Sweet Potato Focaccia
A thick, dimpled, olive oil rich focaccia cut into squares, with a deep golden top, a crisp fried bottom and a soft open crumb tinted warm orange by roasted sweet potato.
Servings 12 squares
Ingredients
For the Dough
- ½ cup cooked mashed sweet potato 115 g, roasted and cooled, not boiled
- 3 cups bread flour 390 g
- 1 ½ cups warm water 330 ml, about 90F, slightly less than 1 ½ cups
- 1 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for the dough
For the Pan and Topping
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for the pan, spread up the sides
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for the finishing oil
- 1 large clove garlic minced, stirred into the finishing oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt to finish
- ½ teaspoon coarse black pepper to finish
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Roast 1 medium sweet potato at 400F for 50 minutes, until a knife meets no resistance. Scoop the flesh, mash it smooth, weigh out 115 g and cool it to room temperature. Do not boil it, since boiled flesh carries extra water into an already wet dough.
- Whisk the warm water, instant yeast and mashed sweet potato together until the mash breaks up and the water is cloudy orange.
- Add the bread flour and fine salt and stir with a stiff spatula until no dry flour remains. The dough will be shaggy and very sticky, which is correct. Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil over the top and cover the bowl.
- Every 15 minutes for the next hour, wet one hand, reach under an edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the middle, turning the bowl a quarter each time for four folds. Do four rounds total.
Overnight Rise
- Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil into a 9x13 inch metal pan and spread it up the sides. Scrape the dough in and turn it once so both faces are oiled.
- Cover tightly and refrigerate 12 to 18 hours. The cold rise builds the flavour and does the work overnight.
Dimple and Bake
- Take the pan out and leave it at room temperature about 2 hours, until the dough has relaxed into the corners and looks pillowy.
- Stir the minced garlic into the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and pour it over the surface. Oil your fingers well and press straight down to the pan floor, making 40 to 50 deep dimples across the whole slab.
- Finish with the chopped rosemary, flaky sea salt and coarse black pepper. Do not press the dough again after topping.
- Bake at 425F on the LOWEST oven rack for 25 to 28 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the edges pull away from the pan. The low rack matters because the sugar in the sweet potato browns the top before the base is set.
- Slide the focaccia out of the pan onto a rack right away so trapped steam does not soften the crisp bottom. Cool 15 minutes, then cut into 12 squares.
Notes
- 115 grams, not more: extra sweet potato makes a dense, faintly gummy crumb that never opens into holes.
- Roast, do not boil: boiled flesh adds water to a dough that is already at 75 percent hydration.
- Weigh the flour: a careless scoop is worth 40 g, which is the difference between an open crumb and a brick.
- Dimple to the pan floor: shallow dimples fill back in during the bake and you lose the ridge and valley profile.
- Lowest rack, metal pan, heavy pan oil: the three things that give a crisp brown bottom instead of a pale greasy one.
- Storage: 2 days on the counter cut side down, 2 months frozen in squares. Reheat 5 minutes at 400F, never in the microwave.