Hi—

I recently made the following Focaccia:

    http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rosemary-Focaccia-106275

I brushed a generous amount of olive oil onto a non-stick baking sheet before putting down the dough, but the Focaccia stuck quite a bit after baking and it was a mess. I need to make it again and was wondering if I could put parchment on the pan rather than olive oil?

-Would this help with the sticking issue?

-If I put the parchment without olive oil, would that make the bottom crust less crispy?

Thanks,
Tim

Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” shows the olive oil being smeared on top of parchment, so it apparently works for him.  Parchment is so thin and transmits heat so well, I can’t imagine it would affect crispiness.

The first time I made focaccia, it stuck so badly to the pan (a non-stick pan oiled liberally with olive oil), that by the time I managed to scrape it out, the pan was badly damaged.  Now I always use parchment, then oil, and I’ve never had a problem since.

I bake mine on a silpat, and it works just fine. Oil seems to be a sticking agent when baking bread, rather than a release agent.

I bake focaccia in a glass pan. I paint the pan with olive oil then plop the dough in for it’s final rise. No sticking problems.

Gene, which recipe do you use?  I wonder if the hydration affects “sticking power”?  My first was Rose’s rosemary focaccia, which has over 100% hydration.

I use a variation on my potato/buttermilk pizza dough with less oil and more water. It is pretty sticky. Sorry I bake the focaccia from feel mostly.

Tim,

I made the focaccia recipe from the Bread Bible just recently and my focaccia didn’t stick at all.  Here’s how I did it:

I generously oiled the pan, put a layer of parchment on top, then generously oiled the parchment. 

My focaccia was on ball bearings.

Best of Luck!

lessels81 - 16 June 2010 10:07 PM

My focaccia was on ball bearings.

LOL!!!

Thanks Anne in NC for the LOL!  I try.