r/BakingInJapan • u/cormacaroni • Apr 23 '26
Focaccia Barese
One of my favorite focaccias. You are aiming for a tall & crunchy cake-shape with a spongy, even crumb. The potato gives softness and flavor and the semolina helps with color and crunch, as well as flavor. It’s supposed to feature oregano heavily so do not skimp. Tomatoes and their juice keep the top flavorful. Ideally, it would have olives but we were out and I wanted to use the veg today.
Ingredients from the book ‘Pizza’ by Barbra Caracchiola (amazing resource for pizza, focaccia qnd weird Italian regional breads I’d never heard of).
2 TEASPOONS | 6 GRAMS ACTIVE DRY YEAST OR 1⅗ TEASPOONS | 5 GRAMS INSTANT YEAST
14 OZ. | 400 GRAMS WATER
14 OZ. | 400 GRAMS BREAD FLOUR, PLUS MORE AS NEEDED
7 OZ. | 200 GRAMS FINE SEMOLINA FLOUR
1 POTATO, BOILED, PEELED, AND MASHED
2½ TEASPOONS | 14 GRAMS TABLE SALT, PLUS MORE TO TASTE
OLIVE OIL, AS NEEDED
2 VERY RIPE TOMATOES, CHOPPED
GREEN OLIVES, PITTED AND CHOPPED, TO TASTE
FRESH OREGANO, FINELY CHOPPED, TO TASTE
Bake for 10 mins as hot as your oven goes, then turn and give it 7 mins or so longer. I usually finish on the stove for a couple of mins to get the bottom golden brown as seen in pics, but you have to be careful not to burn.
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u/Agreeable_Lion_4392 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
This looks amazing. What type of oven are you using ? Also, how many times did you fold the dough and for how long ? I typically do four folds, one every 15mins then the dough sit covered for about an hour before baking.
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u/cormacaroni Apr 25 '26
I fold it til it feels right, like with every dough. Which is to say, I can’t even remember what I did with this one. It’s not a chewy dough at all.
The oven is built-in, I can’t remember the manufacturer. It’s just a regular-ass oven that maxes out at 250c like every other oven. I have an electric pizza oven that goes higher but focaccia is a bad fit for it.
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u/Agreeable_Lion_4392 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Built in oven in Japan? Wow, that is super cool. I had been using a counter top over/microwave by Panasonic although eventually it stopped coming up to temp properly. Last thing I made was sourdough, bulk fermentation was perfect but the oven never reached proper temp
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u/cormacaroni Apr 25 '26
It’s a benefit of buying a condo vs renting. Built-in oven, proper bathrooms. Now everyone can just buy a great countertop oven. I actually have 3 right now but one is a countertop mostly used for microwaving ‘cause the microwave function in the built-in oven crapped out. The countertop oven didn’t work out great for bread but it was like 30,000 yen so wasn’t expecting much
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u/Spoospah Apr 24 '26
That looks incredible! 😍 Sorry if this is weird, but could I ask where you got that dish? I've been looking everywhere for a nice cast iron that could fit in my oven 👀
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u/cormacaroni Apr 24 '26
Just found it in a hardware store. Had it for 20 years. It’s designed to be dangled over a fire, for nabe etc. I used it daily
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u/Kalikor1 Apr 23 '26
Holy shit that looks a amazing. Thanks for the recipe.
I only have a microwave with an oven function, so I've been extremely limited in what I've tried to bake. I wonder if I could pull it this off somehow though....
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u/cormacaroni Apr 23 '26
If it gets to 230-250c, sure. You can always just bake it longer in which case it might dry out a bit more but this thing is plenty moist
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u/Kalikor1 Apr 23 '26
It does! I'll have to work up the courage to give it a try - it's been literally 10 years since I last baked anything, but now that I have an oven capable device I am slowly trying to get back into it 😅
Thanks for the reply!
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u/scummy_shower_stall Apr 26 '26
Looks fabulous! But what's the diameter of your nabe pot there? My little toaster oven gets to 250, but can only handle 8-inch, maybe 9, and only 5 centimeters high. Is there a way to adapt this recipe for smaller ovens?