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.

Focaccia made with high-protein bread flour produces the best results, but all-purpose flour will work as well.

“It does not contain simple sugars like sucrose, the classic white sugar, which promotes blood glucose spikes responsible for sudden hunger pangs. Rather, focaccia provides complex carbohydrates that slowly give the body energy and help better regulate blood sugar levels,” Schirò explains.

So why does it tend to be more expensive to purchase? Friends who have worked in the restaurant industry had some thoughts: Focaccia requires a lot of olive oil, which is pricey (though some other breads call for butter and eggs, which pencil out to more in my own Kirkland-brand-olive-oil kitchen).

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.

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.

The high water content makes the dough more liquid and sticky, allowing it to spread easily in the pan and create those signature dimples on the surface. The moisture in the dough also contributes to a soft and airy crumb, giving focaccia its characteristic light and chewy texture.

If your focaccia is flat and dense, you likely did not knead the dough enough before you baked it.

What happens if you let focaccia dough rise too long? ›

After 12 hours the salt will start to dissolve and absorb into the dough, and the bread will start to dry out and become oily. You can still eat it, it's not harmful, but it won't look as good as it did on that first day.

After the first rise, many recipes call for the baker to deflate — or "punch down" — the dough. It's an important step: When the dough is punched down, the yeast cells are redistributed. They form a closer bond with the moisture and sugar, which aids fermentation and improves the second rise.

Overnight: Proofing for 9-14 hours overnight in the fridge is better because of the slower fermentation. This process yields a better focaccia texture and taste. I like to make the dough the night before and place it the fridge to rise for anywhere between 9-14 hours.

May Provide Satiety. If your focaccia bread is made according to tradition with extra virgin olive oil, this makes it heartier, with more protein and fats, than your average bread. It also makes it more filling and satisfying.

When you pair prebiotic bread with probiotic KeVita, something beautiful happens. Follow the recipe to bake a focaccia loaf that is topped with delicious prebiotic ingredients that help feed the good bacteria in your gut. Whisk together the flour, kosher salt, and yeast in a bowl.

Conventional focaccia is made with wheat flour and has about 20g of carbs per serving. But this keto focaccia bread is completely grain free and has only 5g of carbs and 2.5g of fiber. That comes to 2.5g net carbs per piece.