This is one of the most common problems people have with their focaccias, as well as one of the most annoying. So let’s see what you can do to stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan.
Here is what you can do to stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan.
- Use more olive oil
- Use parchment paper
- Heat up the pan
- Use frozen butter
- Use a pizza stone
- Add sand to the pan
- Use a non stick pan
Some of them might be self explanatory, but not all of them. So let’s go over each one in detail and see how you can apply them to stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan.
1. Use More Olive Oil
In most cases the reason why a focaccia is sticking to the pan is simple. You didn’t use enough oil. And this is understandable. Focaccia needs quite a lot of it. And to somebody that isn’t used to make focaccia that amount of oil might seem too much.
Olive oil has two main roles in the making of focaccia. One is to keep it from sticking to the pan. And secondly to add flavor. If you don’t use a lot of olive oil you aren’t making focaccia, you’re making flatbread.
So even if it might seem like too much it isn’t. Here is a picture of the last focaccia that I made. And as you can see there are small puddles of olive oil on top of it.
And here is a picture of the focaccia after it was baked.
As you can see there is no excess olive oil left on top of it. So don’t be afraid to use a lot of olive oil.
2. Use Parchment Paper
Traditionally focaccia is baked directly onto the pan/tray. But you don’t have to be completely traditional when making focaccia. And you can make things easier for yourself and use parchment paper.
Parchment paper doesn’t change the taste of the focaccia in any way. So why not make things simpler and use it? This way it will be easier to clean the pan and you won’t have to worry about your focaccia sticking.
And if you think about it. Focaccia was invented way before parchment paper. So of course they didn’t use it back then. And if they had it they would most likely have used it.
One tip that I want to share with you about parchment paper is that it will be easier to handle if you crumple it. Take a sheet of parchment paper that is a little bit longer than your pan and crumble it with your hands. Keep crumbling it until there are a bunch of tiny wrinkles all over it. Now the parchment paper should be easier to handle and you should have no problem covering your pan with it.
And don’t forget to add a little bit of olive oil on top of it. While you shouldn’t have any more problems with sticking, olive oil still is an important part of the taste.
3. Heat up the Pan
This is a trick used in a lot of bakeries, especially on new pans. But it works just as well on older ones.
Before you place your pan in the oven. Make sure to properly wash it. If there is anything in the pan while you heat it up. It will get burnt and it will be extremely hard to clean later.
After you clean the pan, cover it with a bit of sunflower oil, and put it in a preheated oven at 400°F for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes are done use a towel to grab the pan and get rid of the excess oil. Now the pan is covered with a slick coating that will prevent the focaccia from sticking, and it’s already hot, which will make the crust form faster. So you can place the focaccia in it and bake it as you normally would.
A few important mentions.
Make sure that you use sunflower oil at first and not olive oil. While olive oil is what you would normally use for a focaccia. It has a lower smoke point. And your kitchen will be full of smoke in about 10 minutes.
The smoke point of olive oil is between 374–405°F (190–207°C), depending on the quality and the refining process. While sunflower oil has a smoking point at around 449°F 232°C.
Another advantage of sunflower oil is that it has no taste, so it won’t affect the final taste of the focaccia.
4. Use Frozen Butter
This is a trick that I’ve learned while making Detroit Style Pizza, which is a very thick crusted, crispy and chewy pizza.
For this trick you will need a stick of butter which you will use to grease every corner of the pan, after which you will move the pan to the freezer for 30 minutes. During this time the butter will freeze and form an initial solid protective layer that will protect your focaccia from sticking to the pan.
After you take the tray out, cover the layer of butter with room temperature olive oil, then place the focaccia in the tray and put it in the preheated oven.
Butter remains solid at room temperature, so it will prevent the focaccia from entering into direct contact with the tray from the start. And while in the oven the butter will melt and combine with the olive oil, which will keep the dough from sticking to the pan.
