🫒 🧀 🍞 Loaf-Pan Focaccia 🍞 🧀 🫒
and
🥑 Avocado Focaccia Toasts 🥑
Small-batch focaccia dough is topped with olive salad, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and baked in a loaf pan. It is heavenly, served warm with herbaceous fruity olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar for dipping.
The leftover portion is wrapped up and saved for the next morning’s breakfast – avocado toasts served two ways, plain and loaded. Focaccia is great as a sandwich bread, and loaf-pan focaccia makes for the absolute best avocado toast!
The dough is made with five simple ingredients – bread flour, instant yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. Compared to all-purpose, the amount of protein found in bread flour is higher in order to contain and produce more gluten and achieve the desired rise in bread. Because of this higher protein level, bread flour is able to absorb more liquid, allowing it to hold its shape and rise upward. The high amount of gluten in bread flour also creates a more elastic dough, which helps achieve focaccia’s airy crumb and chewy texture. Olive oil is added to the dough for tenderness and flavor.
Loaf-Pan Focaccia and Avocado Toast Recipes
Small-Batch Focaccia with Olive Salad and Cheese
Ingredients:
- 120 g bread flour
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 + 1/8 t. instant yeast
- 1/4 c. + 2 T. lukewarm water
- 1 1/2 t. olive oil + 2 t. to grease the loaf pan
- about 1/2 c. olive salad, well-drained
- 57 g shredded mozzarella
- 25 g shredded parmesan
Method:
Whisk flour, salt, and yeast together in a medium bowl. Add water and olive oil. Combine well.
Cover for 15 minutes set in a warm spot in the kitchen.
With a wet hand, stretch, fold and press the dough in the bowl over itself about 6 times while rotating the bowl each time. This is known as a “bowl fold.”
Cover again for 15 minutes. Stretch, fold, and press again.
Cover and rest for 75 minutes.
Grease the entire interior of a non-stick loaf pan – 8 1/2″ X 4 1/2″ X 2 1/2″ with olive oil. Pull dough into a rectangular shape and transfer to the loaf pan. Flip the dough once to coat with the olive oil.
Press and stretch the dough to cover the bottom of the pan. Dimple the surface with fingertips.
Top with olive salad. Lightly press olive salad into the dough. Cover and rest 1 hour 45 minutes.
Then pre-heat oven to 500°F, and continue to let the dough rest while oven comes to temperature.
When oven is at 500°F, place loaf pan on the bottom rack, adjust temperature to 450°F.
Meanwhile, mix mozzarella and parmesan together in a small bowl.
Bake bread for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle most of the cheese around the perimeter, finish with cheese in the center of the loaf.
Return loaf pan to oven and bake another 10 to 12 minutes until the cheese becomes crispy around the edges.
Remove loaf pan from oven and use an offset spatula to release cheese from sides of the pan. After 5 minutes, remove focaccia from pan and let it cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Slice vertically and serve warm.
Notes:
Olive salad is a jarred mix of pickled vegetables, green and black olives, and capers in seasoned oil. Salt is not added on top of the loaf, as the olive salad is already salty.
Serve the warm loaf with good olive oil (we like Masia El Altet) and aged balsamic vinegar for dipping.
Wrap the uneaten portion of the loaf in food plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, make avocado focaccia toasts!
This terrific small-batch focaccia recipe was adapted from King Arthur Baking here.
Information about bread flour from Bob’s Red Mill here.
Loaded Avocado Focaccia Toast inspired by gardenbella here.
Avocado Focaccia Toast
Avocado Mash
Ingredients:
- ripe avocado
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Method:
Mash avocado flesh in a small bowl with the back of a fork with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
Focaccia Toast
Unlike focaccia that is made in a sheet pan, this small loaf-pan version is sliced vertically. Place slices of focaccia in a toaster oven until golden brown. The interior sides of the bread will toast, and the cheese and olive topping will be hot, but will not melt off.
Spread a generous portion of avocado mash over focaccia toast. Garnish with optional edible flower and herb sprigs.
Loaded Avocado Focaccia Toast
Ingredients:
- avocado mash
- carrot ribbons
- watermelon radish, thin-sliced triangles
- cherry tomato slices
- micro greens or mini herb sprigs
- roasted sunflower seeds
- olive oil drizzle
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper
- edible flower confetti (here)
- aged balsamic vinegar drizzle (optional)
Method:
Spread a generous portion of avocado mash over focaccia toast. Arrange carrot ribbons, watermelon radish triangles, sliced tomatoes, and herbs, on top of the avocado mash. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle fresh flower confetti over the top.
While a few drops of good aged balsamic vinegar will add another fabulous layer of intriguing flavor and sweet complexity, it doesn’t necessarily add to the aesthetics. So…drizzle just before consuming and after capturing the image.
More Loaf-Pan Recipes
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