Perfect Gluten-Free Focaccia Recipe

Decadent ingredients yield equally indulgent results with this moist, golden, and superbly flavored focaccia recipe from Manhattan’s famed Del Posto restaurant. Be careful: The minute it’s out of the oven it practically dares you not to eat the whole pan. To ensure its light, airy consistency, be sure to stir the ingredients together very gently and sink your fingers into the well-oiled dough multiple times before putting it in the oven. Also note: the restaurant uses Cup4Cup and Bob’s Red Mill flour, with fantastic results. Using other GF flour will vary the results, but if you use quality GF flours, it should still be delicious.

Servings 1 (8 BY-8-INCH) BREAD

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups seltzer water at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon plus 3⁄4 teaspoon active dry yeast
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
1 egg
1-3/4 cups Cup4Cup gluten-free flour mix or your favorite GF flour mix
1-3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour or your favorite GF flour mix
1 tablespoon plus 11⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt divided
1/2 cup good-quality olive oil , divided
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped

Instructions

Combine the seltzer water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl, and stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine. Don’t worry if some of the yeast clumps, and don’t use a whisk to stir; you want the seltzer bubbles to remain intact.
In a separate bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, mascarpone, and egg to incorporate. Add the mayonnaise combination to the yeast mixture and very gently stir to combine, using a wooden spoon, to keep the seltzer bubbles intact. (It’s okay if there are still some remaining yeast clumps.)
Sift together the flours and 1 tablespoon salt, and very slowly add the flour to the combined wet ingredients, stirring by hand with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together.
Grease the bottom and sides of an 8-by-8-inch cake pan with 4 tablespoons olive oil. Put the dough into the pan, gently pressing it into shape. Top the dough with the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil. Using all 10 fingers, gently poke deeply into the dough multiple times to aerate it, then let the dough rest for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350oF. Top the focaccia dough with 11⁄2 teaspoons salt and the rosemary. Bake in the middle of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool to warm, then slice and enjoy.