(15) How One of NYC’s Best Bakeries Makes Focaccia | Made to Order | Bon Appétit - YouTube
The Art of Focaccia: A Three-Day Journey with Radio Bakery
Kelly Mencin, Chef and Owner of Radio Bakery in New York City, shares her meticulous three-day process for creating their renowned focaccia, specifically the Sausage and Chive variant. This bread is celebrated for its airy, chewy texture, thin, crispy crust, and deeply flavorful, oily crumb.
Radio Bakery was named by The New York Times as one of the best bakeries in the United States. Their focaccia is a specialty.
What Defines Perfect Focaccia?
Focaccia is an Italian leavened flatbread, typically seasoned with olive oil and salt, and can be flavored with herbs or other ingredients.
Kelly describes her ideal focaccia as:
- Airy and Chewy: With a light, open internal structure.
- Flattish Loaf: Not overly tall, but with good volume.
- Thin, Dark Crust: Especially on the bottom, indicating a good bake.
- Slightly Oily: Contributing to flavor and texture.
- Versatile: Enjoyable on its own, filled for sandwiches, or topped with various ingredients.
The Meticulous Three-Day Process
Crafting this exceptional focaccia is a labor of love, spanning three days to develop maximum flavor and texture.
- Day 1: Mixing the Levain (Starter)
- The foundation of the focaccia's flavor and leavening.
- Day 2: Dough Mixing, Bulk Fermentation, Shaping, and Initial Proofing
- The dough is mixed, undergoes a series of folds (bulk fermentation), is divided, shaped into pans, and begins its proofing journey before heading to the walk-in refrigerator.
- Day 3: Final Proofing, Topping, and Baking
- The dough completes its proofing at ambient temperature, is topped, and then baked to golden perfection.
Day 1: Cultivating the Levain
The process begins with creating the levain, an offshoot of their sourdough starter.
A sourdough starter is a living culture of flour and water that naturally captures wild yeasts and bacteria, developing complex flavors and leavening power over time. The levain is a portion of this starter fed with additional flour and water to prepare it for a specific bake.
- Ingredients: Sourdough starter, King Arthur Special Patent Bread Flour (high protein, ~14%, for chewiness and structure), whole wheat flour (for flavor and fermentation aid), and water.
- Water Temperature: Approximately 60°F (15.5°C) is used for the levain if it's intended to sit overnight at room temperature, keeping it cool.
- Mixing: Water is added to the mixer first to prevent flour clumping, followed by the starter and flours. While it can be mixed by hand, a mixer is used for larger bakery batches. The levain is mixed until smooth and will double in size as it ferments.
The nurturing of a sourdough starter is akin to tending a garden; it requires patience, observation, and understanding of a living ecosystem. Kelly mentions that many bakeries will share starter – a beautiful tradition reflecting the communal spirit of baking. Could this microbial sharing be seen as a tangible exchange of local terroir and a baker's personal touch?
Day 2: Building the Dough
Part 1: Autolyse
The levain, now active and bubbly, is ready to be incorporated into the main dough. The first step is an autolyse.
Autolyse is a resting period for flour and water (before other ingredients like salt and levain are added) that allows the flour to fully hydrate and gluten to begin developing naturally. This results in a dough that is easier to work with and has better extensibility.
- Water Temperature: For the main dough, room temperature water, ideally around 77°F (25°C), is used.
- Process: The flours (bread flour and whole wheat) are mixed with most of the water (about 5% is held back) until just combined, with no dry spots. This mixture rests for 25-30 minutes. After resting, the dough becomes noticeably more extensible.
Water temperature is crucial. Too hot, and the dough will over-proof; too cold, and fermentation will be sluggish.
Part 2: Incorporating Remaining Ingredients & Initial Mixing
- Additions: A small amount of commercial yeast (less than 2% for consistency), the active levain, and finally, the reserved water mixed with fine sea salt are added to the autolysed dough.
