Makes 1 large focaccia which will serve 8 minimum
Ingredients
- 150g levain, refreshed 8-12 hours earlier
- 15ml extra virgin olive oil plus extra for later
- 150g wholemeal bread flour
- 600g white bread flour
- 12g salt
- Salted caper
- A few sprigs of rosemary
Method
- Mix the levain, 500ml water and 15ml olive oil together before adding the flours and mixing to make a shaggy dough. Leave for 30 minutes covered.
- Mix 12g of salt with 75ml water till dissolved, and pour over the dough, scrunching the dough with your hand to mix it in. The dough should look very rough and almost broken into small pieces. Cover and leave for 45 minutes.
- Over the next few hours complete 4 sets of coil folds, allowing the dough to rest for 45-60 minutes between each fold.
- Line and grease a large baking tray with olive oil. Gently transfer the dough to the baking tray and push the dough over the surface so it reaches the corners as best you can – there will be some resistance so don’t force it.
- Cover the dough and leave in the fridge to slowly rise overnight – anywhere between 8-24 hours depending on your schedule
- The next day preheat your oven to maximum temperature, add a small empty tray to the bottom of the oven for steam later, and remove the focaccia from the fridge.
- Once the oven is up to temperature, uncover the dough and drizzle with a little olive oil. Using wet fingers, press your fingertips through the surface of the dough to create plenty of dimples before adding capers (with a little of their salt) and rosemary to the dimples.
- Place the focaccia in the oven, adding water into the hot tray to create steam, closing the door as quickly as possible to trap the steam in, and reduce the oven temperature to 225°C fan/ 245°C convection for 20 minutes.
- Remove the tray with water and bake for another 5 minutes* till the crust is golden.
- Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
