This easy homemade focaccia bread recipe can be made the day before, and quickly baked on the day it is needed. It's delicious, soft, and fluffy.
This post is all about focaccia bread. Delicious homemade focaccia bread with sea salt, rosemary, and chili flakes on top.
The taste of your own bread is so much more delicious than store bought plain bread. And the aroma in your house is intoxicating. This easy focaccia recipe is easy to follow and gloriously fluffy!
I find baking my own bread lifts my spirit. Why? Well bread is somehow in coded in our survival. Bread making has been in our history for thousands of years, and the fact I can bring this ancestral task back in my own home lifts my spirit to new heights of success and self reward.
Which is why I find solace and fulfillment when I can bake a simple loaf of bread for my family.
It is almost the same feeling of being able to fire up a camp fire and cook in the pit of it – its relaxing and its been researched gathering with a fire is relaxing because it connects us back to our ancestral beginnings.
Yes, I am going very deep in this. Knowing you can make your own bread has its own physoclical rewards and gratification. And once you start, you will not stop. Tearing and breaking into your own bread can be a culinary experience all done at the expense of your own home.
Try It, You will Love It!
Don’t punish yourself by buying store bought bread at the grocery store. It’s plain, bland, and has no nutritional value.
Making your own bread gives you full control on what you put in your bread. Don’t like white flour, switch it up with whole wheat flour. You also have the creative option to add whatever you want inside and outside. Add chia or other seeds inside the bread, or add crumble salt and sun dried tomatoes at the top.
Kids Love It Too!
I love using this bread to dip and to make picnic sandwiches. kids love this bread as their sandwich bread for their lunches at school. They are also proud little humans telling others that they make their own bread at home. They love sticking their fingers in the bread before it goes in the oven.
What I think they love the most is the surprise faces of adults and being praised for being able to help out in the process of making bread. Cooking is such a splendid gift to give to your children. This focaccia bread recipe is easy it will definitely lift their confidence with this recipe.
What You Will Love About This Bread
The focaccia bread I am about to introduce to you is seriously the best! Why? This is why:
- Easiest and delicious - It’s soft and it is easy to cut into. Top has crunches of salt, rosemary, and chili to add tons of flavour and texture.
- Be creative - the standard recipe for the topping is my favourite. However, it doesn't have to be yours. You can make up a spice topping or a jam packed ingredient topping. This is the area you can be creative!
- Make it the day you need it - You can prepare and ferment the bread the day before. When you're ready to bake the next day, all you do is let it sit on the counter for 3 hours in its pan, pop it in the oven, and you got yourself some fresh bread.
Morning or Night Preparation?
With this dough you have two options. Prepare it early in the morning and let it rise on your counter top, and bake it at night or you can prepare the dough, put it in the fridge, and bake it the next day.
It fits any schedule for a busy person with a tempestuous schedule. Both methods are laid out in the instructions on the recipe below.
My Sea Salt Blend
I only use sea salt here. Do not even think about using table salt. Table salt is not welcome here.
Below I have the ingredients to my favourite sea salt blend. I love adding this to almost everything. Sometimes I add it to pizza topping, pasta, bread (of course!), and some of my Mediterranean recipes.
The wonderful thing about this sea salt blend is that it can last forever your cabinet! I really love rosemary in all my bread. If you're like me who loves rosemary, just add more of the dried rosemary to the sea salt blend. I mean sometimes if you add enough you can literally call this bread a rosemary focaccia bread.
The sea salt I love using is the Celtic Sea Salt. Celtic sea is apparently the healthiest sea salt you can eat because it has a lots of essential minerals in its salt. Give it a try - you might not go back to your regular salt.
Sea Salt Blend
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Rosemary
Chili flakes
Focaccia Toppings
I love adding salt on top of focaccia bread. the salty crunch is the thing I look forward to the most. What salt should you buy? Definitely not your average table salt but invest in quality sea salt. the flakey, crunchy, and salt rock is the best. Gives the bread texture.
