I could spend all day listing the great things about focaccia. It's simple to make and perfect for novice bakers. It has a fluffy, airy interior and a crisp, crisp crust. It goes with everything.
But instead, I'm going to be mean and focus on the only thing bad about focaccia: it makes too much.
Now, too much of a good thing is usually great (give me everything THE chocolate cake). But focaccia has a short shelf life; it's really best the day it's made, and the quality declines rapidly from there, becoming dry and stale. Additionally, most prescriptions are made in a half sheet pan or a 9″ x 13″ pan., making large format bread with high yield. If you are cooking for a party or a large group, this is great! However, if you live in a small family or a one-person household like I do, this can leave you with too much focaccia and not enough people to eat it.
Fortunately, there is now a solution: Small batch focaccia. It's everything you love about focaccia, made for one 9″ x 5″ OR 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. instead. Makes enough focaccia for several people to enjoy with dinner or for several large sandwiches – simply cut in half crosswise and fill with your favorite sandwich toppings.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
But if that wasn't enough, this bread is covered wall to wall with a layer of cheese that browns while baking to create a salty, crunchy crust where the dough meets the edges of the pan. Because there's a larger edge-to-middle ratio when you bake the focaccia in a pan instead of a pan (not to mention the loaf pan has higher sides), you're guaranteed plenty of crunchy, cheesy bites. Giving in to the recent trend towards baking in the pan Detroit style pizzaMartin Philip, the developer of this recipe, calls it “basically a Detroit-style focaccia.”
This simple bread requires only basic ingredients: just one cup bread flour (which gives focaccia its supple, chewy texture), salt, yeast, water and olive oil, plus a final combination of shredded mozzarella and parmesan for that irresistible cheesy topping. The dough is developed with only two bowl folds, instead of kneading, which means no mixer or intense arm workout required. From there, you follow the same basic focaccia template—shape, dimple, bake—with the cheese topping added mid-bake.
Like all focaccia, this is best the day it's made. But since it's a small recipe, you'll have no problem whipping it up in one go, with plenty of ingredients left over to make a second batch tomorrow.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
