Dripping with olive oil, this foccacia is chewy with a delicious, crunchy bottom.
| 3⅔ cups | bread flour (500g) |
| 5 tsp | instant yeast |
| 1 tsp | white sugar |
| 2 cups | water, cool/room temperature |
| 8 tbsp | extra-virgin olive oil, divided |
| 1¾ tsp | table salt, divided |
| 1 cup | tomatoes, halved cherry or sliced |
| 1 cup | Castelvetrano or green olives, pitted and halved |
| 1 tsp | dried oregano |
| ¾ tsp | ground black pepper |
1. Using a stand mixer, mix flour, yeast and sugar on medium until combined, about 30 seconds. On low speed, drizzle in the water, then raise back to medium speed to mix until smooth, about 5 minutes. The dough will be very wet. Leave in the bowl, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the dough and knead (in the mixer) until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (The dough will still stick to the sides of the bowl.) Remove the mixer bowl.
2. Coat a large bowl's inside completely with 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Pour and scrape the dough into the oiled bowl using a silicone spatula. Dab the top of the dough with olive oil to ensure it doesn't dry out. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 5-6 hours. Observe that the dough will double in volume, deflate, then rise again (but not to double)—this is all good.
3. Before the 6 hours are up, preheat your oven with a steel or stone in it to 500° F. Spray a 13 × 9 baking pan with PAM. Pour 2 tbsp olive oil in the center of this pan.
4. When the dough is ready, pour and scrape it into the baking pan. It will self-level a bit, but you'll encourage the dough into the corners with oiled fingers, but take care not to deflate it. Allow it to stand at room temperature for 20 minutes, meanwhile...
5. Crush the tomatoes; losing excess moisture. (They don't need to be dry, but neither do you want much tomato liquid.) Distribute the olives and tomato halves (or slices) over the top of the dough.
6. Drizzle the remaining 4 tbsp olive oil over the whole especially coating the tomatoes. Sprinkle with oregano, the remaining ¾ tsp salt and the pepper.
7. Bake with pan on the steel or stone until golden brown and the sides of the foccacia pull away from the pan, 20-22 minutes. Remove the pan to cool for 5 minutes, then use a large spatula to lift the foccacia from the pan onto a rack. Cool for 30 minutes before cutting into squares and eating.