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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.
Flour - I used a mixture of bread flour and All-purpose flour (high grade or strong and plain if you're not in the US). Bread flour is slightly higher in protein than All-purpose, so gives the focaccia just a little more chew. I love the mix of both, but just AP flour works just fine too!
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.
Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.
I love rosemary focaccia, so I use fresh rosemary, but you can try a different blend of herbs if you'd like to (or leave them out and just make garlic focaccia). Flour: All-purpose flour or bread flour is perfect for making focaccia bread.
Why is Olive Oil Essential in Focaccia? Like all foods, focaccia's flavor is defined by its fat. This fat is olive oil and epitomizes the landscape of its origins. This is why you need to choose a good extra virgin olive oil to make your focaccia as that flavor will linger throughout the bread.
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).
Herbs and garlic are popular toppings, but you can add anything like olives, tomatoes, sesame seeds, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, pesto, caramelized onions, and more. Pizza is a meal, but focaccia can be part of a meal, an appetizer, a soup dipper, a sauce soaker-upper, and even the crust of a sandwich or panini.
So, focaccia is made with yeast, which means you have to let the dough rise after kneading. Focaccia, just like most breads, needs to rise twice for about 1 hour each time. The second rise will give it a finer texture, more structured shape, and better bread flavor as the gluten continues to develop.
a type of flat bread, originally from Italy, made with flour, salt, yeast and olive oil: Bread choices for your sandwich include focaccia, ciabatta, and wraps.
Bread Flour – Using bread flour gives the focaccia a chewy texture; you can substitute all-purpose flour without ruining the recipe, but your bread will be significantly lighter and missing that characteristic texture. Salt – Gives flavor to the dough.
This is because the higher protein content of bread flour will help you create the high rise and rustic crust of an artisan style loaf. If, however, you're looking to bake a super soft brioche, you'll need to use a bread flour in the lower protein range.
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.
For best results, base your yeast dough on wheat flour — only wheat-based flour provides the type and amount of protein yeast dough needs to support its structure. Whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, bread flour, or all-purpose flour are all good choices.
Introduction: My name is Dr. Pierre Goyette, I am a enchanting, powerful, jolly, rich, graceful, colorful, zany person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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