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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.
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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.
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.
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.
How Is Focaccia Different From Other Bread? Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy.
Focaccia: The two focaccias were very different. The one made with bread flour was taller, airier, had much more open bubbles in the crumb, and browned nicely. In the mixer, the all-purpose dough never seemed to come together as a cohesive whole in the same way as the bread flour dough.
The thickness of a focaccia can vary, too, but an authentic focaccia genovese should be rather thin, even if it needn't be quite as thin as my version presented here. So many non-Italian renditions of “focaccia” are more like bread in their thickness.
Not enough water: This can leave you with dense, dry focaccia. For accuracy, measure out your ingredients using weight instead of cups to ensure you have the right ratio of ingredients.
For ease of storage, using the fridge for the first rise is best if you're working with large quantities of dough. Few people have room to store a giant pan of focaccia among their milk, eggs, and leftovers. Instead, it's easier to chill the dough in a covered container and let the shaped focaccia rise on the counter.
Put the pan in the oven and bake for 20–30 minutes, until the top is a lovely golden and the internal temperature is 190-210°F (88–99°C). When your timer sounds, verify the internal temperature with your Thermapen ONE. Continue to cook if the temp is not high enough.
Like croissants and brioche buns, focaccia is high in calories and fat. Most people aren't aware of it, but it contains a lot of olive oil, which in excess has the same effect. To lose weight, people should choose whole-grain or rye bread, which has more fibre and is lower in fat and calories.
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).
Schiacciata is typically thinner and lighter than focaccia, with a texture that is often more airy and delicate. It is commonly seasoned with olive oil, salt, and sometimes herbs like rosemary or sage. Focaccia, on the other hand, tends to be thicker and more substantial, with a chewier texture.
Here are three differentiating points between focaccia and ciabatta: Texture: Focaccia has a lightweight, cake-like consistency that is similar to pizza dough. On the other hand, ciabatta has a dense consistency and a chewy texture. Baking: Focaccia is baked as a flatbread, while Ciabatta is baked as loaves.
More specifically, schiacciata. What is schiacciata? And do not mistaken it with focaccia don't you dare. Schiacciata is a Florentine flatbread that characteristically is closer to, I'd say, a pizza bianca than anything else.
In Burgundy, focaccia is called foisse or fouaisse, in other areas of France it is known as fougasse. In Argentina, it is widely consumed under the name fugazza. The Spanish call it hogaza. Today we enjoy this versatile bread alone as a snack or light meal or on the side complimenting a full bodied Italian meal.
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