Trader Joe's Pizza Dough Takes The Work Out Of Making Fresh Focaccia

Scratch-made focaccia is an easy home project. But the yeasty flatbread requires two lengthy rises — one in the fridge and one at room temperature — to incur that bubbly airy crumb that sets it apart from other types of bread. So if you don't have the hours it takes for focaccia dough to complete its rises, Trader Joe's pizza dough is the quick and easy shortcut to delicious, bouncy focaccia in under two hours.

Trader Joe's pizza dough has already gone through the lengthy initial rising process, cutting your prep time down to a fraction of what it takes to make fully homemade. Trader Joe's offers various flavored pizza doughs, so you can also save yourself the cost and labor of incorporating different seasonings by buying pre-seasoned dough.

All you need to execute this clever hack is a package of pizza dough from Trader Joe's refrigerated section, plus olive oil, and any extra seasonings or toppings you fancy. Let the pizza dough sit out until it reaches room temperature before adding it to a round or rectangular baking dish drizzled with a generous amount of olive oil. Then stretch the dough until it covers the base of your baking pan, drizzle with even more olive oil, cover it, and let it sit for between 30 minutes and an hour. Then comes the fun part: Pressing your fingers into the dough to create focaccia's trademark dimples before sliding it into the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for around 25 minutes.

While you could pop Trader Joe's pizza dough right out of its bag and into the baking pan and oven without that additional resting period, it's worth the wait. Even half an hour of sitting in a warm dark place will help create that bubbly, fluffy texture you want in focaccia. Pizza dough may have the same ingredients as focaccia, but the proportions are different; pizza dough has a higher proportion of flour and less yeast than focaccia. Consequently, letting pizza dough rest will give it the opportunity to expand.

We provide some helpful dimpling tips to create the fluffiest focaccia crumb by using your fingers to press the squishy dough nearly to the bottom of the pan, getting as deep as your second knuckle. The more dimples and the deeper, the better. Just ensure that your fingers don't cut completely through the dough. You should never feel the metal of the pan with your fingertips.

You can add any inclusions, from aromatics to herbs, to cheese and sauces, right after dimpling. Opt for classic rosemary and salt, or elevate your focaccia to new heights with one of many Trader Joe's products. Pick from sauces, spreads, mozzarella balls, herb and seasoning blends, or roasted aromatics. For example, you could top your pizza dough focaccia with their garlic spread, dollops of Trader Joe's Italian bomba hot pepper sauce and marinated mozzarella balls with a drizzle of their marinating liquid.