Recipes That Actually Turned Out Well: Focaccia
Posted on May 29, 2022 Posted by Athena Scalzi 24 Comments
Everyday, I get on Tik Tok, and everyday, I see someone make focaccia. And every time, I think, I would really like to try that. It took me a couple months, but I finally did it, and it turned out so amazing and was so easy that I knew I had to come bestow the recipe upon you.
I actually ended up getting the recipe from the user whose focaccia video I was watching when I finally decided that by god I was going to make this bread. This recipe comes from Jessica in the Kitchen, a vegan food blog, and here is the video that led me to her lovely site!
@jessicainthekitchen Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia is one of the easiest breads you’ll ever made, let me show you how to make it #focaccia #breadmaking #breadtok #bakingtok
And here is a quick link specifically to the focaccia.
Okay, so now that you have the recipe and everything, let’s dive in to the actual making of the bread.
The recipe calls mostly for super normal bread ingredients, like flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. This version of focaccia is garlic rosemary, so I had to acquire the garlic and rosemary, but that was an easy task. I really appreciated how easy and basic this ingredient list was. This seems like one of those foods that’s super cheap to make, but looks fancy and expensive.
Once I mixed everything together, I was sure I did it wrong because of how wet the dough was. Surely I needed another cup of flour, right? Wrong! Focaccia is supposed to be like that! It’s a sticky dough. So sticky in fact, that when I moved it from the mixing bowl to the resting bowl, I picked up the entire thing with one hand straight out of the bowl. I was afraid it would tear apart and fall, but it held together.
The recipe says to let the dough rest for 6-8 hours on the counter, or 18-24 in the fridge. I started making this bread at 7pm, so I opted for the six hours. I checked on the dough a few times throughout the six hours to make sure it was rising okay, and I’m not sure if it’s because I disturbed it so much or what, but it deflated!
I was hoping I didn’t do something wrong, and that it would get bigger again during the second rise. I transferred it to the pan I was going to be baking it in and covered it again for the two hour second rise.
But then I got impatient because it was already 2am, so I didn’t wait the full two hours and threw it in the oven! But first I adorned it with sliced garlic, rosemary, Italian seasoning, more olive oil, and salt.
There is nothing I love more than a recipe that calls for a temperature of 350 and a bake time of 30 mins. It’s just a classic combination that’s so easy to remember. So, thirty minutes later, BAM!
Perfect focaccia!
I was so thrilled with how well this turned out! First I was worried the dough was too wet, then I was worried about it deflating, then I was worried because I was impatient during the second rise, yada yada yada. However, it is amazing, and I love it! Look at the inside!
Also don’t ask me why I’m holding it like that, because I’m really not sure. Regardless, GOOD FUCKIN’ BREAD.
I highly recommend trying this recipe out, especially if you’ve never made bread before, like me. It’s just so simple! And tasty! I plan to use this recipe to make tons of variations, though garlic and rosemary will always be a great combo.
If you’re gluten-free, be sure to check out the GF version she has, too!
Have you ever made focaccia before? If so, what did you put on it? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
Oh, I love focaccia. I have to eat it sparingly though, because of diabetes. That looks SO good… :-p
le sigh. You do realise that now I have to go make this damn thing, don’t you…?
I love making focaccia bread, I usually top mine with garlic, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives, with a light sprinkling of sea salt also. Bake it like normal, it’s divine!
Thanks for testing out the recipe! My wife has been after me to try making focaccia for a long time. I’ll have to give this one a try.
I don’t bake much anymore due to physical limitations, but I ADORE a forgiving recipe! Thanks for the link, I’m going to save it just in case, lol.
For focaccia pizza – bake the dough for about 10 min, remove from oven & add toppings, finish baking.
I’m so glad you shared this! It’s been something I’ve wondered about making since we have a local soup place that makes an amazing version. Somehow I thought it was more complicated than this– glad to learn it’s not!
Red & green grapes with rosemary is lovely.
And you can always add goat cheese to that.
Oh, that is beautiful! So glad it turned out the way you were hoping, too!
Out of curiosity, did you use AP flour, bread flour, or any other variant? I love the effect that bread flour has on a traditional loaf, and am wondering if it has the same impact on a focaccia.
