Focaccia is maybe the most easygoing member of the bread family. Because it’s cooked in a pan, there’s 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 both need parchment paper to prevent sticking—I 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 don’t have to stop there. Recently I learned there’s 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 super-crackly bronzed crusts.
As soon as I could, I ordered a Detroit-style pan from Lloyd Pans, a female-led company headquartered in Spokane, Washington, which 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 an audibly crackly and sturdy crust. I then smeared the warm crispy-edged slices with an immodest amount of butter and topped each with a delightfully salty anchovy, a spritz of lemon, and some Calabrian chile flakes—the most heavenly snack.
The science backs this up. Aluminum browns food better than glass and stoneware because it’s 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.
While nobody here would fault you for purchasing a pan solely dedicated to making focaccia, this high-sided metal vessel is capable of plenty more. I was already planning to bake perfect grandma-style pizzas and extra-crispy roasted brussels sprouts with it when I clicked “buy,” but that’s just where the list begins. Pretty much any baking project that benefits from crispy edges will thrive here. A punchy cheese and tomato cornbread, a savory pancetta bread pudding, or a classic sausage and herb stuffing are all worthy candidates for this pan.
At around $40, the black aluminum pan falls somewhere between the price of a cheap glass baking dish and a pricey stoneware casserole (just make sure to avoid the dishwasher to preserve the finish). I am officially a convert to black aluminum—and if you love a robust crust, you will be too.