Focaccia bread is both delicious and so simple to make. It is such a fun homemade bread to make and share with those around you. For the best results and best flavor in your from Scratch Focaccia bread, be sure to read all our tips and tricks!
At the bakery we have always loved focaccia bread! We use it every week for our favorite Breakfast Sandwiches. One of the greatest discoveries we have made is that focaccia is not only an amazing savory classic Italian bread, but it also makes an amazing, sweet bread. Today I am going to share my favorite multi-purpose focaccia recipe along with my favorite toppings to create a perfect dessert or breakfast accompaniment. This easy focaccia bread is delicious with fresh raspberries, balsamic peaches, chocolate, creamy brie cheese, and so many more of your favorite sweet toppings. These toppings may not be traditional, but I promise they are such a treat!
Worried You’re Not a Bread Baker?
Focaccia is SO EASY! Not a bread baker? Or avid cook? Kitchen Lover? This is the easiest recipe for first time bakers. Everyone loves a delicious and flavorful bread, and they’re going to love this sweet focaccia bread. And this recipe is so simple with minimal hands-on time. The only skill you really need to make focaccia is patience. Now, like any yeast recipe, it takes time to rise and mature, and this particular recipe relies on slow fermentation to develop a beautiful depth of flavor and texture
Mixing Focaccia Dough
To make the dough for your homemade focaccia bread, we’re going to start by placing your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix your dry ingredients together and make a well in the center. To this we add the room temperature water (or warm water) and olive oil and mix together with a Danish whisk or your fingers until you no longer see dry flour bits. You’ll notice that a very shaggy dough forms, and it may not form into a dough ball but that’s okay. Continue to stir your sticky dough with your dough whisk, dough hook on a mixer, or your hands for a couple of minutes. Next, let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
This period of rest gives the flour time to fully absorb the water before you begin working it. Gluten is only able to form when flour absorbs water. Giving the bread flour a chance to fully hydrate will allow for better gluten development. After the thirty minutes is up, you will begin to strengthen the focaccia dough by stretching and folding it.
How to Stretch and Fold Focaccia Dough
Focaccia dough is a very wet dough and can be a little tricky to work with. Because of this, we are not going to knead the dough as you might be used to. We are going to develop the gluten through a series of stretch and folds. Stretching and folding bread dough is a gentle way of developing a good gluten structure that doesn’t require any kneading.
Place your Focaccia Dough on the pan it will bake in.
Your delicious focaccia is going to bake on either a cookie sheet pan, square pan or a 9×13 baking dish. Whichever you use, go ahead and oil your pan with olive oil and dump the dough out onto the baking sheet. Next, place a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on your hands so they won’t stick, and pat your dough gently into a rough rectangle. Look at your dough and see that it has four sides. Beginning at the side farthest from you, pinch the back two corners and lift the dough up away from the pan.
At this point, your dough has very little gluten development and it should be very stretchy. Raise the dough about a foot in the air, the bottom portion of the dough should not lift off the pan. Fold the dough over two thirds of itself, as if you were folding a letter, and press the corners down to seal. Now take the bottom two corners of your rectangle and lift up, stretching the dough about a foot. Fold the dough backwards over two thirds of the dough, sealing the corners by pressing them down into the dough.
Stretching and folding is SO much easier than kneading!
Repeat this process from left to right, starting with the two left corners and stretching and folding to the right. After finishing with the right side, you should have a nice, smaller, chubbier rectangle. Lift the dough and flip it over so that all seams are on the bottom. Spread some more olive oil on the surface of the dough and cover the pan with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
After thirty minutes, repeat the stretch and fold process. The dough will have puffed up and spread out a bit as it begins to rise and form air bubbles. The great thing about stretching and folding the dough is that you are developing the gluten without getting rid of those nice air bubbles you’re creating. As you perform the second round of stretching and folding, you’ll notice the dough is a little tighter. It does not stretch as far, and the dough is a little smoother. Place dough with the seams down, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rest for one hour in a warm spot.
Dimpling the Focaccia Dough
The trademark of Focaccia is the dimpled surface of the dough. This dimpling creates a light and airy bread and a perfect foundation for pizza toppings! After allowing it to rest for thirty minutes to one hour, your dough will have risen and puffed up nicely. Next, remove the plastic wrap and oil your fingers with a tablespoon of olive oil so they do not stick to your dough. Working from the center out, begin pressing all fingers into the dough, pressing down and out to spread the dough out towards the four corners of the pan. Your fingers should press down towards the bottom of the pan but should not break through the dough. Then, continue dimpling until the dough covers at least three quarters of the pan.
Overnight Fermentation
Time is critical to good focaccia bread, and overnight fermentation is the best way to develop a full flavored, perfectly textured focaccia. After dimpling the sweet focaccia bread dough, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight and wake up to it the next day. It can stay in the fridge for up to five days. While the waiting may seem like an inconvenience, once you embrace the slow process of this recipe, it can actually become a wonderful way to have an amazing weekend dinner made ahead and ready to go! When Friday comes around, I pull my focaccia dough out of the fridge two to three hours before I want to bake it. At this point the dough rises prior to going in the oven. Now I have a quick meal that everyone loves!