Congratulations on a successful baking venture, and I hope you enjoy many more!
Very nice. Yum.
Wonderful! (I wish I’d seen this when my Dad was still around! He was the cook in the family!)
Yum! I love focaccia; really need to make this recipe!
It occurs to me that you would like making No-Knead Bread. It ends up being an airy, hole-y, crusty round loaf.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022147-updated-no-knead-bread
Make it more authentic and leave the sugar out, despite the recipe explicitly warning you not to do that. The US has this weird national delusion that yeast needs sugar if it’s going to work, like South Korea’s delusion that sleeping in a room with an electric fan going can be fatal. Neither delusion is true.
Bread is basically simple. Everything other than flour, water and yeast is optional. Of course you can add loads of stuff and make it super fancy.
Now you’ve done Focaccia maybe you should see how simple sourdough can be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmb0wWKITBQ
A slightly fussier but ridiculously delicious focaccia recipe is Claire Saffitz – if you google dessert person focaccia her YouTube video pops up. It is amazing, and the one you made also looks amazing! This one has no sugar, but does call for bread flour. The cookbook it’s from is fantastic, although some of the desserts are pretty time consuming. We do the overnight method for this, so we aren’t doing it all in one day, even though the mixer does the hard work.
Looks great! Glad you’re having some success with baking.
6 hours is a long rise time for a white flour bread with instant yeast; 1-2 hours is more normal.
You could try the shorter rise if you’re in a hurry sometime. It’ll turn out fine; my personal focaccia recipe is fairly similar, and total time-to-eat is about 2.5 hours.
Also, if you want other easy breads, try a potato bread. The potato starch helps protect you against a lot of possible failures of rising or kneading, making it much more forgiving than a plain white loaf.
If you end up getting into standard bread baking, my husband is a big fan of a long slow pre-ferment, which lets you get away with using a tiny amount of yeast because it grows itself, and results in a lot of flavor because it’s nearly sourdough. It’s hardly any hands-on work, but it does take planning (though less planning than managing sourdough starter and using it before it turns into too much).
That last photo almost inspires ME to try the recipe.
Looks delish.
[Deleted because Jeff M is apparently under the mistaken impression that he was asked for his thoughts on the not-on-topic subject for which he was offering his opinion — JS]
If only it weren’t too hot to use the oven (no A/C here), I’d be very tempted to try this! Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs. Thanks for sharing the recipe, your process, and the mouthwatering photo.
I have been making the no-knead bread (that -dsr- mentioned and linked above) for a couple years now. The original (non-paywalled) version is archived here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120714120735/http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes
… and the video here of Lahey and the NYT author is instructive to see the “fold once or twice” method.
https://youtu.be/13Ah9ES2yTU
The overnight part is a little annoying but we love this bread more than anything we can find locally in stores or from artisan bakeries.
My favorite focaccia recipe is by Samin Nosrat, who wrote Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. And if you have Netflix, you may have already watched the series that she did by the same name. On the website for the book and Netflix show, there is a recipe for the focaccia she made on the show, and it is top notch.
https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/fat/ligurian-focaccia
To Jeff M.: How presumptuous of you to assume that Athena and the people in her life haven’t had conversations about her life. It’s also presumptuous of you to assume that she doesn’t have a job outside of the one she has working for her dad on this very blog. You can have as many opinions about the choices that YOU think she’s made. But you know nothing about Athena’s actual circumstances, how she is doing, what plans she is making. Telling her to get a job? Sir, that is absolutely not your place, no matter how you package it in “concern” for her welfare.
I have a preferment, a not-quite-sourdough starter that I made during COVID with half a packet of yeast and kept going for the past 3 years. My problem was always figuring out what to do once the preferment had gotten voluminous enough to fill my starter container (you have to keep feeding it, and I hate to discard anything). Your focaccia recipe to the rescue!
That looks delicious! I have had very mixed results with getting yeast based doughs to rise, but many bread types seem to bake up just fine without worrying too much about it. The only yeast based bread that has truly defeated me is the traditional sandwich-style loaves. I really should try some focaccia!