Garlic

What it contributes

Garlic adds savory depth that plays beautifully with olive oil, rosemary, and tomato. But raw garlic is small, thin, and sugary, so exposed on top of a hot focaccia it scorches in minutes into bitter, acrid flecks — the classic garlic mistake.

The goal is garlic flavor everywhere and burnt garlic nowhere, which means getting it into the oil or cooking it gently before it meets fierce top heat.

Infused garlic oil (the easy win)

Warm sliced or crushed garlic gently in olive oil over low heat until fragrant and just barely golden, then cool. This garlic oil can go into the dough, brush the pan, drizzle the dimpled top, or finish the baked focaccia — carrying rounded garlic flavor without any raw cloves to burn. It is the single most reliable way to use garlic on focaccia.

Do not brown the garlic hard in the oil; take it off the heat while pale. And use garlic oil promptly — homemade garlic-in-oil should be kept refrigerated and used within a few days for food-safety reasons, not stored at room temperature.

Roasted, confit, and post-bake

Whole roasted or confit garlic cloves are soft, sweet, and mellow — you can tuck them into the dimples or smear them across the baked surface. They will not burn because their sugars are already tamed by slow cooking. Roasted garlic focaccia leans into this sweetness.

Another simple approach is to rub a cut raw clove over the hot, just-baked crust (as for bruschetta) or brush on garlic oil at the end, adding a fresh, pungent hit without any oven exposure.

Buying and storing

Choose firm, heavy heads with tight, papery skin and no green sprouts or soft spots. Store whole heads somewhere cool, dark, and airy — not the fridge, which encourages sprouting and rubberiness. Pre-peeled or jarred garlic is convenient but milder and more prone to off-flavors; fresh heads give the best result.