Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread similar in style and texture to pizza. It is one of the easiest and most delicious breads! Get creative and make beautiful focaccia art!
Focaccia Bread Recipe
At the heart of it, focaccia is pizza without sauce and cheese. Its defining characteristics are the olive oil infused flavor combined with classic herbs and garlic. Focaccia has a delicious crispy exterior and a light airy interior!
Olive oil is drizzled over the entire crust, seeping into the interior as the bread bakes. Herbs and garlic are popular toppings, but you can customize this bread to your liking with your favorite toppings – olives, sun dried tomatoes, hot peppers, asparagus, and much more to create gorgeous focaccia art!
Get creative and get the kids involved in creating a beautiful and delicious piece of edible art!
Pizza is a meal, but focaccia can be part of a meal, an appetizer, a soup dipper, and even the crust of a sandwich or panini. No matter how and when it’s served, this focaccia recipe is incredibly crispy, chewy, rich, and flavorful! Serve with a nice warming soup like Butternut Squash Soup, Turkey Meatball Orzo Soup or Loaded Baked Potato Soup!
What is in Focaccia Bread?
Star Ingredients
- Olive Oil is the star ingredient of focaccia bread. Olive oil is mixed into the dough creating a light and air interior. There is more olive oil drizzled on top of the dough which creates a crispy crust as the bread bakes.
- This is a pantry recipe using simple ingredients we often already have on hand.
- Toppings are optional and customizable for focaccia bread – herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, etc.), garlic, pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables, fresh parsley, and more – the possibilities are endless. Use what you have on hand to create this easy pantry recipe
How to Make Focaccia Bread and Art
Full printable recipe below
Make the Dough
1 Add the flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, set aside.
2 In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the water and sprinkle the yeast mixed with the sugar over the water, set aside until it proofs (doubles in size and become puffy).
3 Once the yeast mixture has proofed, add it to the flour mixture along with the oil. Attach a dough hook and knead on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes or until it becomes a nice smooth dough ball. Knead by hand for approximately 10-15 minutes until a smooth dough ball forms if you do not have a stand mixer.
4 Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm draft free place until doubled in size.
5 Once the dough has doubled in size, punch down to deflate it on a lightly floured surface (ex. Kitchen counter).
Shape the Focaccia
6 Add a few tablespoons of oil to the bottom of two 9 inch pie dishes or baking sheets (or 1 pie dish and 1 rimmed cookie sheet) and set aside.
7 Cut the dough in half and place each half in the pie dishes or cookie sheet. Flatten the dough and flip to coat both sides of the dough with oil.
8 Use your fingers to poke deep holes into the dough over the whole surface. Poke all the way down until you touch the pie dish/baking sheet.
9 Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot to rise until doubled again.
Bake and Decorate the Focaccia
10 Preheat your oven to 400°F.
11 Once the dough has risen, top with the garlic, rosemary, salt and a drizzle of oil or get creative and use toppings (peppers, olives, asparagus, mushrooms, etc.) to create a design. Drizzle 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil evenly over the top of the dough.
12 Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes until crispy and light golden brown.
Optional: drizzle with additional olive oil when it comes out of the oven for serving.
Slice and serve warm. Enjoy!
Tips for Creating Focaccia Art
Grab some fresh vegetables, pickled vegetables, herbs and spices. Lay out the vegetables and plan out what kind of design you would to create. I like to lay out all my designs on a cutting board while the dough is rising and then just transfer all the topping to the bread!
The possibilities are endless but here are some ideas:
- Flowers
- Stems – asparagus or green onion
- Leaves – olives or fresh parsley leaves
- Petals – hot pepper rings, red/yellow/orange peppers cut into circles/petals or the shape of tulips
- Sun
- Yellow hot pepper ring
- Yellow or orange peppers cut into strips for sun rays
- Birds
- Cut olives into rings, cut the ring in half, shape into wings for birds
- Ground Ideas
- Parsley leaves for ‘grass’
- Black or green olives for ‘moss/grass’
- Mushrooms sliced in half
How to Store Focaccia Bread
Store baked bread at room temperature in an air tight container or sealed plastic bag.
Focaccia bread is just as good the next day. Reheat at 350°F for 4-5 minutes or until crispy and warmed through.
Looking for More Easy Appetizers and Sides
Check out my growing Appetizer and Sides recipe collection here
Enjoy!
– Sab
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission.
Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 cups flour, all purpose
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast, mixed with 1 tsp of sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
Optional Toppings
- Thinly sliced garlic
- Fresh or dried Rosemary
- Salt, coarse sea salt if possible
- Olives, green, black
- Tomatoes
- Roasted red peppers
- Red onion
- Green onion
- Hot peppers
- Sweet peppers
- Sundried tomatoes
- Olives
- Any vegetable of choice
Instructions
- Add the flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, set aside.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the water and sprinkle the yeast and sugar mixture over the water, set aside until it proofs (doubles in size and become puffy).
- Once the yeast mixture has proofed, add it to the flour mixture along with the oil. Attach a dough hook and knead on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes or until it becomes a nice smooth dough ball. Knead by hand for approximately 10-15 minutes until a smooth dough ball forms if you do not have a stand mixer.
- Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm draft free place until doubled in size.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, punch down to deflate it on a lightly floured surface (ex. Kitchen counter).
- Add a few tablespoons of oil to the bottom of two 9 inch pie dishes or baking sheets (or 1 pie dish and 1 rimmed cookie sheet) and set aside.
- Cut the dough in half and place each half in the pie dishes or cookie sheet. Flatten the dough and flip to coat both sides of the dough with oil.
- Use your fingers to poke deep holes into the dough over the whole surface. Poke all the way down until you touch the pie dish/baking sheet.
- Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot to rise until doubled again.
- Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Once the dough has risen, top with the garlic, rosemary, salt and a drizzle of oil or get creative and use toppings (peppers, olives, asparagus, mushrooms, etc.) to create a design. Drizzle 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil evenly over the top of the dough.
- Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes until crispy and light golden brown.
- Optional: drizzle with additional olive oil when it comes out of the oven for serving.
- Slice and serve warm. Enjoy!