- Mixing: The dough is mixed for about 4 minutes to incorporate the yeast and levain. After scraping down the bowl, the salt-water mixture is slowly streamed in. The dough may initially break apart but will come back together into a cohesive mass with continued mixing.
Salt is added later with the reserved water because it can inhibit yeast activity and gluten development if added too early in high concentrations.
Part 3: Bulk Fermentation & Folds
This stage is crucial for developing gluten strength and structure.
Bulk fermentation involves a series of "folds" (like the "slap and fold" technique shown) performed on the dough at intervals. These folds strengthen the gluten network, incorporate air, and equalize dough temperature.
- Process: The dough undergoes four sets of folds, spaced 30 minutes apart. The "slap and fold" technique is particularly effective for high-hydration doughs. The final fold is usually gentler.
- Result: The dough transforms into a strong, elastic, and cohesive mass.
Part 4: Dividing, Shaping & Initial Pan Proof
After approximately 3 hours of bulk fermentation (including folds), the dough will have filled its container and show good tension.
A "float test" can indicate if the dough is well-proofed: a small piece of dough dropped into water should float if it has enough trapped air.
- Handling: Due to its high hydration, the dough is very sticky. Wet hands are essential for handling.
- Pans: Radio Bakery uses oiled Lloyd pans, which are deep-dish style pizza pans known for excellent heat conduction, resulting in a crispy bottom crust. Olive oil is used generously.
- Shaping: The dough is divided and placed into the oiled pans. A "stitching" technique is used to create tension, folding the dough over itself to form a packet. This packet is then pressed gently to evenly distribute it in the pan.
- Initial Pan Proof: The panned dough is covered and allowed to proof on a speed rack for 1.5 to 2 hours. This allows the dough to relax and continue proofing.
The choice of pan, like the Lloyd pans, highlights how specialized equipment can significantly impact the final product. It's a reminder that the tools of a craft are often as important as the technique.
Part 5: Cold Proofing (Retarding)
After the initial room temperature proof in pans, the focaccia is moved to a walk-in refrigerator (or a home fridge) to proof overnight.
Cold proofing, or retarding, slows down the fermentation process. This extended period allows for complex flavor development and also makes the high-hydration dough easier to handle the next day.
Day 3: Final Proof, Topping & Baking
Part 1: Final Ambient Proof
The chilled focaccia is taken out of the refrigerator (around 5 a.m. at Radio Bakery) and allowed to sit at ambient temperature for 2-4 hours.
- Goal: The dough needs to come to room temperature and complete its final proof. It should be very airy, relaxed, and nearly touching the lid of the pan, with visible air bubbles.
Part 2: Topping
Radio Bakery has rotating focaccia toppings. For the Sausage and Chive version:
Crème fraîche is used because its high fat content gives it a high heat tolerance, preventing it from breaking or curdling during baking, unlike sour cream.
- Base: Crème fraîche is spread over the dough.
- Sausage: A mixture of bacon trimmings and prosciutto trimmings, finely processed to a sausage-like consistency, is generously sprinkled on top.
- Olive Oil: A drizzle of "Golden Nana" extra-virgin olive oil (described as buttery, light, and bright) is added.
- Dimpling: This is a critical step.
Confidently press fingers all the way to the bottom of the pan, creating dimples. This evenly distributes air bubbles, prevents large tunnels from forming, and creates wells for the toppings and oil to settle into. One confident dock is better than multiple hesitant ones, which can degas the dough too much.
Part 3: Baking
- Oven: Radio Bakery uses a deck oven, which has stones on the bottom for excellent heat regulation and a crispy base.
- Temperature: Baked at a high heat of 550°F (288°C). The bottom stones are at 100% heat, while the top heat is set to 50% to achieve a perfectly golden crust without burning the top.
- Time: Approximately 15-18 minutes. The focaccia is done when the bottom is super toasty and dark golden brown, and the top is evenly browned.
