help re: making focaccia

Hi,
I've been baking bread for years and am now having a puzzling problem with focaccia. Specifically, the focaccia recipes from Carol Field's "Focaccia" book (anyone else have this?). Flavor's fine, dough feels great when I'm working it, but... it doesn't brown while baking! At all, and I've tried making this 3 times! I've never had a problem like this before with any other bread recipes, including other focaccia recipes. I looked around a bit, googling "Carol Field" and "focaccia" and found someone's site where they had posted rave reviews and a picture of a beautiful golden focaccia, so someone's obviously had success (not to mention all the 5-star reviews on amazon.com for this book). What can possibly be going wrong? Can anyone help me?
Thanks,
Sheena

Focaccia means different things in different parts of Italy, so I'd need to know more about your recipe. I have Fields' "The Italian Baker" which has about a dpzen different recipes.

It may be a simple matter of increasing the heat of the oven or moving the pan to a higher shelf. Also, recipes with a large amount of yeast that rise quickly don't show as much browning as those with less yeast and a longer rise.

Here is photo of a recent effort showing the color I go for. Maybe you prefer yours browner?

Focaccia topped with onion confit, marinated mushrooms, parm and olive oil



Bill/SFNM

Hmm, could be a number of things and there are professionals here who can address this better than I. But since I usually have pretty good luck with focaccia, let me try.

What kind of baking sheet are you using? Try a dark cookie sheet.
What temperature? Try a higher one (I do 450 in the convection oven)
How much oil? I really think this is the secret. Put some good olive oil both on the pan and also brushed over the top of your loaves.

Good luck.

You might try baking it directly on a pizza stone. That works well for me and not only for flat breads, but French, Italian, Cuban, or any bread not baked in a pan.

Is your oven running cold? You might buy a couple of oven thermometers, put them in different spots in the oven, and see whether it reaches and manages to maintain the correct temperature.

Thanks for the picture! It looks perfect to me. When I say mine is not browning, I mean at all. Seriously, it looks like it does when it goes into the oven - not even a tinge of gold! The first time, I left it in the oven for longer than the baking time, hoping that it would get some color, but it never did, and it was rock-hard overbaked!

I have tried both baking it on a baking stone and on a pizza pan, and I have an oven thermometer. It indicates that the oven is fairly on-the-mark, although I do have the thermometer sitting on top of the baking stone - maybe I should move it to a rack? It's just easiest to see when it's on the stone.

I also do use a good bit of olive oil.

You may be able to tell I'm completely perplexed by this phenomenon. I've baked many, many loaves of bread of various sorts over the years and never come across a puzzle like this before. I'm going to keep at it, but I would really like to know what's going on!

gtgirl,

When say you are cooking it on a pizza stone, do you mean directly on the stone or in a pan on the stone? There is no way I could bake mine on a stone since it is a very wet and sticky dough (70% hydration by weight).

I put a silpat on the bottom of the pan, spread about 1/8 cup of olive oil in the pan, pour in the fermented dough, brush with the top with a little olive oil and allow to proof. After making dimples, I brush with a little more olive oil. After baking, I brush on some more olive oil (the real good stuff). Other than this, there is no olive oil mixed into the dough.

How long are you fermenting and proofing this bread?

Bill/SFNM

gtgirl wrote:I have tried both baking it on a baking stone and on a pizza pan, and I have an oven thermometer. It indicates that the oven is fairly on-the-mark, although I do have the thermometer sitting on top of the baking stone - maybe I should move it to a rack? It's just easiest to see when it's on the stone.

gtgirl,

It's a really perplexing, and I'm sure frustrating, experience you're having with the focaccia. My first guess would've been what others have already suggested -- oven temp.

The focaccia I've made would be hard to place directly on a stone. But a question for anybody -- is it possible to put an oily dough directly on a stone? I thought that would damage it, but not sure where I picked that up.

Good luck.

Zee

gtgirl wrote:....although I do have the thermometer sitting on top of the baking stone - maybe I should move it to a rack? It's just easiest to see when it's on the stone....

I would highly recommend moving your thermometer to another part of the oven. Ovens have hot-spots, cold-spots, etc. I'm betting the air directly atop your stone is significantly hotter than the air a few inches higher. It seems likely to me that your oven is too cool.

