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Homemade focaccia bread comes together quickly and is the perfect addition to any meal. Lightly flavored with Italian seasoning and olive oil, the bread has amazing flavor.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
It’s the perfect addition to just about any meal.
You can enjoy it just as is or you can dress it up with lots of amazing flavor combinations.
This best focaccia bread is delicious with pasta with meat sauce. It works great for mopping up extra sauce or I love to use it for dipping into hummus or balsamic vinegar.
What is Focaccia Bread?
Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread and is similar in style and texture to pizza dough. It is a perfect side dish for many meals and also makes a wonderful sandwich bread.
Ingredients Needed
- Active dry yeast
- Flour. I use unbleached all purpose flour. You could also use bread flour.
- Sugar or honey
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- Italian Seasoning or combination of rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil etc.
- Coarse Salt. You can also use flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top
How To Make Focaccia Bread
- Combine warm water and yeast and allow to proof for about 15 minutes. If you have any questions about working with yeast check out this post
- In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine yeast mixture, flour, sugar, olive oil and salt.
- Place dough in a oiled boil and cover.
- Allow the dough to rise until double in size.
- Generously oil the bottom of a baking sheet or baking pan with olive oil. The olive oil will give the bread good flavor so don’t be stingy. You can use two 9 inch round cake pans or you can also use a glass 9 x 13 baking dish as well. I often divide the recipe in half and use one 9 inch cake pan to make the bread (as pictured in the post). The round loaf of focaccia bread is perfect for making this focaccia sandwich.
- Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise again for about 30 minutes.
- Press your fingertips to dimple the dough, creating indentations.
- Drizzle with remaining olive oil. Allow the olive oil to fill into those indentations in the dough.
- Add a sprinkle of my favorite French salt. I also love to sprinkle it with fresh or dried herbs.
- Bake at 400 degrees F. for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool and remove from the pan.
What to Put on Focaccia Bread?
The possibilities are endless!
- Favorite herbs or seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme) Add the herbs on top of the dough with the olive oil before baking. You can also use fresh herbs such as fresh rosemary, basil or oregano.
- Roasted garlic, add in with the dough
- Cheese (parmesan, mozzarella, provolone etc.), a
- Veggies ( onion, chopped or sliced tomato, roasted red pepper slices, chopped mushrooms, sliced shallots, thin-sliced zucchini or yellow squash, spinach)
- Pesto
- Olives
Add your toppings after you have brushed the bread with olive oil and before baking. One of my favorite combos is cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and Parmesan cheese.
To serve the focaccia bread you can cut it into squares, if baking in a sheet pan or pie shape if baking in a round pan or you can just tear a piece off! The bread will be thinner if baked in a large jelly roll pan.
Small Batch Focaccia Bread
If you want a smaller batch version that feeds 2-4 people be sure and check out my small batch focaccia bread.
Frequently Asked Questions
As written, the recipe makes two 9″ round loaves or one large, 9 x 15″ inch loaf. Recipe can be halved for one 9″ loaf.
Focaccia bread should have a crisp, chewy crust and a soft and airy middle.
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Easy Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp sugar or honey
- 5 Tbsp olive oil divided
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning or combination of rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil etc.
- Coarse Salt sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Use 2 9" round pans or one 9 x 15" sheet pan.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Add yeast and sugar to warm water. Stir to combine and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes until bubbly.
- Add yeast mixture to flour, salt and 2 Tbsp olive oil in mixer bowl. Mix with dough hook. Add additional flour if needed to get a soft dough that is not too sticky to handle.
- Coat a bowl with oil and place dough in bowl. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for an hour in a warm place or until doubled in size
- Brush baking sheet with 1 Tbsp oil. Punch down dough and remove from bowl. Knead on a floured surface for a minute.
- Place dough onto oiled baking sheet and press to fill sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 30 minutes.
- Press fingertips into dough, creating indentations. Brush top with remaining oil.
- Sprinkle with coarse salt and any other desired topping such as dried rosemary, thyme, oregano.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool bread on a rack for 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely and enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
- Favorite herbs or seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme) I add the dried or fresh herbs on top of the dough with the olive oil before baking.
- Roasted garlic, add in with the dough
- Cheese (parmesan, mozzarella, provolone etc.), a
- Veggies ( onion, chopped or sliced tomato, roasted red pepper slices, chopped mushrooms, sliced shallots, thin-sliced zucchini or yellow squash, spinach)
- Pesto
Nutrition Facts:
Brooke says
Hi! Can you hand-knead the dough instead of using a stand mixer? 🙂
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
Yes you can! Enjoy!
Rhonda says
My first time with this bread!
My family loves it