"The most important thing is you want to bake it hot and fast." - Kelly Mencin
Part 4: Finishing Touches
Once out of the oven, the Sausage and Chive focaccia is:
- Liberated from the pan, revealing a deeply caramelized and crispy bottom that has essentially fried in the olive oil and rendered sausage fat.
- Generously finished with fresh chives, adding a bright, oniony flavor that cuts through the richness.
- Drizzled with a little more olive oil.
- Cut into pieces, ready to be enjoyed.
"Eating this focaccia hot out of the oven is like one of the best things you could eat here... Fatty from the bacon, the crème fraîche, slightly greasy—we love a little greasy finger—super crunchy on the bottom, and then like fresh and oniony from the chives. It hits all the notes." - Kelly Mencin
IDEAS
- The three-day process for focaccia highlights the importance of slow fermentation for developing complex flavors and ideal textures in bread.
- Water temperature control is a critical, yet often underestimated, variable in baking, influencing fermentation speed and final dough characteristics.
- High-protein flour is key for achieving the desired chewy, airy structure in focaccia.
- The autolyse technique naturally aids gluten development and improves dough handling without excessive mechanical mixing.
- Cold proofing (retarding) is a valuable technique for enhancing flavor and managing bakery production schedules.
- Dimpling focaccia is not just aesthetic; it plays a crucial role in managing air distribution and integrating toppings.
- The choice of fats (olive oil, crème fraîche, sausage fat) and their interaction during high-heat baking contributes significantly to the focaccia's unique crispy and flavorful crust.
- Sharing sourdough starter is a tangible representation of the baking community and the passage of living traditions.
- Even with precise recipes, bakers must constantly adapt to environmental variables (like ambient temperature), showcasing baking as both a science and an art.
- The sensory experience of fresh focaccia—crispy, chewy, aromatic, and rich—is a testament to the transformative power of simple ingredients and careful technique.
QUOTES
- "I'm Kelly Mencin, the chef owner of Radio Bakery in New York City, and today we are going to make my perfect version of focaccia."
- "Focaccia is typically an airy, chewy, flattish loaf of bread, thin crust, dark on the bottom, maybe a little bit oily."
- "It's a three-day process for us here."
- "A levain is an offshoot of your starter. A sourdough starter is just flour and water. It's what develops flavor and microbes and yeast."
- "If you can't make a starter, a lot of bakeries will give you a little bit of their starter that you can just use to create your own levain." (Followed by a friendly disclaimer not to overwhelm her bakery).
- "The more whole wheat, the more whole grain flours you have in your bread or your levain, the faster it's going to ferment."
- "Autolyse: big word, very simple. An autolyse is flour and water mixed together."
- "The dough is completely coming apart. You just have to have faith, just keep mixing."
- "This is my favorite step because I feel like I'm like a child again, like just able to like play... to see the end product is... it's magic. It really is."
- "Eating this focaccia hot out of the oven is like one of the best things you could eat here."
TIPS
- For levain intended for overnight room temperature fermentation, use cooler water (around 60°F / 15.5°C).
- When mixing dough, add water to the mixer bowl first to prevent flour from clumping at the bottom.
- Use high-protein bread flour (like King Arthur Special Patent at ~14% protein) for a chewy focaccia with good structure.
- For autolyse, aim for a water temperature of around 77°F (25°C) and rest the flour-water mixture for 25-30 minutes.
- Hold back about 5% of the total water to add later with the salt, which helps incorporate the salt without initially hindering yeast or gluten.
- When handling high-hydration, sticky dough like focaccia, keep your hands wet.
- Use Lloyd pans (or similar heavy-duty, dark-colored pans) generously oiled for a super crispy, almost fried, bottom crust.
- When dimpling focaccia, be confident and press your fingers all the way to the bottom of the pan to evenly distribute air and secure toppings.
- Bake focaccia hot and fast (e.g., 550°F / 288°C) to achieve a good rise and crispy crust.
- If your focaccia dough feels too sticky to handle, you can slightly reduce the water content; the air bubbles might be smaller, but it will still be delicious.
REFERENCES
- Bakery: Radio Bakery, New York City
- Chef: Kelly Mencin
- Publication: The New York Times (mentioned Radio Bakery as one of the best in the U.S.)
- Flour:
- King Arthur Special Patent Bread Flour
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Equipment/Tools:
- Commercial Stand Mixer (with dough hook and flat beater/paddle for levain)
- Digital Scale
- Food-grade Containers (Cambros/Bus Tubs)
- Dough Scraper/Bench Knife
- Lloyd Pans (deep-dish pizza style pans)
- Speed Rack
- Walk-in Refrigerator
- Proofer/Retarder (commercial equipment that controls temperature and humidity)
- Deck Oven (commercial oven with stone hearths)
- Thermometer (for water and dough temperature)
- Large Chef's Knife/Mezzaluna (for cutting focaccia)
- Ingredients (specific):
- Crème fraîche
- "Golden Nana" Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- Fine Sea Salt
- Instant Yeast
- Sausage (made from bacon trimmings and prosciutto trimmings)
- Chives
- Techniques:
- Levain building
- Autolyse
- Slap and Fold
- Bulk Fermentation
- Cold Proofing (Retarding)
- Dimpling/Docking Focaccia
- Stitching (dough shaping)
- Float Test (for dough proofing)
Today, Bon Appétit joins Chef Kelly Mencin, owner of NYC’s Radio Bakery, to make focaccia. Radio Bakery is one of New York’s hottest bakeries and was named one of the best in America by The New York Times.
00:00 Intro
00:49 Mix Levain
02:58 Autolyse Dough
07:18 Slap and Fold
08:09 Divid and Shape
09:51 Proof
10:38 Stretch and Proof
12:07 Top and Bake
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0:00 [oil sizzling] [upbeat music] 0:04 - I'm Kelly Mencin, the chef/owner 0:05 of Radio Bakery in New York City 0:07 and today we are gonna make my perfect version of focaccia. 0:13 We were just named by the New York Times 0:15 one of the best bakeries in the United States. 0:17 One of our specialties is focaccia. 0:19 Focaccia is typically an airy, chewy, flat-ish 0:24 loaf of bread, thin crust, dark on the bottom, 0:27 maybe a little bit oily, and can be eaten by itself 0:31 or filled or topped. 0:32 We're gonna make our sausage and chai focaccia. 0:35 It's a three day process for us here. 0:37 The first day we make the starter, 0:39 the second day it gets mixed, proofed, 0:41 then put in the walk-in, and then the third day it gets 0:44 proofed again and then baked. 0:46 First thing we're gonna do is mix our levain. 0:49 [upbeat music] 0:50 A levain is an offshoot of your starter. 0:53 A sourdough starter is just flour 0:56 and water is what develops flavor and microbes and yeast. 1:00 It eventually becomes active 1:03 and that is what's gonna help leaven our bread. 1:06 We're gonna use about 60 degrees Fahrenheit water 1:09 because we want our levain to sit overnight room temp. 1:13 We wanna keep it super cold. 1:14 We're gonna do water first in the mixer so that none 1:17 of the flour clumps up. 1:19 All right. 1:20 You can mix levain easily by hand, 1:22 but we are making such a large batch 1:24 that we're gonna do it in the mixer. 1:25 If you can't make a starter, a lot of bakeries will give you 1:29 a little bit of their starter 1:30 that you can just use to create your own levain. 1:33 Now we're making a video and I cannot have 20 people 1:36 coming in here on a daily basis, 1:37 I urge you to reach out to your other local bakeries 1:40 and see if they can give you a little bit of their starter. 1:42 And then we're gonna scale out our flour. 1:45 We use King Arthur special patent bread flour for this dough 1:48 because it's super high in protein, it's about 14% 1:52 and it's really consistent. 