Tuscan flatbread
People take their bread recipes a little too seriously on many websites and they become over complicated and time consuming. My goal is always to make good bread with a minimum of fuss and eliminate all the unnecessary steps that don't add anything to the final taste.
As long as my schiacciata meets with the approval of my Tuscan wife and my 88 year old Tuscan mother-in-law, both of whom have spent their whole lives eating schiacciata, then I'm happy.
Elena will sometimes say that my bread is more like focaccia than schiacciata but I can live with that if tastes good. Schiacciata should be thinner and crispier than focaccia but not so thin that you can't slice through it with a bread knife to make a sandwich. The following recipe is for a stuffed schiacciata but the olives, sun dried tomatoes and rosemary are all optional and in fact unnecessary if you want to fill your cooked schiacciata with mortadella as Italian love to do.
Schiacciata is best eaten warm from the oven or at least the same day it is baked and as this is a very quick, simple recipe that takes only 3 hours from mixing the dough to eating the bread (assuming a 22-24° kitchen) don't be tempted to make too much. Instead just do it again tomorrow.
I think I prefer it without the olives so I've left them out of the following ingredients and photos.
Ingredients:
200g '00' flour
300g '0' manitoba flour
280g warm water
50g milk
20g extra virgin olive oil
8g salt for the dough a little more to sprinkle on later
1 teaspoon honey
6g fresh yeast
Directions:
1. Mix 2 tablespoons of water with the salt and set aside.
2. Add the rest of the water with the milk, honey, yeast and olive oil and then add the flour. Mix it well in the bowl, wetting your hand to prevent it sticking, and then leave covered with a cloth for 20-30 minutes.
3. Add the salted water to the dough and integrate well using the pincer method and work the dough for a few minutes until it's smooth. Leave covered for another 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the bowl onto a wet counter top and stretch and fold the dough 10-15 times and put back in the bowl smooth side up for a further 30 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 and rest again for 30 minutes.
6. Place a sheet of oven paper on a tray approx 30 cm by 40 cm and oil it liberally.
7. Stretch the dough a little on the counter top and add your choice of ingredients on top (above photo), then fold the sides in to fully incorporate everything inside the dough.
8. Spread the dough out on the oiled oven paper (above photo) and if it resists and tightens up give it a few minutes rest to relax before continuing.
9. When it covers most of the tray drizzle some olive oil all over the dough, spray a mist of water on top and sprinkle on a little salt.
10. Place the tray in a pre-heated oven at 230°C for 7 minutes followed by 190°C for another 9 minutes. Finally, remove the schiacciata from the tray, discard the oven paper and let it bake by itself on a wire rack in the oven for a further 9 minutes at 190°C. Allow to cool for 15 minutes then grab some quickly before it all gets eaten.
A simple schiacciata sandwich (below) with prosciutto cotto and cheese is my food of choice on long bike rides. I freeze them freshly made, then take them out at the start of a ride and after an hour on the bike they're ready to eat and the schiacciata is as good as when it was freshly baked.
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