Making this bread is so much fun and adaptable. I chose a straightforward yet traditional topping of rosemary and sea salt, although a Google search for “focaccia” will yield many results. You’ll find a wide variety of mouthwatering toppings to adorn your slab with.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 1 flat loaf |
Ingredients
- 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (105 degrees F/41 degrees C)
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup semolina flour
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary (Optional)
- 2 ¾ cups bread flour, divided
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Whisk yeast with warm water in a mixing bowl; whisk in 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, semolina flour, and 2 teaspoons rosemary until thoroughly combined. Mix in 2 1/2 cups bread flour, using a wooden spoon, until dough is too stiff and sticky to mix.
- Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead, dusting with remaining 1/4 cup bread flour as needed, until dough is soft, smooth, and slightly elastic, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Drizzle dough with 1 tablespoon olive oil, spreading oil over the dough. Knead briefly, about 2 minutes, to incorporate olive oil. Repeat with 1 more tablespoon oil. Knead 2 or 3 more minutes to incorporate olive oil. Drizzle dough with 1 more tablespoon oil and knead in as before. If dough seems too sticky, knead in a little more flour. Knead until dough is soft, smooth, and elastic, 1 to 2 more minutes (7 to 8 minutes total kneading time).
- Drizzle 1 more tablespoon olive oil into a large bowl, place dough into bowl, and turn dough in bowl several times to coat with oil. Cover bowl with aluminum foil and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.
- Coat a sheet pan lightly with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Turn dough into pan and press gently into a rough rectangular shape using your fingers, pressing out air bubbles. Cover sheet pan loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15 to 20 minutes to relax the gluten.
- Drizzle 1 tablespoon more olive oil onto the dough, spread oil onto dough, and poke 3 or 4 oil-covered fingers deeply into the dough to make dimples all over the surface. Poke holes all the way down to the bottom of the pan. Fill in any spaces with holes until entire surface is covered with dimples. Let rise until nearly doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
- Sprinkle 2 teaspoons minced rosemary over top of dough. Drizzle 1 more tablespoon olive oil onto the surface of the dough and brush on very lightly to avoid moving the rosemary. Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven until focaccia loaf is lightly golden brown, about 15 minutes. Brush 1 last tablespoon olive oil onto the loaf. Transfer to a rack and let cool before cutting.
- As with all dough recipes, you may need a little less or little more flour. The total weight I added was about 12 ounces. This will work with just all-purpose flour, but I prefer the bread flour and semolina.
- There are dozens of different and delicious toppings with which to accessorize your slab. A few of my favorites would be chopped olives, caramelized onions, and sliced grapes.
Reviews
Followed the directions to the letter, only added the decorations. 12 minutes on 475F worked for me. Delish!
Wow…this was a lot of olive oil! We liked this focaccia recipe, the only thing I would change is to not flatten the dough out so much. The finished product was about 1/2-1 inch think. I will make it again and remember to leave it at least 1 inch thick before the final rise. I would like to incorporate some other ingredients too. Caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, mushrooms, etc.
I love this focaccia recipe! In my latest version I changed things up by adding in some tomato paste into the dough, and it came out amazing! Just mixed in about 1 to 1.5Tbls of tomato paste in with the wet ingredients at the beginning. I think next time I’ll mix the paste in again, but also top the dough off with some shaved Parmesan before baking!
Super simple, even for a novice. Made as advised but added sliced olives, halved heirloom tomatoes, fennel and basil to the top as well as rosemary. Used roasted garlic olive oil for extra depth of flavor. Delicieux!
Fantastic! Thanks Chef John. You are the best!
Love this recipe! So easy to make if you follow the recipe step by step, although I t does take some patience. I used a little less olive oil when mixing the dough and the bread still turns out great!
This is my new go-to bread for when I have homemade soup for dinner. The only thing I changed was that I used dried rosemary instead of fresh. This is such a versatile recipe that you can add anything to the top prior to baking. I sprinkle parmesan cheese on the top to give it a little zing. If there are leftovers, I freeze them; as with any homemade bread, it goes stale quickly. Thank you, Chef John for yet another great recipe!
I do basically the same thing but using a starter. Keeps my starter “fresh” as I need to feed it. I keep punching it down and drizzling with olive oil until the dough “feels” tender. Also if you need to let it rise longer that what the recipe says – that’s ok too. Sometimes I let it rise overnight in the fridge or even in front of my oven with a pilot light. Just trying to keep the dough active and tender.
Perfect recipe. Thank you! Bread turn out very delicious ??
Oh my god! I make bread all the time, and this was by far the best one I’ve ever made. If topping with rosemary and salt, I recommend not skimping out on them
Followed the directions and the Focaccia was amazing, the best I’ve ever had in my life, better than ones from gourmet restaurants and even better than the one I’ve been dreaming of that I are in Italy! It really does come out moist, and for the ones I cooked a little much crunchy but still delicious. It really does smell and taste like It’s got butter in it, it’s a super easy recipie!
when i brushed over the oil in place of using normal olive oil i made a smoked garlic infused oil. i putted one glove in a pan on high heat until it has nice char marks ather that i grabbed a little metal bowl (normally used to hold your boiled egg) and put the garlic in there with a tiny drizzle with oil (the pan stays dry) then i sprinkled some Rosemary around on the dry pan and closed it of with a full closed glas lit. let it smoke for around 6 minutes and then take the pan of the stove and put the piece of garlic in a glass of water to cool. while its cooling put in a small bowl some olive oil crushed rosemary and Italian spices and grate the now cooled garlic over the bowl. then you can heat it up with a pot (i used the microwave for 30 seconds) and its ready for use.
Used this for my Thanksgiving stuffing croutons. I substituted turkey spices for the rosemary in step one of the recipe, as well as for the topping with the sea salt. Worked great. Once it cooled, I cut it into 3/4 inch croutons, dried it a bit, and used it in my usual sausage stuffing recipe.
This recipe is perfect, thanks again John for another great hit.
Fantastic recipe!! I’ve made it multiple times with several different toppings. Have also tried different pans to vary the thickness. Always a winner!!!!
Turned out beautifully. The only thing I would do differently is not brush the last bit of sea salt on as I ended up ‘brushing’ off the top.
did not use all of the olive oil that was called for. Bread was good.
Delicious every-time!!!!!
First yeasted bread I’ve ever made. Turned out amazing! Chef johns video made it so simple. I’ve already made this again!
Very easy to make and very tastey.
My family and I love this recipe. I made this for the first time a few months ago and have made a batch every couple weeks since. It’s really simple to make and it tastes so good.