How do I make Vernazzian foccacia?

May 28, 2009 12:15 PM

How do I make foccacia like we had in Vernazza, Italy?

When we were in Vernazza, we bought foccacia every day from a little bakery on the north side of the street which was fantastic. If I had spoken better Italian/been less shy, I would have asked for the recipe....but I think it was more about the process than the actual recipe, because no foccacia I've made has been like it.

I can't get the same soft-but-a-tiny-bit-crisp-but-still-oiled top crust. When I try putting the olive oil on at the beginning, I get a soft crust but the oil sinks in and almost isn't there anymore. When I try brushing it with olive oil at the end, the crust is crunchy, and the olive oil doesn't sink in. So what's the magic crust secret? I'm willing to experiment, if you have an great recipe or a crust idea please share...

posted by lemonade to food & drink (6 comments total)

This recipe, originally from Cook's Illustrated, uses grated potato to achieve a perfect crumb and the crust always comes out perfectly even in my wonky oven.
posted by padraigin at 12:21 PM on May 28

Is your oven hot enough? Like REALLY HOT? Try cranking it up more.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:24 PM on May 28

Marcella Hazan's foccacia recipe has some oil in the dough (2 tablespoons per 6 cups of flour) as well as oil & water added to the top just before baking. And it's a LOT of oil on top—a quarter cup (plus 2 tablespoons water) for a 13"x18" batch. Maybe you're just not using enough?

Gotta second i_am_joe's_spleen's recommendation on using a really hot oven. The Hazan recipe cooks at 450F, but it's relatively thick/chewy.
posted by bcwinters at 1:34 PM on May 28

Yes, the secret to almost all "commercial" style cooking at home is a much hotter oven. This also applies to pizza.
posted by rokusan at 2:14 PM on May 28

A baking stone can help mitigate the wrongs of a consumer grade oven, to an extent anyway.
posted by padraigin at 2:20 PM on May 28

The recipe in the Martha Stewart baking cookbook has a great recipe. I think it involved some olive oil in the dough, but then also had you pour some on the dough before baking and definitely pouring more olive oil on after it was baked.
posted by sulaine at 6:12 PM on May 28