stuff - sfincione and some of the places that are making focaccia.  

One of them mentioned in that post is a place in Nashville named St. Vito Focacciaria that has a lot of pizza-related heat the past few years that makes a Sfincione that includes breadcrumbs. Look at this - beautiful.  

My hunch is that we've seen waves of pizza-making over the years:  Neapolitian --> Detroit --> Chicago Tavern (having a moment now).  I suspect that focaccia is coming next.