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This focaccia recipe makes the perfect bread! It’s tall and fluffy, crispy on the outside with pillowy air pockets on the inside. As cookbook authors, this is one of our top homemade bread recipes we recommend because it’s so simple and the result is stunning.
Why we love this recipe
Did you know it’s easy to make focaccia bread at home that tastes like it’s from a bakery? Make this simple focaccia recipe once, and we guarantee you’ll find it’s the tastiest, easiest homemade bread you’ll find. It’s thick and airy, crispy on the outside with beautiful pillowy air pockets on the interior. The flavor is perfectly seasoned, with the classic notes of salt, rosemary and olive oil.
If a focaccia recipe is not formulated correctly, it can come out very dense, with little or no holes in the crumb, thin or dry, or fluffy and soft like a roll. As two cookbook authors, we’ve perfected this focaccia bread recipe so that it:
- Is very thick and crisp on the outside, perfect for eating plain or slicing in half as sandwiches.
- Has a beautiful airy crumb, which comes from an overnight rise.
- Has a developed, well-seasoned flavor that tastes like it’s from an Italian bakery!
How to make focaccia bread: an overview
Focaccia bread is an Italian flatbread baked in a sheet pan and flavored with olive oil. A good focaccia should be thick and airy, with signature air pockets in the crumb (interior texture). Focaccia dough is similar to pizza dough, but it’s made using a strong flour and more yeast, which makes it taller and fluffier.
To make this focaccia recipe, it takes 5 minutes the night before, then about 2 hours the day of. It is one of the easiest bread recipes we have, but you do need to think ahead! We like to make the dough at around 9:00 pm the night before, then bake it around 1:00 pm the next day. Here’s an outline on the steps required:
| Mix, Rest overnight | 5 minutes active, 12 to 16 hours hands off |
| Shape & Proof | 5 minutes active, 45 minutes hands off |
| Add brine | 5 minutes |
| Bake | 35 minutes, hands off |
| Cool | 45 minutes, hands off |
Required equipment
One of the great things about homemade focaccia? You need minimal special bread-making tools. Many of our bread recipes require a Dutch oven, bread basket, special knife for scoring, and other equipment. That’s not so here! There are a few optional tools that are helpful, but not required. Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:
- Large bowl
- Plastic wrap or large zip-top bag
- 9 x 13″ baking dish
- Kitchen scale (optional): while it’s optional, we highly recommend weighing the ingredients for best results when you’re baking
- Pizza stone (optional): it helps to heat the bread quicker and make an airier dough. Here’s the pizza stone we use. (You can also use it for these pizza recipes and other breads, so it’s a great investment.)
Ingredients for this focaccia recipe
There are only a few ingredients required for this focaccia recipe: but each is important! Here’s what to know:
- Bread flour: Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, which makes for a lighter, airier texture. It’s worth finding for this recipe!
- Active dry yeast: Use active dry yeast, not instant. You can store it in the freezer between uses.
- Olive oil and salt: These ingredients round out the bread dough.
- Fresh rosemary: Fresh rosemary is traditional in Italian baking of focaccia and it adds just the right herbaceous scent to the fresh bread. Trust us: it’s required!
Tips for baking
Once you’ve got your ingredients and tools, baking focaccia bread is simple! Here are a few tips to remember when you’re making the recipe:
- Remember to start the night before! That’s right: you’ll need an overnight rise. Think about mixing up the dough around 9 pm, and you can bake the bread around 1:00 pm the next day. 16 hours is best if you can swing it.
- Be gentle when shaping and handling the dough. A great part about homemade focaccia bread is that it doesn’t require any rolling or technical shaping. All you do is gently press it out into the pan. Just use care so you don’t deflate any air bubbles.
- Use a pizza stone if you can. Again, a pizza stone lets the bread get hotter, thereby making it rise faster and get taller and fluffier. If you don’t have one, here’s the pizza stone we use.
Serving focaccia bread
That beautiful loaf of focaccia bread will make your kitchen smell like a bakery. If you can resist, wait until it’s fully cool to take a taste. However, this type of bread won’t suffer if you try to sneak a piece when it’s warm (which is a no-no with sourdough bread). Focaccia works served on its own as a side for lunch, dinner, or soups, or sliced for sandwiches. Here are a few ways to serve focaccia bread:
- As a side for Italian meals
- As a side for soup
- Sliced on a cheese board or antipasto platter
- As an Italian appetizer
- Sliced for a sandwich like Caprese Sandwich, Italian Eggplant Sandwich or Salmon Sandwich
- For holiday appetizers or sides like Thanksgiving or Christmas
Storing leftovers
You can store homemade focaccia bread for up to 3 days in a sealed plastic bag with excess air squeezed out, or in a sealed container. It’s great room temperature or you can reheat it in a 375°F oven until warm.
