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Easy, homemade and the best Focaccia with garlic, rosemary and oregano toppings. This focaccia bread recipe is soft, fluffy and great as an appetizer for Italian dishes.
Table of Contents
Focaccia Bread
What is Focaccia?
Focaccia is a soft and fluffy flat bread made with olive oil and various toppings.
It originated in Genoa, Italy, and has since become one of the most popular breads and Italian recipes in the world.
You can eat Focaccia bread any time of the day, with coffee for breakfast, with a glass of wine during meal time, or as a snack or appetizer throughout the day.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Garlic Bread
Milk Bread
Pull Apart Garlic Bread
Focaccia Recipe
This authentic Italian Focaccia recipe is one of the easiest bread recipes ever.
It’s 100% homemade, easy, no fuss and takes less than 2 hours.
The recipe calls for five (5) basic ingredients:
Olive oil
All-purpose flour
Instant yeast
Warm water
Salt
Focaccia Toppings:
You can add a variety of toppings. Here are some of the popular ingredients to top off the bread:
Garlic
Herbs such as rosemary, oregano, sage or Italian basil.
Olives can be added to the dough.
Sliced onion can be used as a Focaccia topping.
Vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, artichoke and mushrooms can also be added as the toppings.
How to Make Focaccia?
To make focaccia pizza, first you mix all the ingredients above to form a sticky dough. You can do it without mixer and by hand.
Transfer the dough into a baking pan and let it rise at room temperature for 60 minutes.
Gently poke the dough all over with your index finger and add the toppings.
For the toppings, I used sea salt flakes, garlic, fresh rosemary and oregano, yielding the best homemade Focaccia bread.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Vegan?
This is a healthy vegan recipe as it calls for olive oil instead of butter.
Also, no diary products are present in the recipe.
What Are the Most Popular Toppings for Focaccia?
Rosemary and garlic are two of the most popular toppings.
You can use either rosemary, garlic or combine the both.
This bread is best served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It’s a fabulous side dish or appetizer for dinner.
For an authentic Italian meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Italian Shrimp Pasta
Spaghetti alle Vongole
Italian Braised Chicken
Creamy Garlic Parmesan Gnocchi
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Focaccia
Easy, homemade and the best Focaccia with garlic, rosemary and oregano toppings. This Focaccia bread recipe is soft, fluffy and great as an appetizer.
4.55 from 479 votes
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By Bee Yinn Low
Yield 6People
Prep 10 minutesmins
Additional Time 1 hourhr
Cook 30 minutesmins
Total 1 hourhr40 minutesmins
Ingredients
2tablespoonsolive oil(to drizzle onto the pan)
Dough:
1 1/2cupswarm water
3tablespoonsolive oil
1 1/4teaspoonssalt
3 1/2cupsall-purpose flour
1tablespooninstant yeast or active dry yeast
Toppings:
1teaspoonsea salt flakes or kosher salt
2clovesgarlic(minced)
1tablespoonschopped rosemary
1tablespoonchopped oregano
Instructions
Drizzle about 2 tablespoons olive oil into a 9" x 13" (22cm x 33cm) pan.
Combine all of the Dough ingredients, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 60 seconds.
Scoop the sticky batter into the prepared pan, cover the pan, and let it rise at room temperature for 60 minutes.
While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Gently poke the dough all over with your index finger.
Drizzle it lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with the salt, minced garlic, rosemary and oregano.
Bake the bread until it's golden brown, 30 minutes. Remove it from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a rack and cut into pieces. Serve warm or at room temperature.
A high-hydration dough made with bread flour creates focaccia with an extra-crisp crust that's still both tender and chewy. Cold-fermenting the dough overnight produces complex flavor and an even rise.
Rather, focaccia provides complex carbohydrates that slowly give the body energy and help better regulate blood sugar levels,” Schirò explains. If it's made with whole wheat flour then it's got an extra edge. “It provides a greater amount of vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Venetian focaccia is sweet, baked for Easter and resembles the traditional Christmas cake panettone. Sugar and butter are used instead of olive oil and salt. Focaccia barese, which is common in Puglia in southern Italy, is made with durum wheat flour and topped with salt, rosemary, tomatoes or olives.
Now, focaccia uses plenty of olive oil, not only in the dough, but for kneading, proofing, in the baking pan, and on the bread's surface before baking. All this fat means the texture is light, moist and springy, the crust emerges golden and crisp, plus the center stays soft for days afterwards.
Strong bread flour is made from “hard” wheat varieties and has more protein, from 12 to 14 percent. This creates more rise and structural support in the dough, allowing the final product to lift and hold shape. It also creates a chewier texture and more browning in the crust.
Not allowing the focaccia to proof long enough in the fridge will prevent enough gluten from being formed. This causes flat and dense focaccia once baked.
White Bread. White bread doesn't rank too high when it comes to nutrition. ...
Specialty Breads: Ciabatta, Pita, Focaccia and Brioche. Most specialty-style breads, like ciabatta, pita bread, focaccia and brioche are made with refined white flour.
Carbs. Focaccia bread contains 20.4 grams of carbohydrates per slice, 1 gram of fiber, and 1 gram of sugar and is considered a refined carbohydrate. It is not high in sugar (only 1 gram per slice), but may raise blood sugars more rapidly due to lack of fiber.
So why does it tend to be more expensive to purchase? Friends who have worked in the restaurant industry had some thoughts: Focaccia requires a lot of olive oil, which is pricey (though some other breads call for butter and eggs, which pencil out to more in my own Kirkland-brand-olive-oil kitchen).
Because it creates the kind of focaccia that I like, light and fluffy instead of fine crumbed and cakey. Focaccia is all about olive oil, on the dough, in the dough, in the topping, and finally a little drizzle when it comes out off the oven nice and hot. It may SEEM like a lot but it's a big bread we're making here!
Serving: Focaccia is incredibly versatile and can be served as an antipasto, appetizer, table bread or snack. In contrast, ciabatta serves as a delicious sandwich bread.
Use your favorite kind—I prefer extra virgin olive oil. Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour: I tested this focaccia with both and prefer the bread flour variety. Both are great, but bread flour has a higher protein content so it yields a chewier texture.
Serve the focaccia warm or at room temperature, cut in wedges or small squares as an appetizer, or pop it into the breadbasket for a main-course treat. Paired alongside an egg, Puglia-style focaccia also holds its own as a savory breakfast bread, making for a pleasurable start to the day.
This focaccia is at its best when perfectly-proofed. You'll know it's ready through dimpling: when dimpled, the dimples should stay and the dough should be bubbly.
While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.
Some of the best recipes in Australia using Caputo Chef Red “00” Pizza Flour include classic pizza dough, focaccia with herbs, and calzone with ricotta and spinach.
Grano duro is slightly yellow, more granular, and more commonly used for pasta and some breads in the south of Italy. It's also knows as durum wheat flour. Grano tenero is generally what we think of as white flour, and is more broadly used in bread, pizza, and pastry, and northern pasta doughs.
Introduction: My name is Saturnina Altenwerth DVM, I am a witty, perfect, combative, beautiful, determined, fancy, determined person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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