1:54 And for focaccia, we want high gluten, we want chewy, 1:58 and we want the bread to be able to really expand 2:02 and that's what high protein bread flour allows us to do. 2:05 Whole wheat and other specialty flour 2:07 is what gives different breads it's distinct flavor. 2:11 Whole wheat flour also helps aid 2:13 in the fermentation of our levain. 2:15 Rule of thumb is the more whole wheat, 2:17 the more whole grain flour you have in your bread 2:20 or your levain, the faster it's gonna ferment. 2:22 Now we're gonna go into our mixer. 2:26 We're gonna let that mix. 2:28 You can see it's nice and smooth. 2:31 There's no dry lumps of flour, so this is the amount 2:34 of levain for like, 40 focaccias for tomorrow. 2:37 I'm gonna pull a little bit out of it for the focaccia 2:39 that we're gonna make in a little bit, 2:41 but I'm doing production for my team. 2:45 So we are gonna put this in our big camrose. 2:49 This is gonna grow double in size, 2:51 so you do want enough room in your container. 2:55 And now I'm gonna show you how to autolyse the dough. 2:57 [upbeat music] 2:59 So we mix our levain earlier in the day. 3:02 He's been sitting at room temp, getting nice and active. 3:05 Now we're gonna start mixing our dough, 3:06 which will incorporate that starter. 3:08 So we're gonna start with our autolyse. 3:10 Big word, very simple, and autolyse is flour 3:13 and water mixed together. 3:14 You don't wanna go too hot 3:16 because that's gonna speed up proofing 3:18 and basically over proof your dough. 3:20 You don't wanna go too cold 3:21 because then you'll be sitting here waiting for the dough 3:24 to proof for hours and hours and hours. 3:26 At home you may not have a thermometer, 3:28 and that's totally okay. 3:29 You wanna go for room temp water. 3:32 - 77. - 77 degrees 3:34 is our ideal temp. 3:35 Things are constantly changing when it comes to bread, 3:38 and you can't always catch that on a recipe. 3:41 Even now we have a little board over there 3:43 where what water temp we want. 3:46 It is what makes restaurant bakery bread different than home 3:49 bread because we're really honing in on the details 3:52 and the temperature and the time. 3:54 What I'm actually gonna do is scale all the water in here, 3:57 but then I'm gonna hold back. 3:59 We say about 5%, and we're gonna add it to the dough 4:02 later on and it's gonna help incorporate the salt 4:05 into the dough a little bit better. 4:07 Now we're gonna scale our flour. 4:09 This flour is the best. 4:11 It develops gluten really easy. 4:12 I'm just gonna go over to the mixer and mix. 4:14 Whenever you're making any bread or dough, 4:18 water in first. 4:19 You could use a KitchenAid, but you could also absolutely 4:22 do this by hand. 4:24 That's how we developed it. 4:25 We developed this recipe by hand 4:28 in our New York City apartments. 4:29 We're gonna let this go for about a minute. 4:31 If you're doing this by hand at home, 4:33 you really are just getting your hands in there 4:35 and making sure you're mixing it 4:37 until there's no dry flower spots. 4:40 So this is what it looks like right after it's been mixed. 4:43 If this dough is not mixed enough 4:45 or doesn't get enough strength from all the folding, 4:47 it's what you will really see is that your dough 4:49 is super flat. 4:50 We are gonna leave this for about 25 to 30 minutes 4:54 and that's really just to make sure 4:55 that all the flour gets super hydrated. 4:58 So timer is running for 30 minutes 5:00 on our autolyse for focaccia. 5:02 While we're waiting on that, 5:03 we're gonna scale out the other necessary ingredients 5:06 for focaccia. 