Basic Focaccia Bread Recipe

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Don’t let basic in this focaccia bread recipe fool you! This is real deal delicious focaccia bread. There isn’t any other bread that parallels focaccia. It’s a bread on its own. Soft with a snappy bite and exploding with flavor, my basic focaccia bread recipe will leave you coming back for more!

What is Focaccia Bread?

Heaven in the form of bread. Focaccia is an Italian bread known for its signature use of olive oil. Lots of olive oil! It’s a thick, fluffy bread cooked in a baking dish.

Focaccia bread can be simply flavored with sea salt, all the up to olives, tomatoes, and even potatoes! You can add a lot of fun toppings to focaccia.

But in our basic focaccia bread recipe here, we are going to complement this amazing focaccia bread with a basic salt, herb, and garlic seasoning recipe. It’s delicious and you probably have everything you need in your pantry already!

And if you’re wondering about the extent of oil, I have paired the oil ratio so as not to make you blush. It’ll be delicious focaccia, but a slightly paired down oil quantity. It is focaccia bread after all!

Tips for Making Focaccia Bread

• I always prefer to make bread with bread flour. But, when I run out I will switch over to all-purpose flour. So if you are ready to bake and only have all-purpose flour on hand, use it. Next time, though, try bread flour and look at the difference. With a quality bread flour like King Arthur, you can achieve high, fluffy focaccia.

• If you’re new to baking bread, I highly recommend King Arthur Flour. Their flour never disappoints!

• Get a kitchen scale! If I could only buy 1 essential kitchen tool for baking bread it would be a scale. I would take the scale over a Kitchen Aid mixer! You can knead most recipes by hand. But measurements? You can’t get an exact measurement with measuring cups. Bread is basically flour and water. Different types of bread come from changing the measurements of flour and water. So get a scale. You’ll be happy you did.

• This focaccia bread recipe is perfectly basic and doesn’t use a mixer. We will stretch and fold the dough instead of kneading. If that sounds foreign, don’t worry. It’s easy and I’ll explain it below.

Step by Step Basic Focaccia Bread Recipe

Step 1

Combine the warm water, yeast, and honey (or sugar) in a medium bowl and stir.

Step 2

Add in flour and salt and mix with a spoon until of the water is incorporated. Then add in the oil and mix again. If it gets too sticky to use the spoon, you can wet your hands and mix by hand until all of the oil is incorporated.

Step 3

After mixing, allow the dough to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Be sure to cover with plastic or a damp towel.

Step 4

While waiting for the dough to raise, add the ingredients for the infused oil in a small bowl and set aside.

Step 5

If you’ve ever made sourdough bread, you’ll be familiar with stretch and folds. If not, I’ll explain.

In order to build up the gluten network on this dough, we are going to perform a series of “stretch and folds”.

For each set, you’ll take about 1/4 of the dough, starting at the 12 o’clock position, and lift the edge up so it stretches (but not too much as we don’t want to rip it) and then we will place it across the dough on the opposite side and fold/tuck it in.

Then we will move on to the 3 o’clock position, then 6 o’clock position, and finally end at the 9 o’clock position (image below).

Then cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest for 30 minutes. This is considered 1 “set” of stretch and folds.

Step 6

Repeat the stretch and folds 2 more times, allowing the dough to rest for 30 minutes after each set.

Step 7

Drizzle 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in a glass 9×13 pan. Take the rested dough and place it in the oiled pan. Turn the dough over in the oil to make sure all of the dough has been covered in oil.

Place plastic wrap over the pan and allow the dough to rest for about 15 minutes.

Step 8

Stretch the dough out again so it fills in more of the pan. Lift the dough and move it a bit to make sure there is oil under the dough. Cover with plastic and allow the dough to double in size which should take about 1 hour.

Step 9

Once the dough has doubled in size, we are going to press our fingertips into the dough making the signature pock marks of focaccia. Gently poke your fingers all over the dough to dimple the top.

Then take your infused oil blend and brush it all over the dough.

Step 10

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-24 minutes until golden brown.

A Basic Recipe for Delicious Focaccia Bread

This is a great recipe for beginners and experienced bread bakers. It’s delicious, unique, and fun to make. Homemade bread can really bring a meal together. And it can elevate even the simplest of meals to something special.

If you love bread, you may love these: Naan, Sourdough, Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, and Bagel Bites with Sourdough Discard.

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks for stopping by!

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