Focaccia - Focaccia Bread - Focaccia Recipe - Rasa Malaysia (2024)

FAQs

How unhealthy is focaccia bread? ›

Like croissants and brioche buns, focaccia is high in calories and fat. Most people aren't aware of it, but it contains a lot of olive oil, which in excess has the same effect. To lose weight, people should choose whole-grain or rye bread, which has more fibre and is lower in fat and calories.

Venetian focaccia is sweet, baked for Easter and resembles the traditional Christmas cake panettone. Sugar and butter are used instead of olive oil and salt. Focaccia barese, which is common in Puglia in southern Italy, is made with durum wheat flour and topped with salt, rosemary, tomatoes or olives.

Flour: All-purpose flour or bread flour is perfect for making focaccia bread. I use all-purpose most of the time since that's what I stock in my kitchen.

Now, focaccia uses plenty of olive oil, not only in the dough, but for kneading, proofing, in the baking pan, and on the bread's surface before baking. All this fat means the texture is light, moist and springy, the crust emerges golden and crisp, plus the center stays soft for days afterwards.

Focaccia bread contains 20.4 grams of carbohydrates per slice, 1 gram of fiber, and 1 gram of sugar and is considered a refined carbohydrate. It is not high in sugar (only 1 gram per slice), but may raise blood sugars more rapidly due to lack of fiber.

But though pizza can stand in for a meal, focaccia is more of a snack, or at most an appetizer. In Italy, it's a popular walking-around food. Also, though cold pizza may have a certain raffish charm, focaccia really needs to be eaten when it's hot to be at its best.

Serving: Focaccia is incredibly versatile and can be served as an antipasto, appetizer, table bread or snack. In contrast, ciabatta serves as a delicious sandwich bread.

Thick or thin? The thickness of a focaccia can vary, too, but an authentic focaccia genovese should be rather thin, even if it needn't be quite as thin as my version presented here. So many non-Italian renditions of “focaccia” are more like bread in their thickness.

I like to use a straight-sided 9 x 13-inch metal baking pan for this recipe, but a Pyrex 9 x 13-inch baking pan will do in a pinch. Before you start on the recipe, be sure to read all of the tips at Baking Together #28: Making and Baking No-Knead Focaccia.

Bake the focaccia until it's light golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the focaccia from the oven, and immediately turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Enjoy focaccia hot from the oven, or warm; focaccia is best the same day it's made.

Why is my focaccia not fluffy? ›

Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.

Cold, refrigerated dough is the secret to making delicious focaccia! Allowing the dough to rest 18 to 48 hours in the fridge will yield extra-pillowy and airy focaccia, though if you are pressed for time, you can make this start-to-finish in 3 hours.

When freshly baked bread tastes bitter the reason is often that is was left to raise for too long in too warm a place. Alcohol may develop in it, which basically means that the dough has gone bad.

Can you overproof focaccia dough? You can definitely overproof focaccia, but it is difficult. There is so much oil in the dough, and very little sugar, so the yeast is "sleepy" or slow due to both of those elements and less likely to overproof.

According to studies, the monounsaturated fatty acids in focaccia bread (made with olive oil) lower the risk of heart disease.

Pros: Whole Grain Options: Focaccia can be made with whole-grain flour, which is higher in fiber and nutrients compared to refined flour. Whole grain focaccia provides more sustained energy and better satiety. Olive Oil: Many traditional focaccia recipes use olive oil as a key ingredient.

Focaccia bread (1 slice - 1/8 of 12" diameter) contains 33.3g total carbs, 31.6g net carbs, 7.3g fat, 4.8g protein, and 220 calories.