5:07 We use fine sea salt. 5:09 It has a higher sodium content than just kosher salt. 5:12 People are gonna say that Radio sourdough is not real 5:15 sourdough because there's yeast in it, 5:16 but we use less than 2% of yeast in all of our bread 5:20 because a little bit of just instant active yeast 5:24 makes sure that our dough is consistent every single day. 5:28 Salt and yeast, I'm gonna put these with my water 5:31 that I set aside so I have everything ready to go. 5:35 This dough has been autolysing for about 28 minutes now 5:38 and you can see how different the dough is. 5:42 See how extensible that is? 5:44 Just 30 minutes ago it was like, falling apart in my hand 5:47 and now it's super strong and that's a really good sign. 5:50 Now we are gonna add our small amount of yeast right on top. 5:55 So our yeast is on there, and then we're gonna add 5:58 our levain that was mixed earlier in the day 6:02 and has been ripening for several hours, 6:05 which is gonna give us flavor 6:06 and a little bit of like, sourdough tang, 6:09 but it's also gonna help leaven it. 6:10 We're gonna go for about four minutes 6:13 and this is just to help incorporate 6:15 the yeast in the starter. 6:17 We're not really developing gluten yet. 6:19 We're gonna scrape it down because we wanna make sure we get 6:22 every little bit incorporated in here. 6:25 If there's any dry spots on the side, it's just gonna make 6:28 for the dough that's not mixed very cohesively 6:31 and we want a nice smooth elastic dough. 6:35 We're gonna start another four minutes. 6:36 We're gonna slowly start adding the salt 6:38 and then we're gonna stream in the water 6:40 and the dough will actually break apart again 6:42 while we add the water. 6:43 If you're scared, if you feel like it's too sticky, 6:46 leave a little bit water out. 6:47 It'll make it easier to handle. 6:49 The air bubbles might be a little bit smaller, 6:51 but it'll taste great. 6:52 This is the scary part, right? 6:54 When people do this at home, 6:56 the dough is completely coming apart. 6:59 You just have to have faith. Just keep mixing. 7:01 The dough just came outta the mixer. 7:03 We're putting it in our bus tub. 7:05 We're gonna give it a couple folds 7:07 just to make sure it is all cohesive and even. 7:11 It's already pretty strong. 7:13 We're gonna put a lid on this. 7:14 We're gonna set a timer for 30 minutes 7:16 and then come back and give it another fold. 7:19 [upbeat music] 7:21 We're going for four folds every 30 minutes 7:24 to help develop gluten. 7:25 After mixing, the dough has been resting for 30 minutes. 7:28 If you're at home and you couldn't develop the gluten 7:30 enough, like weed it in the mixer, the slap and fold 7:33 is gonna be like, really crucial to developing the gluten. 7:36 It has relaxed and really spread out in the bus tub. 7:41 I'm gonna spin it, get my hands in water again. 7:43 Pull, pull, pull. 7:46 The dough is in this like, nice cohesive mass 7:50 and it's back to being a strong little packet. 7:52 So we're gonna put a lid on this, give it another 30 minutes 7:55 and basically give it three more folds. 7:57 So by your last fold you wanna be a little bit more gentle. 8:00 So that is our last slap and fold. 8:02 Now we're gonna put the lid on. 8:04 It's gonna increase in size, take over the container 8:07 before we shape it. 8:09 [upbeat music] 8:11 This is my favorite part of making bread. 8:13 This has been proofing for about three hours. 8:16 What we are looking for now is that the dough fills the bin, 8:19 and not only does it fill the bin, but there's some tension 8:22 and rounding of it on the sides of the bin. 8:25 We are gonna shape. 8:28 As I mentioned, this is a very, very sticky dough. 8:31 The best way to work with it is with lots 8:35 of water on your hands. 8:36 We use these special pans, they're called Lloyd Pans. 8:39 They're basically deep dish style pizza pans. 8:41 They're amazing, they conduct heat very well 8:44 and I just have like, a fine layer of oil in here. 8:47 It should be enough to coat the bottom 8:49 so that it doesn't stick to the pan. 8:51 I'm gonna get my hands a little wet. 8:53 This means that the dough is nice and strong. 8:57 You can see it holding onto itself. 