Soft Mini Focaccia | Focaccine Morbide

Sep 30

11 min read

Focaccine morbide are the small individual focaccia that Italian bakeries sell warm from wicker baskets, one to a customer, wrapped in a square of paper. Each one is a golden dimpled round with a thin crisp skin, a tender open crumb and a shine of olive oil that reaches all the way through. This version starts from a wet dough left overnight in the refrigerator, bakes hot and fast, and rests under a cloth so it stays soft for hours.

Yield: 9 focaccine. Prep: 40 minutes. Fermentation: 12 to 18 hours. Bake: 12 minutes. Total: about 15 hours 30 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: bread or antipasto.

The Story

Focaccia is one of the oldest breads in Italy, and its name explains why. The Latin panis focacius meant bread baked on the focus, the hearth, where a flat round of dough was pressed among the embers and eaten within hours. Every region kept the idea and gave it a local accent. Liguria has the focaccia genovese, a thin dimpled bread bathed in salamoia, the brine of oil and water that gives it its shine. Puglia has the focaccia barese, thick and topped with tomatoes and olives. Tuscany has schiacciata, Rome has pizza bianca, and Sardinia and Sicily have their own bakery flatbreads. The recipe is old, the variations are endless, and the principle is always the same: a dough, a good deal of olive oil, salt and a hot oven.

The small individual focaccina belongs to the bakery counter more than to the home hearth. In Genoa and along the Riviera the first trays come out before dawn, and by early morning workers stop for a piece of focaccia with a cappuccino, dipping the salty, oily bread into the sweet milk. Outsiders find the habit strange and locals defend it fiercely. Bakers cut the dough into small portions because a portion sells itself: it slips into a paper bag, it splits cleanly for mortadella or prosciutto, and it sits in a basket beside the aperitivo.

Milk in the dough is the signature of the soft style. Some bakers enrich focaccia with milk and a little sugar, which gives a tender crumb that keeps well through a long day of selling, while the purists of Recco and Genoa use only flour, water, oil and salt. The two schools coexist without much rancour. This recipe follows the softer road: milk for tenderness, a whisper of sugar for colour and yeast, and a wet dough that rests overnight to build flavour without effort.

What every school shares is the salamoia, poured over the dough right before it enters the oven, and the conviction that a good focaccina should be eaten warm, on the day it was baked, with nothing more than good olive oil and a little salt. Nothing else is needed, and nothing else has ever improved on it. Walk into any panificio at eight in the morning and the tray on the counter is the proof: small, gold, shining, and half empty by nine.

Ingredients

For the dough

Type 0 flour or strong bread flour with 12 to 13 percent protein, 4 1/4 cups (500 g)
Water, cool, at about 68°F (20°C), 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (200 ml)
Whole milk, cool, at about 68°F (20°C), 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil, mild and fruity, for the dough, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Instant yeast, 1 tsp (3 g)
Fine sea salt, 2 tsp (11 g)
Granulated sugar, 2 1/2 tsp (10 g)
Total dough weight, about 33 oz (940 g), enough for 9 rounds

For the salamoia

Water, cold, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil, fruity, for the brine, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Fine sea salt, dissolved in the water, 1/2 tsp (3 g)

For the pans and finishing

Extra virgin olive oil, for the bowl, work surface and pans, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Fresh rosemary, leaves picked and left whole, 2 sprigs
Flaky sea salt, for scattering, 1 tsp (4 g)
Oven temperature, 475°F (245°C), conventional heat

For serving

Prosciutto crudo or mortadella, thinly sliced, 4 oz (115 g)
Stracciatella or fresh ricotta, 4 oz (115 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, for the table, 2 tbsp (30 ml)

Preparation

Mix the wet dough

Whisk the flour, sugar and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer so the yeast is evenly spread. Pour in the cool milk and water with the mixer on low and mix for about 2 minutes, only until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest for 20 minutes. This rest lets the flour drink the liquid and the gluten begin to organise itself, so the kneading that follows is shorter and gentler. Do not add extra flour if the mixture looks wet: this dough is meant to be slack.

Add the salt and the oil

Add the salt and knead on medium speed for 4 minutes, until the dough gathers around the hook. Then add the olive oil in three portions, waiting until each one disappears before adding the next. Oil added early coats the flour and blocks hydration, while oil added late lubricates a network that already exists. The dough will be soft, shiny and tacky, at about 75°F (24°C), and it should stretch into a thin membrane before tearing. If it feels stiff, keep the mixer running for another minute rather than adding liquid.