I always have a salt blend I use on bread or other toppings that lacks a salty favourable crunch. If you don’t like the salty options, and prefer to add vegetables, below are some other options you can add on top of your bread:
- olives, sun-dried tomatoes, rosemary, and olive oil
- capers, red onions, and olive oil
- oregano, thyme, tomatoes and olive oil
Ingredients
Flour
I use both regular flour and whole wheat flour in this recipe. I use the combination of both is because it is: 1) Healthier and 2)Gives it a nice texture.
Whole wheat has a higher protein percentage compared to regular white flour. Also whole wheat is higher in fibre and flavour. For these reasons, baking with whole wheat tends to be more dense and heavier. I like my focaccia bread more dense because I like my bread more filling in the stomach. Focaccia bread is not suppose to be light and fluffy. It should be dense and heavy on its weight.
Olive Oil
Please do not substitute olive oil for any other types of oil like canola, grapeseed, sunflower, etc. Olive oil has a distinctive flavour and it is PERFECT for focaccia bread.
Some professional tips to make this a no fail recipe!
Pro Tip # 1 - Patience is a Virtue
The great thing about this recipe is there is no elbow grease just your stand mixer will do all the work for you.
ProTip #2 - Use a stand mixer
The stand mixer with the dough hook is a must for this recipe unless you want a good work out. Using the stand mixer makes this recipe easy because it does all the hard work. Remember to use the hook attachment and not any other ones!
The stand mixer I have is the Kitchenaid 7 QT Pro Line Stand Mixer in white. I loveeee this machine and I can't imagine my life without it.
Pro Tip #3 - Fermentation
For the full day fermentation, I tend to leave it in the stand mixer bowl to ferment the dough. Normally I put plastic wrap at the top or a large plastic lid.
If you're doing the overnight in the fridge fermentation, I suggest to put it in a large clear plastic container with a lid. Something like this 6qt clear stacking container will do.
Easy Focaccia Bread
Equipment
- stand mixer
- large 13 x 18" baking sheet
Ingredients
- 815 g white flour
- 160 g whole wheat flour
- 830 g warm water
- 5 g sugar
- 7 g instant dry yeast
- 20 g sea salt blend (see below)
- 20 g olive oil
Sea Salt Blend (1 serving)
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp dried rosemary
- 1 tbsp dried chili flakes
Sea Salt Blend (small jar)
- ¼ cup sea salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp dried rosemary
- 3 tbsp dried chili flakes
Instructions
- in a stand mixer, add the flour and whole wheat flour together.
- Using a dough hook attachment, slowly add the warm water, yeast, and sugar together with the flour. Mix on medium speed for 10 minutes. Occasionally use a scraper and scrape down the sides so all the flour is well incorporated in the dough.
- Add the salt and mix for another 5 minutes.
- Add the olive oil and mix for another 5 minutes.
- In a large container, put the dough inside and drizzle some oil on top and on the side. Close the lid or wrap the top with plastic.
To bake at night on the same day
- Start your process at 10am. Leave the dough on the counter top and let it rise for 3 hours. After punch the gas out of the dough and fold the dough. Let it rise again for another 2 hours.
- After the last rise, spray the baking sheet with oil, and fold the dough inside. stretch the dough until it is even and has stretch to all sides of the baking sheet. Wrap it in plastic and let it ferment on it's last rise for 2 hours.
To bake in the morning for the next day
- Start your process anytime at night: In a 3-4qt container, generously spray with oil along with a drizzle of olive oil. Toss the dough and cover with a greased lid.
- Place in the fridge for 8-12 hours
- Spray oil in the large baking tray and fold the dough into the baking sheet. Stretch the dough until its even at the top and stretch the dough to all sides of the baking sheet. Wrap it in plastic and let it ferment on it's last rise for 3 hours.
Baking
- Once the dough has finished the last rise. Preheat oven 500-550F.
- Once ready to go in the oven, drizzle generously with 20g of olive oil at the top and sprinkle the sea salt blend. Poke some holes using your fingers on the top of the bread evenly.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