8:59 If it doesn't have any tension 9:00 or if it's moving all over the table, it could be a sign 9:03 that doesn't have enough strength and therefore might not 9:06 have enough rise in oven. 9:07 For this, this looks amazing and I'm really happy for it. 9:10 This is a good tip for proofing dough or your starter. 9:14 If you put the dough in water and it floats, 9:17 that means there's enough air in there 9:19 and that it's perfectly proofed. 9:20 We have since learned and like to give it a little bit 9:22 of stitching. 9:23 This helps with creating some tension in the dough 9:26 and it helps with the rise. 9:28 This dough likes to be told what to do 9:29 and so we give it a little boost. 9:31 And I'm making into a nice little packet. 9:34 I'm gonna press this packet out a little bit. 9:36 What we're really looking for is just an even amount 9:39 of dough in the pan. 9:41 Everyone likes their focaccia differently. 9:43 You want a super thick focaccia, [beep] go for it. 9:46 Fill the pan up. 9:47 I mean, it might explode when it's proofing, 9:49 but that's what it's all about. 9:51 [upbeat music] 9:53 We have just divided and shaped our focaccia. 9:56 Now we're gonna put it on our speed rack with the rest 9:59 of our focaccia that we did earlier in the day 10:01 and we're gonna let it sit for about an hour 10:03 and a half to two hours. 10:04 This helps relax the dough, proof it a little bit more. 10:08 It's been about two hours. 10:09 The focaccia is basically touching the lid of the pan. 10:13 You can see there's some air bubbles happening here 10:15 and it's super relaxed. 10:17 We're gonna put the bread and the walk-in overnight 10:19 and what we really want is to just cool it down 10:21 and stop the proofing so that we can come in tomorrow 10:25 and then bake it fresh. 10:27 If you wanted to shorten this, you could proof it 10:30 for a little bit longer and bake it immediately. 10:32 We have done that, but since we are in a bakery setting, 10:36 this is what works for our schedule. 10:39 [upbeat music] 10:40 These are the focaccias that we shaped yesterday. 10:43 They went in the walk-in overnight just to chill. 10:46 Typically, we would pull these out at 5:00 AM when my bakers 10:49 come in the morning, and they should look cold. 10:52 There's still lots of air in them, 10:54 but they're really cold and tight. 10:56 If I was at home and I had focaccia in the walk-in, 10:59 I would just pull it out first thing in the morning, 11:01 later in the afternoon, let it sit at ambient temp 11:03 for 2, 3, 4 hours. 11:05 It's not gonna over proof. 11:06 What you are really looking for is for it 11:08 to just equalize in temperature. 11:10 I'm just really trying to stretch it to fill the pan 11:14 so that it stays nice and square 11:16 because this is gonna become 10 sandwiches 11:19 or eight pieces of focaccia 11:20 and we wanna make sure that everyone has a nice equal piece. 11:23 Bubbles are starting to form. 11:24 This is what we're looking for 11:26 and this is what we mean by proofing. 11:27 This means our dough is very active 11:29 and we call this a a happy dough. 11:31 We're gonna pop 'em in the proofer 11:32 to just heat them up to ambient temp. 11:34 If you're making these at home, 11:36 I would recommend covering it 11:37 with the towel or plastic wrap. 11:39 This is our proofer retarder. 11:41 It's a very magical piece of equipment. 11:43 It's just a box that can pump humidity 11:46 and keep a solid temperature. 11:49 These are going in at 28 degrees Celsius 11:51 and like, 80% humidity. 11:54 The humidity just makes sure 11:55 that nothing is gonna crust over. 11:58 If something crusts over, then it can't expand. 12:01 We're just gonna quickly proof this for about an hour. 12:04 Let it relax. 12:05 We'll see some more bubbles and we'll come back to it later. 12:07 [upbeat music] 12:09 Our focaccia has been proofing 12:11 for a little bit over an hour in our proofer. 