Best,
Michael

Zeeshan wrote:is it possible to put an oily dough directly on a stone? I thought that would damage it, but not sure where I picked that up.

I would not want to put a very oily dough on the stone. The stone serves two purposes. First, its thermal mass serves to store heat. Also, it's porosity serves to draw moisture out of the bread to make the crust crispier. That's the theory at least.

Oil or anything else that's going to sink into the pores and clog them is to be avoided, although it's darn near impossible to keep the surface pristine.

Bill/SFNM

I've been putting the pan on the stone, as directed by the recipe. I think next time, I'll put it on one of the racks in the middle of the oven (the pan, not the stone). I'll also move the thermometer up and see if the temperature's different. I foresee much focaccia baking in the next couple of weeks... fortunately, it still tastes good, even if it lacks aesthetic appeal.

If the bread bakes to the right flavor and consistency but doesn't brown, then I'd say the trouble is not the oven but the dough.

I don't know the book you're getting the recipe from. Are there photos? Is there any indication that the particular recipe ought to brown? What's in the dough? Looking at the picture of the bread on the book cover on Amazon, it doesn't seem like it's browned.

If you like everything about the bread but its color, you could try things like brushing the dough with butter before baking and/or incorporating a little saffron into it.

Well, I upped the oven temperature and baked it on the rack at about the center of the oven, and there is definitely some golden color to the focaccia! On the other hand, it's a different recipe (from the same book, though). Rather delicious results, though I would like to figure out the browning issue. I'd post a picture, but I'm not sure how to do it ( means nothing to me!

Thanks for your help, and rest assured, I will not stop baking until I get closer to perfection!

You don't post images - you post links to your own web page that has the image you want to show. So figure out how to get a web page for your image from your internet provider.

I made a couple very plain foccacias this past week. Both were super similar treatments, but the second one got a HEAVY does of olive oil on the top. Rubbed all over generously. It browned LOTS. The bubbly spots got a little black. The unoiled one didn't brown nearly so much.

Still, what temperature are you using? I used 550 degrees pre-heat, then down to 475. Pretty darn hot.

I also happened to use extremely wet dough. Can get it off your hands, but it's hard. Need oil.... I hadn't intended to make foccacia, was just experimenting, but it was so wet I couldn't really shape it, so what the heck. And oh was it good.

My methods/recipes came from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. It's an excellent book, lots of sound advice on bread baking.

Nancy

gtgirl wrote:I'd post a picture, but I'm not sure how to do it ( means nothing to me!

Here is a very helpful thread on posting pictures.

gtgirl wrote:Hi,
I've been baking bread for years and am now having a puzzling problem with focaccia. Specifically, the focaccia recipes from Carol Field's "Focaccia" book (anyone else have this?).
Sheena

Hi, I'm gennarino (teresa). I don't write english well, I'm sorry, but I have some photos of my website that perhaps can help you to make a real italian focaccia.





The secret is a lot of good oil on the top of focaccia, as you can see. That of the photos is "focaccia genovese". You can find the recipe here
http://www.gennarino.org/fugassa.htm

and can use a translator on line. If you need an help I'll be very happy to help you
Sorry again for my bad english.

Teresa,

What a pleasure to see you here! Welcome/benvenuta!

Your fugassa looks great.

affettuosi saluti,
Antonius

P.S. And your English is absolutely fine!

Antonius wrote:Teresa,

What a pleasure to see you here! Welcome/benvenuta!

Thank's!

affettuosi saluti,

Grazie!!!

P.S. And your English is absolutely fine!

I know it isn't true: but I hope my photos are an help.

The secret is a lot of good oil on the top of focaccia, as you can see. That of the photos is "focaccia genovese". You can find the recipe here
http://www.gennarino.org/fugassa.htm

and can use a translator on line. If you need an help I'll be very happy to help you
Sorry again for my bad english.

Teresa,
Thank you for the lovely pictures and the link to the website! I'll be trying your recipe soon - it looks fabulous!
I think I need to use more oil - I thought I was using a generous amount, but apparently not enough.
Just reading your post, I wouldn't have thought twice about your English!
Thanks!
Sheena