Fluffy Focaccia

How to prepare fluffy focaccia

1. Dissolve the yeast in a little of the lukewarm water mixed with sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes until you see foam on top, a sign that it has activated.
2. Pour the rest of the lukewarm water and the oil (150ml) over the starter.
3. Gradually add the flour mixed with salt and stir until completely absorbed. Knead in a stand mixer for 5 minutes. You can also knead by hand, but the dough is quite sticky so oil your hands and after kneading a bit, start doing successive stretch and folds until the dough starts to hold together and feels elastic. Do the stretch and folds directly in the bowl - just pull one part of the dough and bring it over the top. Rotate the bowl and do the next stretch from the opposite side. Even if you kneaded the dough in a mixer, do 6 such stretch and folds at the end.
4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and let it rise in a warm place (about 28C) for one hour (in summer you can leave it outside, in winter near a radiator or in the oven set to 28C). The dough will double in volume.
5. Generously oil a large 25 x 40 cm baking tray with olive oil. Turn the dough out onto the tray and spread it by hand in an even layer across the whole tray.
   * if you know your tray sticks, you can put parchment paper on the bottom, but still generously oil the paper and edges
7. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and put the tray in the refrigerator until the next day (I prepared it at 9 PM and left it until 6 AM).
8. Take the tray out of the refrigerator and let it rise in a warm place for another 1.5 hours, enough to come back to room temperature and rise more.
9. Oil your hands and make indentations with your fingers across the entire surface. Pour the remaining 50ml of olive oil so it goes into the indentations. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt.
10. Bake at 250C for 20-25 minutes until nicely browned on top. Remove the tray from the oven and cover with a towel. Let cool.

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