12:15 We have like, an ever rotating focaccia toppings. 12:18 We have a sausage and chive, a olive and grape and rosemary, 12:22 and then we always have a tomato focaccia. 12:24 With the sausage and chive focaccia, we're really going 12:26 for like, creamy, crunchy, fatty 12:29 and then like, fresh oniony chives. 12:31 It's just like, the perfect combination of textures 12:34 and flavors that it really hits all the right notes. 12:37 Now we're gonna make our sausage and chive focaccia. 12:40 We're gonna go just straight up creme fraiche first. 12:44 Creme fraiche has a high heat tolerance, 12:48 so it's not gonna break when exposed to heat. 12:51 Sour cream will break when it's exposed to high heat. 12:54 Now we're gonna add our sausage, which is bacon trimmings, 12:58 prosciutto trimmings, a little smoky, a little fatty. 13:02 I'm gonna add a little bit of our good olive oil 13:05 and then we're gonna dock it. 13:06 This is called Golden Nana olive oil. 13:09 It is buttery and light and bright. 13:11 The dimpling is really important 13:13 because we wanna make sure 13:15 that we are spacing the air bubbles out evenly 13:17 and don't be afraid to touch the bottom of the pan. 13:20 One confident dock. 13:23 The more you dock, the more you're gonna knock out air. 13:25 We're gonna put this in our deck oven. 13:28 These are gonna bake for about 15 to 18 minutes 13:31 until they're super toasty on the bottom 13:33 and evenly brown on top. 13:35 The deck oven is super special 13:36 because it has stones on the bottom 13:39 that's gonna help regulate the heat 13:41 and really make sure that the bottom 13:43 of this gets nice and toasty. 13:45 You can absolutely make this at home in your home oven. 13:49 If you have a pizza stone, that is a great start. 13:52 So we are baking these at 550. 13:55 The bottom stones are at 100% heat 13:58 and then we have it on 50% heat on top 14:01 and we found that that creates like, the nice perfect 14:03 golden crust. 14:04 The most important thing is you want to bake it 14:06 hot and fast. 14:08 Okay, we're gonna pull her out. 14:09 This has been about 15 minutes. 14:12 The sausage and chive, the bottom goes really quick 14:15 because there's so much fat coming down from the bacon 14:17 and stuff and so it really helps with like, the crustiness. 14:20 It's literally frying in the fat and olive oil. 14:25 Smells like bacon in here. 14:27 We're gonna check the bottom. 14:30 Like, dark golden brown. 14:32 That's great. 14:34 We're gonna put this here. 14:36 This gets finished with lots of chives, 14:40 and that's gonna give it its fresh oniony flavor 14:44 and help cut the fat of the bacon and the creme fraiche. 14:48 We're gonna do a little bit more olive oil. 14:51 Some guests love the burnt crusty ends. 14:54 Some guests prefer the middle. 14:57 Everyone gets what they want out of this. 14:59 We're looking for, there's some nice beautiful air pockets. 15:02 We've got little buckets of creme fraiche and our sausage, 15:06 and then the bottom is just super, super crisp 15:10 and golden brown, and that's the perfect one. 15:15 Eating this focaccia hot out of the oven is like, 15:18 one of the best things you could eat here. 15:20 Fatty from the bacon, the creme fraiche, slightly greasy. 15:24 We love the little greasy fingers, 15:25 super crunchy on the bottom, and then like, fresh 15:28 and oniony from the chives. 15:30 Hits all the notes. 15:31 People often ask us, "Why do you sell it so early?" 15:34 We are a very small bakery 15:36 and this is a three day process to make our focaccia. 15:39 Ours is so unique because of the time 15:41 and effort that goes into it. 15:43 [upbeat music] 15:45 This is my favorite step 15:46 because I feel like I'm like, a child again. 15:50 Like, just able to like, play. 15:52 To see the end product is, it's magic. 15:58 It really is.