Focaccia is maybe the most easy-going member of the bread family. Since itâs cooked in a pan, thereâs no need to fuss with shaping the high-hydration dough, and the soft, open crumb makes it an exceptional sandwich bread and an ideal sidekick for dips and soups. It embraces practically any toppings you throw on it, and can handle heavy glugs of extra virgin olive oil or a spill of burrata without going soggy.
But as easy as focaccia is to make, its texture and quality are entirely dependent on the vessel you cook it in. Thick ceramic and glass bakeware will produce pallid, abysmally soft bakes and need parchment paper to prevent stickingâI learned this the hard way early in my focaccia-baking journey. For crispy golden burnished results, an aluminum sheet pan is the pan of choice in the BA Test Kitchen.
But you donât have to stop there. Recently, I learned thereâs a way to bring your focaccia to greater, crispier heights while dining at one of my favorite Detroit-style pizza spots. I noticed the kitchen used dark, almost-black aluminum pans, which baked pies with bronzed, super-crackly crusts.
As soon as I could, I ordered a Detroit-style pan from Lloyd Pans, a female-led company headquartered in Spokane, Washington, that produces commercial cookware for pizzerias and bakeries.
When I prepared my standard focaccia dough in this new pan and slid it into the oven, it emerged deep gold, with an evenly caramelized exterior. Too impatient to let it cool, I sliced into it, thrilled when my bread knife encountered a sturdy, audibly crackly crust. I then smeared the warm, crisp-edged slices with an immodest amount of butter and topped each one with a delightfully salty anchovy, a spritz of lemon, and some Calabrian chile flakesâthe most heavenly snack.
The science backs this up. Aluminum browns food better than glass and stoneware because itâs a superior conductor of thermal energy, quickly transferring heat to food. Darker-colored metal pans will absorb more radiant energy than their lighter-colored counterparts, allowing them to get hotter faster in the oven. If you want to maximize browning, a dark aluminum pan is your best bet.
