homemade focaccia

Focaccia is a great bread that everyone should know how to make.A couple of notes on this focaccia. I like using a fairly high hydration dough. For this recipe, my water amount is 75% of the flour.  This leads to focaccia with a thin, but really crisp crust and a soft interior with fairly large holes inside, this texture and size I find perfect for making sandwiches with. While the end product I prefer much more, a high hydration dough will naturally be really sticky and can be annoying to work with if you aren't used to it but don't worry I'll show you how.

How to make Focaccia

g Instant Yeast

Flour

Salt

g Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Rosemary

Chives

Mix the ingredients

Add the yeast to the warm water along with a spoonful of the flour. Stir until dissolved. Let stand for 5-10 minutes until a light foam surfaces and little bubbles are visible. Note: Proofing is done to test the viability of the yeast. If there is no foam surface or little bubbles the yeast is likely dead and should be discarded for new yeast.  Meanwhile, add the flour, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Once the yeast is proofed, pour in the mixture and mix the dough with your hands until no dry flour remains in the bowl and a cohesive mass forms. The dough will be very sticky. Pour the olive oil over the dough, work together until the oil is absorbed. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

Bulk Fermentation + Gluten Development

Once rested, perform a stretch and fold by grabbing a corner of the dough in the bowl, lift straight up to stretch the dough as high as it will go without tearing and fold over to the other side. Rotate the bowl and perform three more reps of stretch and folds. Once folded, turn the dough over onto itself, cover and let rest another 25-30 minutes. This is one set of a stretch and fold, perform 3 more sets with 25-30 minutes rest in between.  For each stretch and fold set, the dough should feel more elastic and stretch further without tearing with some air bubbles present

Proofing (Second Ferment)

Drizzle olive oil into a 9x13 baking pan until the bottom is covered. After the last stretch and fold, turn the focaccia dough into the pan and gently work it to the edges. Note: If the dough is springing back from the edges, cover and let rest for 15-20 minutes before gently working to the edges.  Cover the pan and let the focaccia proof for 45-60 minutes. At the end of proofing, the dough should be well risen and puffy with gas bubbles. Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Dimple + Add Toppings

Dimple the proofed dough with wet fingers by gently pushing to the bottom of the pan, but do not accidentally go through the dough. For me, I like lots of dimples and run over the dough 2-3 times.  Whisk the olive oil and water together with a fork until it emulsifies, about 2-3 minutes. Pour the mixture over the focaccia where it will pool into the dimples.  Sprinkle flaky salt and fresh herbs over the top. If using other toppings like grape tomatoes, or olives, add them now too and gently press into the dough. Note: This turns into a great pizza with sauce, cheese and anything else you may have in the fridge.

Bake

Place on the middle rack of the 450 F oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden on top. Let rest under a cloth on a wire rack for 5 minutes before slicing into hunks of focaccia  Serve as is, or slice in half for creating sandwiches.

No-knead focaccia is a super-easy snack idea made with zero effort and no technique (not even kneading). With the softest crumbs, fantastic texture, and delicious flavor, it’s the easy focaccia recipe you didn’t know you were looking for.

Super Easy No-Knead Focaccia

All-purpose flour

tsp Yeast

Sugar

(455 gms) Lukewarm water

tbsp Olive oil

Sea salt and Rosemary

Combine the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.

Pour over the lukewarm water. Mix well with a spatula until a sticky dough is formed.

Pour a teaspoon or two of olive oil on the surface of the dough and rub it all over.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 18-24 hours. I kept it for 24 hours.

When you&#39;re ready to bake, grease a 9&quot; x 13&quot; or 10&quot; x 12&quot; pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. You may not need to do that if your pan is non-stick.I used a 10&quot; x12&quot; pan and lined it too.

Take out the refrigerated dough. Oil your hands and gently bring the proofed dough in from the sides of the bowl.

Fold the dough over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter of the way and fold the dough over itself again. Do 3 more quarter turns of the bowl with folding over the dough each time.Repeat this step once more.

Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the center of the prepared pan.

Gently place the deflated dough on the olive oil. Roll it a couple of times to coat it well with oil.

Cover this with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and keep in a draft-free place for 2-4 hours or until the dough doubles and covers the pan.Mine doubled in 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220 C.

Sprinkle rosemary ( if using ) all over the surface of the dough.

Pour over the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the dough and spread it all over. Dimple the dough using your fingers. Sprinkle the sea salt.

Bake the bread at 220 C for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown. The bottom of the bread should be crispy.

Let the bread rest in the pan for 5 minutes before turning it out on a cooling rack. Slice warm or let it cool completely. Enjoy!

Top 2 homemade focaccia recipes from across the web

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How to make Focaccia

Super Easy No-Knead Focaccia

Top 2 homemade focaccia recipes from across the web

The most viewed homemade focaccia recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

How to make Focaccia

Super Easy No-Knead Focaccia

The most viewed homemade focaccia recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine