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(This is part 2 of a 4-part series on world-class focaccia. Just to confuse you, it’s “day 1”, unless it took you 24 hours to read the introduction.)

Great focaccia starts two days back in time, with a bucket of slop called poolish.

Reinhart’s official recipe for poolish calls for a 50/50 mix of water to flour, by volume. That is, it calls for 4 cups of flour and 4 cups of water. It has been my repeated experience that a poolish made this thin will separate and look nasty by the time I need it, the next day. For this reason I often leave 1/4 of the water out. This gives me more control over timing, and results in a poolish less likely to separate.

The thicker poolish will take longer to ferment, so if you do this, allow additional fermentation time. I have successfully left this thicker poolish at room temperature for 6-8 hours (overnight), rather than the 3 indicated in the recipe, prior to retarding. (The retarding step is still necessary; the most important ingredient in this or any great bread is time.)

Then, before mixing the dough, stir the ‘missing’ water into the poolish to get it to the hydration rate assumed by the recipe.

If you’ve never made focaccia before, I would encourage you to follow the poolish recipe as written, at least the first time. Your focaccia will turn out even if the poolish separates.

To help prevent separation, mix the poolish well — a few simple turns with a spoon won’t be sufficient. If you have an electric hand mixer, use it.