Ferment in the refrigerator

Move the dough to a large oiled container with a lid. Leave it at room temperature for 1 hour, folding it once with wet hands at the 30 minute mark. Then refrigerate it for 12 to 18 hours. At 39°F (4°C) the yeast slows almost to a stop while enzymes keep converting starch into sugar, which gives deep flavour and even browning without any sourness. The dough will roughly double, and it will be full of small bubbles when you open the lid.

Cut, shape and proof

Turn the cold dough onto a lightly oiled surface, never a floured one. Cut it with a bench scraper into 9 pieces of about 3.5 oz (100 g), weighing each. Tuck the edges underneath to form a smooth round, and set the rounds on two oiled sheet pans about 1/2 in (1 cm) apart. Cover them and proof for 60 to 90 minutes, until they look puffy and nearly touch. Press each into a round about 4 in (10 cm) wide with oiled fingertips, working from the centre outward and leaving a slightly thicker rim. The rim becomes the domed edge that people fight over. Do not press out all the gas: the bubbles you leave are the open crumb you will see later.

Dimple, dress and bake

Heat the oven to 475°F (245°C) with a rack in the upper third, at least 30 minutes ahead. Whisk the water, oil and salt for the salamoia until cloudy. Press oiled fingertips straight down into each round almost to the pan, then spoon about 1 tablespoon of salamoia over each so it pools in the dimples. Scatter the rosemary and flaky salt, pressing the leaves lightly into the surface so they do not scorch. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden with darker rims and an internal temperature of about 205°F (96°C). Watch the last two minutes closely, because a hot oven moves from gold to brown very quickly. Cover the hot pans with a clean cotton cloth for 10 minutes, then move the focaccine to a wire rack for another 10 minutes before serving.

Plating

Serve the focaccine warm, about 15 minutes after they leave the oven, on a wooden board or in a basket lined with a cloth or a sheet of baking paper. Warm plates are not needed, because the bread carries its own heat. Stack no more than two high so the bottoms do not steam and lose their tenderness under the weight of the pieces above.

For an antipasto, pile them beside thin slices of prosciutto crudo or mortadella, a little stracciatella and a small dish of good olive oil. For a sandwich, split one while warm and fill it with prosciutto and ricotta, or with roasted vegetables. Keep a few whole, plain and unsplit, because they are just as good torn by hand. A tomato salad or a bowl of olives on the side turns the board into an easy lunch.

Professional Technique

The whole recipe rests on one fact: small means more crust and less crumb. A large focaccia baked in a tray has a thick heart of crumb that stays moist while the top and bottom colour. A focaccina weighing 3.5 oz (100 g) has a far higher ratio of surface to volume, so every gram of dough sits close to the outside, loses water quickly and turns dry unless the recipe compensates for it.

The first compensation is hydration. A dough at about 76 percent water and milk holds enough moisture that the crumb is still tender after the surface has dried. The second is the oven. At 475°F (245°C) the crust colours in 10 to 12 minutes, so the bread spends the shortest possible time losing water. A cooler oven would need twice as long and leave a pale, dry disc.

The third is the way the rounds are arranged. Baked close together, the focaccine shield one another: the sides that touch stay pale, soft and steamy, and only the top and the outer edges face the full heat. The crumb in the middle of the pan stays moist.

The cloth completes the system. Straight from the oven the crust is thin, hard and full of trapped steam. Covered for 10 minutes, that steam has nowhere to go and moves back into the skin, which relaxes into a soft, tender shell instead of cooling into a cracker. Uncovered, it would be crisp for minutes and stale within the hour.

The salamoia goes on before baking for the same reason. Water in the brine turns to steam in the first minutes and protects the surface while the crumb expands. The oil fries the top, and the salt dissolves and seasons the crust as it goes down. Added afterwards, it would only sit on a set crust and taste of oil.

Texture and Moisture Control

Three fats and liquids shape the crumb. The oil in the dough shortens the gluten strands, which is why the bread tears tenderly and does not pull like pizza. The milk brings proteins and lactose that brown at a lower temperature, so the crust colours gold before the crumb dries out. The high water content gelatinises the starch during the bake and holds it soft afterwards.

The dimples matter as much as the dough. They are pockets that hold the salamoia in place and anchor the crumb so the centre does not rise into a hollow dome. Press to the pan without tearing through. Shallow dimples give a bread that puffs unevenly, and deep ones that break the base give greasy patches. Use the pads of three fingers and press straight down, never dragging sideways.

