Long Weekend Foccacia

Ingredients

850g luke-warm water
8g instant yeast
1 tablespoon runny honey
20g fine sea salt
30g olive oil
1kg baker’s flour
extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
½ red onion, finely sliced
⅓ cup green olives
⅓ cup Kalamata olives
few sprigs oregano
flaky sea salt

Focaccia is delicious and deceptively easy to make. The only downside – if you can call it that – is the dough needs making the day before. But rest assured there’s not much kneading required, and after resting it in the fridge overnight it’s only a short bake to a crispy, fluffy pillow of Italian wonderfulness. I use a set of scales for my bread making as the accuracy helps guarantee great results.

The day before, in a large bowl (I sit mine on a set of scales to make measuring the ingredients easy), whisk together the water, yeast, honey, salt and olive oil until combined. Add in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon or your hand until it all comes together and there are no dry ingredients. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the dough sit for 15 minutes to rest.
After resting, with the dough still in the bowl, do what is called a stretch and fold by lifting one side of the dough and bringing it over the top to the other side. Spin the bowl and keep doing this stretch-and fold-action around the bowl for a few minutes. This develops the gluten and makes the dough easier to manage. Cover, let the dough sit for 10 minutes, then repeat the action. Cover again, let the dough sit for 10 minutes, then repeat.
Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil across the surface of the dough, cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.
A couple of hours before you want to bake the focaccia, flop your dough onto a lined and oiled roasting tray and stretch it out a bit. Leave to rest for about two hours, after which it will have risen to fill the tray and be bubbly and wobbly.
When ready to bake. Heat the oven to 220°C fan bake. Drizzle the surface of the dough with a little more oil and, using your fingers, gently make divots in the surface – this catches the oil, providing that wonderfully golden crispy crust.
Arrange the sliced onion and olives evenly across the surface and scatter over the herbs, trying not to knock out the bubbles. Lastly, sprinkle with a very generous amount of flaky sea salt.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Drizzle with olive oil and leave to cool for 15 minutes before cutting.