Topping Your Easy Focaccia Bread Recipe
The best part about focaccia bread is that you can do so much with it. In our Focaccia class we teach our students how to make a Loaded Baked Potato Focaccia, a Blueberry Lemon Sweet Focaccia and a Simple Focaccia topped with Italian seasoning and kosher salt. Some other great items to add to your dough while it bakes include:
- Sauces like pesto, roasted tomato sauce, pizza sauce
- cherry tomatoes, peppers, red onion and other vegetables and fruits with high water content
- flaky sea salt
- caramelized onions
- already cooked meats
Other items do better as add-ons after the focaccia has baked, or to be added for the last few minutes. For example, Parmesan cheese and cheddar cheese will burn at such a high temperature for so long. We will add it for the last 3 minutes of baking or when your dough reaches an internal temperature of 180 F. Fresh herbs like fresh rosemary and basil do better if added when you are completely done baking.
Tips for Keeping your Toppings From Scorching
- Choose toppings that do not burn easily, such as fruits with a high liquid content and melty cheeses.
- Avoid adding shredded cheeses until the final 2 minutes of baking.
- Fresh herbs burn easily and should be added after the focaccia is removed from the oven.
- If your toppings are starting to burn, decrease the temperature of the oven by 25 degrees or cover the crust with aluminum foil.
- When possible, press ingredients deep into the dough to shield them from the high heat.
- Remember, baking your focaccia at a high temperature helps it to rise properly in the oven and gives the crust a beautiful crunch, so avoid decreasing the oven temperature during the first five minutes of baking.
Baking Your Easy Focaccia Recipe
Once your dough has returned to room temperature after you have gotten it out of the fridge, repeat the dimpling process on the top of the dough. Add a little more olive oil and use your fingers to get your dough spread to the edges of the pan. This is when you use whatever toppings you desire to top your focaccia. Once your oven is preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, bake your focaccia for 15-20 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 200 F. Let is cool on a wire rack in the pan and then dig in.
When you first remove your bread from the oven it may seem like there is still a lot of olive oil left on the pan, but it will eventually be soaked up by your bread as it cools.
Easy Sourdough Focaccia Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 grams bread flour 5 cups
- 100 grams active sourdough starter 1/2 cup
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 480 grams water 2 cups
Instructions
- Feed your sourdough starter 8-12 hours before making sourdough focaccia using equal weights of flour and water, so your starter is the consistency of thick pancake batter. Starter should be active and bubbly when you mix your dough.
Mix Dough
- Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and stir together with a Danish Whisk, your hands, or a stand mixer. Make a well in the center and add in your olive oil, starter, and water. Starting from the center and working your way out, stir until all of the ingredients are well blended and all the flour is hydrated. This is a very wet dough and may not pull away from the sides of the bowl. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch and Folds
- Next, coat the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish with olive oil. Transfer the dough to the dish and preform a series of stretch and folds in the baking dish. Pull the dough up and away from the dish to stretch it about a foot in the air. Then fold it back over the dough, as if you were folding a letter, and press it together. Give the dish a quarter turn and repeat this process for a total of 4 times. Then flip the dough so that the seams are facing down and cover it with plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- After thirty minutes you will notice that the dough has spread out and relaxed in the baking dish. Uncover it and perform another series of stretch and folds. The dough should be smoother and have a little less give than last time. Once again, flip the dough seam side down, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rest for thirty minutes then repeat this process once more for a total of 3 stretch and folds.
Bulk Fermentation
- Focaccia dough will bulk ferment at room temperature for 6-8 hours from the time you started mixing, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. You'll know it's done when the dough is jiggly and full of air. You should see pockets of air under the surface of the dough.
Cold Proof
- At the end of the bulk fermentation, the dough is ready to be dimpled. Start by pouring 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto the dough and spreading it over the surface with your hands. Using all of your fingers, begin pressing the dough from the center out towards the edges of the pan. Press your fingers all the way toward the bottom of the pan without breaking through the dough. When you’ve covered three quarters of the pan, you are ready to cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator overnight or up to five days.
Bake
- The next day, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Take the focaccia dough out of the refrigerator right before you want to bake it. You’ll notice that it has risen slightly in the refrigerator. Prior to topping, add a tablespoon of olive oil to the surface, spreading it over the top with your fingers. Repeat the dimpling process, using your fingers to gently deflate the focaccia dough and spread it from the center out towards the edges and into the corners of the pan.
- Finally, top your focaccia bread generously with coarse salt and then with any other toppings as desired. Bake on 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. The crust should be golden brown, and an instant read thermometer should read 200 degrees.
- Once the bread is out of the oven, let it cool completely before slicing. Serve alongside dinner or split it open for a fantastic sandwich. Happy Baking!
