When handling the dough for this killer focaccia bread recipe, we don’t want to punch and knead but rather stretch and fold for optimal gluten development. The goal is to trap as much air as possible between ‘layers’ of dough to produce a flavorful and porous crumb.
Many focaccia recipes call for adding oil to the recipe. I don’t, because when I repeatedly oil the dough during the rise, more than enough oil gets into the recipe. Then the dough sits for almost 2 hours. During this time, the yeast and lactobacillus bacteria continue to do their work, transforming flour into CO-2, alcohol and aroma by-products that define great bread. The acidity strengthens the gluten bonds during this resting period, and the sloppy and unmanageable dough becomes much more manageable. After these two hours, the first of 3 stretch-and-fold techniques is used.
Put some olive oil on your hands so that the still tacky dough won’t stick to your hands. The oiled dough is pulled away from the bowl and folded onto itself from all four directions. This folding organizes the stands of gluten into long sheets that will trap more gas and create the open pore structure that defines ciabatta in particular and artisan bread in general.
I re-oil the bowl and let it rest another 50 minutes or so, stretch and fold, re-oil, and rest one more time. Each one of these stretch-and-folds builds additional strength and elasticity in the dough and furthers the goal of building more aroma. After the 3 rd dough rest, I only fold the dough on two sides so that I have a longer dough piece that I can lift onto the baking tray after another 30 minute rest or relaxation.
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Continue with Part 4: Topping And Baking
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