An added benefit of this method is that the butter will take the taste of the focaccia to a completely new level, without changing it completely. In this case butter acts as a taste amplifier.
5. Use a Pizza Stone
Focaccia and pizza are quite similar if you think about it. The major difference is in the toppings and the amount of olive oil used. So if you are having problems with a focaccia that sticks to the pan, why not use a pizza stone instead of a pan?
A pizza stone absorbs the heat from the oven and retains it for a long period of time. This mimics the effect of a pizzeria’s brick oven by raising the temperature and providing an extra-hot surface to bake the pizza. And this will stop the pizza from sticking to the stone and it will create a crunchy bottom.
The only difference when making a focaccia instead of a pizza on a pizza stone is that you must use parchment paper. Pizza stones are also great at absorbing liquids. In the case of a pizza there is no problem, but in the case of a focaccia, which is covered in olive oil there can be one. If the pizza stone absorbs too much olive oil it can reduce its lifespan and it will start to create smoke when the olive oil inside it heats up. But all of this can be easily avoided by placing a sheet of parchment paper on top of it.
6. Add Sand to the Pan
This is a trick that I’ve learned while baking pastries. And I’ve been applying to a lot of different baked products since then.
All you have to do is fill your oven tray (the one that came with the oven) with sand, any type of sand should do the job. And let it heat up in the oven. Meanwhile prepare your focaccia in a different tray that will fit on top of the one with sand in it.
When the oven is preheated and you are done preparing the focaccia, place the pan with the focaccia in it on top of the tray filled with sand.
The sand won’t heat as much as the tray will, so it will act as a barrier that reduces the heat that is transferred directly to the tray with the focaccia, and this will slow down the cooking process of the bottom of the focaccia. So overall the cooking will take longer, but the bottom will not stick.
Over the years I’ve been using different quantities and types of sand, here are some observations, that will be useful if you choose to use this method:
- Fine sand tends to heat up slower
- Sand that has small stones in it, and overall larger grains will heat up faster and give out more heat
- The thicker the sand layer, the more it will take to heat up
- Make sure that the sand has no leaves or wood in it, they can catch fire
- Don’t wash the sand, if you do this you will lose some of the finer sand and be left with small rocks
- Heating up the sand in the oven will get rid of all germs and bacteria
- Make sure that the sand hasn’t been treated in any way
Overall this method is the opposite of the last one, as they act in two completely different ways, but will obtain the same result, a focaccia that doesn’t stick. I personally prefer the pizza stone over the sand one because I like my focaccias to have a crispy bottom instead of a soft one, but depending on what you like and what you have at your disposal you can use either one, as they will both stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan.
7. Use a Non Stick Pan
While there are a lot of things that you can do to add a layer of extra protection between the pan and the focaccia. The simplest thing that you can do is to get a non-stick pan.
Granted, using a non stick pan doesn’t guarantee that nothing will ever stick to the pan, but in the case of a focaccia you should have no problem.
But not all non stick pans are the same, so before you get one make sure to check the reviews carefully, and make sure that you get one that is actually good. One good pan that I’ve been using in the last couple of years and I’ve had nothing stick to it is the USA Pan Bakeware Rectangular Cake Pan, which you can get on Amazon. So if you are in need of a good non stick pan I would recommend you to check it out.
Final Thoughts
Those are my 7 tips that will stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan. And as for which one you should use, it mostly depends on how you like your focaccia, as they will all stop it from sticking to the pan.
If you like the traditional taste of focaccia with olive oil, use the first method. If you are like me and are a firm believer that butter makes everything better, use the frozen butter method. If you like a focaccia with a crispy bottom, then use a pizza stone.
As I said all of those methods will work, but all of them will also influence the taste or the texture of the focaccia, so it’s a matter of taste not of efficiency.
I personally like to mix things up from time to time so use a different method each time. And I would also recommend you to do the same, you never know when you will find something that you like.