This roasted garlic sesame focaccia is so flavorful from both roasted garlic and roasted sesame oil your taste buds will be singing.
Traditional focaccia is delicious. No notes. However, I’m always wondering how can I adapt recipes for new flavors. I’ve made Sweet Focaccia and Focaccia Pizza, and various other kinds. My Sweet Cinnamon Apple Focaccia I experimented using other oils so that gave me the confidence to try another type of oil in this sesame focaccia.
I adapted this recipe from my Small Batch Focaccia so it is a smaller loaf than my Overnight Focaccia, however this recipe could be doubled or the overnight version could be made into the sesame version.
Baking Tips & Notes
There are two kinds of sesame oil. Toasted and untoasted. Toasted doesn’t always say toasted very clearly, however you’ll know if it is because the smell is quite strong. If you use untoasted sesame oil, this is not going to have much of a sesame taste. Toasted sesame oil is the one with all the flavor, but using only that I thought might be too overpowering. So a blend of olive oil and toasted sesame oil is what I ended up using.
Make sure to bake your focaccia in a metal pan. Glass pans ideally are pretty much good for casseroles. Metal is a much better heat conductor. Glass will take longer to heat up and hold onto heat longer. Your edges will cook first and be done far before the center of a bake is. Any metal pan is better than glass, but the best option is a light colored one. This one from Fat Daddio’s and this nonstick one from OXO are the two I often use (I’m not sponsored by either of them, however those links are affiliate links). I usually use an 8×8 pan for fatter loaf and a 9×9 pan for a slightly thinner loaf.
If you love sesame, you could easily leave out the garlic flavor of this and just make a plain sesame focaccia and it would be delicious. However garlic sesame is such a great combo I decided to go with that for the recipe. When the garlic is roasted properly it will come out of it’s skin very easily and any pressure will sort of mash it. When adding it to the sesame focaccia, just sort of place chunks all over before dimpling, making sure all areas of the bread have some. Some of the paste will get transferred to other areas when dimpling the dough.
It is VERY IMPORTANT if you roast the garlic, that you use it pretty quickly. If you want to roast the garlic the day before, it needs to be refrigerated. Garlic that’s sitting in oil and not refrigerated can develop botulism bacteria which are pretty dangerous. An hour on the counter is fine between roasting and using, but if you’re making it hours ahead of time or before don’t let it sit at room temperature.
Sesame Focaccia Key Ingredients
- Sesame oil – As I said above, make sure you’re buying/using TOASTED sesame oil as the sesame flavor is much more pronounced. Regular sesame oil is sort of like light olive oil, it’s pretty neutral tasting the focaccia won’t end up tasting much like sesame. Sometimes it can be hard to tell from packaging, it should be darker in color than untoasted. If you have a grocery store with a good Asian section or an Asian market they will definitely have a good one.
- Bread flour – You can always substitute AP for bread flour, but I never recommend it. Your focaccia will be better with bread flour. Bigger bubbles, higher rise, a little extra chew.
- Garlic – Don’t buy jarlic. You want a head of garlic to roast if you are choosing to include it. It’s worth the extra step!
Ingredients
- 300 g Bread flour 2½ cup
- ½ tbsp Morton kosher salt or fine sea salt
- 7 g Instant yeast 1 tsp
- 12 g Granulated sugar 1 tsp
- 270 g Water ~1 cup + 2 tbsp, warm (~105°F)
- 2-3 tbsp Roasted sesame oil divided
- 2-4 tbsp Olive oil divided
- ¼ cup Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F
- Take a bulb of garlic, remove the papery skin but keep the bulb whole. Cut the top ¼ of the stem side off and place on aluminum foil.
- Drizzle olive oil over the garlic generously, then cover the garlic with additional aluminum foil creating a little packet/dish.
- Roast the garlic for 40-60 minutes. The time will depend on the size of the garlic head. The garlic should be fragrant and golden brown/caramelizing when ready. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- In a medium-large bowl, combine your flour, kosher salt, yeast, sugar, water, and 1 tbsp of sesame oil. Mix until combined into a wet shaggy dough.
- Pour a tablespoon of olive oil over the dough, and smooth over and turn the dough in the bowl, coating it in oil. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, uncover your bowl and push your fingers underneath the top edge of the dough at the 12 o'clock position. Pull the dough up towards you, stretching it and fold it in towards the center/opposite side of the bowl.
- Turn your bowl a quarter turn, and repeat. Do this an additional two times until you have stretched and folded all sides of the dough in, for a total of four folds.
- Recover your dough and allow to rest for another 30 minutes.
- Repeat your stretch and fold process (four more folds), and then recover your bowl and let rest for 30 more minutes. You should notice a little more tension in the dough than the first set of folds.
- If your dough is in a warm spot, after this, your dough should be puffy and bubbly, roughly having doubled in size. If it has not grown in size allow to continue proofing until it has done so.
- Using a 9×9 square pan, pour 1 tbsp of olive oil into the bottom of the pan and grease your pan, making sure to get the corners and sides.
- When your dough is ready, dump into your prepared pan, as well as any leftover oil from the bowl. Cover your dough and allow to proof for an additional 30 minutes.
- While your dough is in its final proof, preheat your oven to 425°F.
- After 30 minutes, drizzle with ½ tbsp of sesame oil and 1½ tbsp of olive oil, place some roasted garlic cloves then dimple your dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and flaky sea salt, place on the center rack of your oven to bake.
- Bake for about 22-25 minutes or until your dough is medium golden brown. Remove from oven and onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.
- Bread can be kept in an airtight container for about 3 days but is best enjoyed on the day it is baked. Enjoy!
