I’m sure you’ve been there. You’re baking a fluffy focaccia, it’s almost out of the oven, the smells of olive oil and tasty toppings are filling the air. Then when you’re finally ready to lift your focaccia out of the pan, it rips because it’s stuck to the pan. Well, I’ve been there and done that, seeing many focaccia successes and failures. I think I finally fixed the sticking focaccia problem for good. Here are five ways to stop focaccia from sticking to the pan:
- Grease your pan with more olive oil than you think you need
- Use a quality non-stick pan
- “Bake-in” your pan before using it
- Try the non-traditional “butter and freezer” trick
- Use crinkled parchment paper to line your pan
The above photo by spurekar is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Before we begin, you can check out my favorite non-stick focaccia pan on Amazon here. It’s amazing, and it will probably solve all of your focaccia sticking problems.
Now, let’s get to the five methods to stop your focaccia from sticking:
1. Grease your pan with more olive oil than you think you need
To keep your focaccia from sticking to the pan, you should put a generous amount of olive oil into the pan before you add your dough. The olive oil will impart the traditional flavor to the focaccia, making it more than just a “flat bread in a sheet pan,” but it will also help to stop the focaccia from sticking.
Most bread and cake recipes will ask you to lightly grease or butter your baking dish. You will need to do more for focaccia. The oil is both an ingredient in the final product, and an aid to to keep the dough from sticking. If you feel like you’re just barely greasing the pan, add more oil. You’ll need more than you think you need.
Honestly, I don’t usually measure the oil as I’m adding it to the pan. I typically just add in a few “glugs” of extra virgin olive oil until it seems like the right amount to me. If you’re more of a measurements person, try starting with an 1/8th cup of oil, and then move up to a 1/4 of a cup if you think it needs a little more oil.
2. Use a quality non-stick pan
To keep focaccia from sticking, get a quality non-stick pan. This was honestly the step that solved my sticking focaccia problem for good. If you’ve got a truly non-stick pan to work with, all of the other steps on this list are almost unnecessary!
The non-stick focaccia pan that I use is a 9×13 inch rectangular, non-stick cake pan from USA Pan. This pan works wonders and my focaccia seriously doesn’t stick at all. Not one little bit. I just slip a spatula under the bread right when I take it out of the oven, and the focaccia pulls right out of the pan in one piece. You can check out the pan on Amazon here.
With older, sometimes rusty, pans that I used to use, I would basically have to hope and pray that my focaccia wouldn’t stick. But now with this one, I don’t have to think twice about it. Whatever the brand may be, do yourself a favor and get a truly non-stick pan with some kind of “quick-release” or special non-stick coating. You’ll be happy you did.
Since I’m in the US, I’m happy to get USA Pan products. They work for me and I love them. But, I’ve also heard great things about the domestic oven focaccia trays from Rackmaster Ltd. in the UK. They’re worth checking out too.
3. “Bake-in” your pan before using it
If you have an old metal sheet pan, or even a brand new metal sheet pan, one way you can stop your focaccia from sticking to the pan is by “baking-in” the pan before you use it. This is a technique that some bakeries use for new bread pans to make them release bread more easily.
First, what you want to do is completely clean your pan with soap and water. Then, once the pan is clean, lightly grease the interior of the pan with extra virgin olive oil, or some type of neutral oil, like sunflower oil or canola oil. Then let the empty pan bake for 30 minutes in an oven set to 450°F.
This “baking-in” process will ideally smooth out any rough edges on the interior of the pan. It should give the pan a slick coating that allows focaccia to pop out easily.
Then, when you’re ready to bake focaccia, just add plenty of olive oil to the pan, like usual. The pan should then be more non-stick than it was before the baking-in process.
4. Try the non-traditional “butter and freezer” trick
The next trick is a hack I learned from the world of Detroit-style pizza. (Detroit-style pizza is baked in a very specific, well-oiled, deep-dish baking pan.)
To keep your focaccia from sticking to the pan, first, grease the interior of your pan with a thin layer of butter and then move the pan to the freezer. The butter will act as an initial layer of protection against sticking and it will also provide some amazing flavor (although very non-traditional for focaccia).
After a half hour or so, remove the focaccia pan from the freezer. The butter should have had time to harden by this point. Since butter remains solid at room temperature, it will now form a solid non-stick layer in your pan.
When you’re ready to let your focaccia dough proof, add your generous amount of oil into the buttered pan. Treat the rest of the process just like usual. The layer of oil will be a second non-stick layer and hopefully will stop your focaccia from sticking.
This trick worked for me on a an old cake pan that had given me problems with sticking before. Try it out on your tough, older pans and see if it works for you!
5. Use crinkled parchment paper to line your pan
Finally, you can use crinkled parchment paper to line your pan to stop your focaccia from sticking. When all else fails, parchment paper comes to the rescue! This almost-magical kitchen staple never allows dough to stick.
Although focaccia is typically baked straight on a metal pan, don’t think of using parchment paper as wrong. It’s much better to have a great focaccia baked on parchment paper than to have your stuck focaccia torn apart while you’re trying to remove it from its pan!
One trick I like to employ is the use of “crinkled” parchment paper. Take a sheet of parchment paper that is a little bit longer than your pan and crumble it up in your hands. Keep crumbling it until it there are a bunch of mini crinkles all throughout the paper. Now, un-crinkle the parchment paper.
The parchment paper should now be able to form-fit to any pan without folding all over the place. This trick works for focaccia, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, and anything else sticky that you might want to use parchment paper for.
There you go! You didn’t know you were going to get a parchment paper hack, did you? After lining your pan with the parchment paper, add a generous amount of oil, transfer in your dough, and proceed with your recipe.
Conclusion: How to Stop Focaccia from Sticking to the Pan
As you can see, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your focaccia from sticking. The most important things to remember are to use a generous amount of oil, and if you can, to use a quality non-stick pan.
You can check out my all-time favorite non-stick focaccia pan on Amazon here.