Baking expert Michael Kalanty is working with Central Milling's Artisan Baking Center in Petaluma, California to release an online instructional video titled “Discovering Focaccia.”

This hour-and-a-half class takes students on a virtual baking tour of Italy to uncover the story of Italy's beloved flatbread, focaccia. Going online the second week of September, the video will bring a fuller understanding of the role of focaccia in Italian cuisine and culture while helping US bakers expand their product offerings.

Starting in Genoa with the Ligurian focaccia, viewers will learn the centuries-old method as verified by the Slow Foods Praesidia for cultural heritage and practiced by the bakers collective in Liguria. They will travel to La Puglia for the wood-fired, panned version made from durum semolina and potatoes, topped with baby tomatoes and black olives.

Next, viewers will head to Florence where the flatbread is baked without a pan in a hand-stretched version with crispy sides. The Schiacciata (meaning “smashed down by the fingers”) is most often split lengthwise and made into sandwiches. For two weeks of the year during the grape harvesting season in Chianti, the Schiacciata is topped with grapes and coarse sugar. Called Schiacciata all’uva (with grapes), this snack is served for dessert or breakfast.

Class content includes historical and cultural background, local ingredient sourcing, time-honored techniques, step-by-step demonstration and downloadable formulas appropriate for production scaling.

Bake readers can receive a 30 percent discount on "Discovering Focaccia" by entering the code SOSLAND30 at checkout.