More homemade bread recipes
Making homemade bread is a fun hobby that makes delicious sides and sandwich bread for your weekly meals! Here are a few favorite bread recipes to try:
- This No Knead Bread is a fan favorite, or try delicious and hearty Artisan Bread.
- This leaf-shaped Fougasse Bread is a traditional French flatbread that’s so simple and delicious.
- Go for sandwich loaves with Easy Homemade Bread or Easy Whole Wheat Bread.
- Try our Sourdough Bread Recipe.
Dietary notes
This focaccia recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Frequently asked questions
Bread flour is best, as it results in a soft and chewy texture.
Olive oil, rosemary, and salt are classic toppings, but you can get creative with other herbs like thyme or sage, cherry tomatoes, olives, caramelized onions, or even cheese.
Focaccia dough is meant to be wetter and stickier than other bread doughs. Avoid adding too much extra flour, as it will result in a denser focaccia.
After the dough has risen, gently press your fingertips into it, creating dimples across the surface. These dimples hold the olive oil and toppings, enhancing the flavor and texture.
Focaccia Bread
- Prep Time: 12 hours
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 12 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
Description
This focaccia recipe makes the perfect bread! It’s tall and fluffy, crispy on the outside with pillowy air pockets on the inside. As cookbook authors, this is one of our top homemade bread recipes we recommend because it’s so simple and the result is stunning.
Ingredients
For the bread
- 630 grams (4 ½ cups) bread flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 532 ml (2 ¼ cups) warm water
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
For the brine
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
For topping
- Leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, yeast and kosher salt. Add the warm water and 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon until sticky dough is formed. With wet hands, lift the bottom of the dough and wrap it over the top a few times, folding the dough to make a ball and to ensure all of the flour has been incorporated. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or place in a large zip-top bag.
- Proof overnight at room temperature, preferably 12 to 16 hours. The dough will rise and double in size, and then collapse. (For example, we like to mix at 9:00 pm and start the baking process at 1:00 pm the next day.)
- After the rise, add a small drizzle of olive oil into a 9″ x 13″ metal baking pan and use your hands to spread it across the bottom. With your oiled hands, turn the dough into the baking pan and gently press and stretch the dough so that it is evenly distributed across the pan (take care not to smash all of the air out of the dough). It may take several times of stretching it out to reach the corners. Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a large zip-top bag and rest for 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a pizza stone inside. You can still bake without the pizza stone, but it will yield an airier dough.
- In a small bowl, stir together the brine ingredients.
- Pour the brine over the puffy dough and lightly press your fingers into the dough, all the way across, to dimple the dough. Sprinkle with rosemary leaves.
- Bake immediately: place the pan on the pizza stone and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown on top. Cool completely before cutting. Store up to 3 days in a sealed plastic bag with excess air squeezed out or a sealed container.
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
This bread was perfection! My family loved it! I’ve tried several focaccia recipes and this by far is the best. I cooked it in a cast iron skillet – so pretty when it was turned out. Have you ever tried a gluten free version?
We don’t have a gluten free version, sorry. So glad you enjoyed!
Just made this to have for dinner tonight and it looks great! Still cooling but looking forward to it. I got around the glass pan thing by putting my racks close together with the stone on the lower one and the glass pan on the one above. Only an inch or so space but enough for the pan not to crack …
I’ve made many of your recipes and my family really likes them, thanks for all that you do!
Great idea! Glad you enjoyed.
It was really, really good, particularly with salami and an aged provolone but … I’m saving half of it (in the freezer, pre-chopped) to add to my holiday dressing … should be great and might even make a second to serve as an appetizer (only four of us here so don’t need a whole bunch.) Thanks!
I usually weigh my flour but the weight listed here (630 g) is 5.25 cups, not 4.5 cups as stated. Could you let me know which it correct? Or maybe you’re using a different brand of flour? I’m using King Arthur bread flour. Thanks!
Hi! We are using 140g per cup. Thank you!
Before I embark on making what looks like a fantastic bread, please clarify, refrigerate or room temp overnight rise? At one point, there is “Has a beautiful airy crumb, which comes from an overnight rise in the refrigerator”. At another, “Proof overnight at room temperature, preferably 12 to 16 hours.” Also, the only 9″ x 13″ baking ‘pans’ I have are Pyrex. I don’t think a glass baking dish could be placed on the pizza stone. Your thoughts? What type of baking pan do you use for this? Many thanks in advance for your feedback. Your recipes are always delicious!
Great questions! The refrigerator statement was a typo — we’ve removed that! It is a rise at room temperature. Great point on the glass — we updated the recipe to call for a metal 9 x 13 pan. We’d either get a metal 9 x 13 or just bake without the pizza stone in Pyrex. Thank you so much for this comment!
Your focaccia recipe says gluten free but the recipe calls for bread flour not gluten free bread flour (if there is such a thing). It looks delicious.
Good point, that was a mistake! We’ve removed it. Thank you!
Didn’t know it was so easy to cook focaccia! Will give it a go this weekend!