After baking, moisture keeps moving from the crumb to the skin. Warm bread softens as it rests, and a cooled focaccina turns firm because the starch recrystallises, a process called retrogradation. A brief rest on a rack lets excess steam escape before the bases soften, and a warm oven for 5 minutes reverses the firmness the next day.

Professional Mise en Place

Equipment and tools

Stand mixer with a dough hook, digital scale and instant read thermometer
Bench scraper, two heavy sheet pans, cotton cloth and wire rack
Small whisk and bowl for the salamoia, pastry brush for oiling the pans
Large lidded container, oiled, for the overnight fermentation of the dough

Prepared ahead

Dough mixed the evening before and refrigerated for 12 to 18 hours
Rosemary picked and flaky salt measured into a small dish
Pans oiled and the oven heating for a full 30 minutes
Cured meats, cheese and olives sliced and set out at room temperature

Service setup

Salamoia whisked immediately before use and stirred again between trays
Cloth laid out beside the oven so the hot pans are covered at once
Basket or board lined, olive oil and cured meats ready for the table
Serving knife and a bread knife for splitting the focaccine warm
Extra cloth or paper bags for wrapping the focaccine the traditional way

Chef Tips

Weigh every piece. A ball 20 g heavier than its neighbours will be raw in the middle when the others are golden, and the difference cannot be corrected once the pan is in the oven. A digital scale is the cheapest insurance in the kitchen.

Use cool liquids and a cold, long fermentation instead of warm water and a quick rise. The dough then has time to build flavour, and it is much easier to cut and shape when it comes out of the refrigerator firm. Cold dough also holds its round shape better during the proof.

Whisk the salamoia again just before you pour each tray, because oil and water separate within a minute. Pour it quickly and evenly, and do not worry if the pans look wet: it is meant to.

Use a fruity extra virgin olive oil for the salamoia and a milder one for the dough. Its aroma is what you smell first, and it becomes the flavour the bread is remembered for.

Common Mistakes

Adding too much flour to the work surface. Extra flour dries the outside of the rounds and shows as pale dusty patches. Oil your hands and the bench, and accept a sticky dough. It is the wet dough that makes the crumb tender.

Baking at a lower temperature. A moderate oven needs a much longer bake, and the small rounds dry out before they colour. Keep the oven at 475°F (245°C) and the time near 12 minutes.

Leaving the focaccine uncovered after baking. The crust sets hard as it cools and the bread turns leathery within the hour. Cover the hot pans at once, and keep the cloth on for the full 10 minutes.

Pouring the salamoia after baking. It sits on the surface, tastes oily and never seasons the crumb. Always dress the dough before the oven.

Spacing the rounds too far apart. Every side is exposed to the heat and the crust thickens everywhere. Keep them within a finger width of each other, and they will touch as they proof.

Wine Pairing

Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato DOC: The wine of the same coast as the salamoia. Its saline edge and lively acidity cut through the olive oil, while herbal notes echo the rosemary. Served cold, it is the most natural pairing for a warm focaccina at aperitivo, and its light body never overwhelms the delicate crumb.

Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: Dry, crisp and mineral, with citrus and a slight bitter almond finish. It refreshes the palate between warm oily bites and stands up to salted cured meats. A good bottle has enough texture to meet a bread that is rich in oil, yet finishes dry enough to reset the palate.

Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: A dry, pale red with fine bubbles and bright acidity. It lifts the richness of a focaccina filled with mortadella or prosciutto, and its light tannins never overwhelm the bread. Serve it well chilled at about 46°F (8°C), the way it is poured in Emilia beside cured meats, and the fizz will cut through fat like a squeeze of lemon, while its red berry fruit flatters the salt of the crust.

Franciacorta DOCG: Classic method bubbles give both acidity and toasty yeast aromas that echo the golden crust. The mousse cleanses the oil from the tongue and makes the bread feel lighter. It suits a tray of small focaccine served at the start of a dinner, when the palate wants freshness more than weight, and it works equally well with a plain, unfilled bread.

Storage & Reheating

Focaccine are best on the day they are baked. Keep them in a paper bag or under a cloth at room temperature for up to 24 hours, and never in the refrigerator, where the starch firms up quickly. In a sealed container the crust softens, which some people prefer.

For the freezer, cool them completely, wrap in pairs in freezer film and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature for 1 hour. To reheat, place them on a sheet pan in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 6 to 8 minutes, until warm and the surface has regained its light crispness. Sprinkle with a few drops of water before reheating if they feel dry. Do not use the microwave, which makes the crust rubbery and the crumb tough within seconds. Reheated this way, a day old focaccina is nearly as good as a fresh one.