Earlier this week we featured 5 fabulous focaccia recipes from a few of our favourite food blogger/photographers/stylists. Today we’re sharing an Easy Focaccia Bread Recipe where, all you need is (a lot of) olive oil, some focaccia toppings, one hour to rise, and 25 minutes to bake. Also included is a list of 40 Focaccia Topping Ideas to help get you started.
40 Focaccia Topping Ideas
Before you begin check out this list of 40 focaccia topping ideas. We recommend choosing a maximum of three toppings per focaccia loaf :
- Apples, thinly sliced
- Artichokes
- Asparagus
- Bacon
- Blue cheese
- Capers
- Caramelized onions
- Cheddar, grated
- Cherry tomatoes
- Chiles, dried or fresh
- Chives
- Dukkah
- Eggplant, roasted
- Everything Bagel Spice
- Flaky sea salt
- Fresh herbs
- Garlic, raw or roasted
- Genoa Salami
- Goat cheese
- Grapes
- Herb oil
- Leeks
- Lemon zest
- Mozzarella, grated
- Olives, pitted
- Parmesan
- Pears, thinly sliced
- Pine nuts
- Prosciutto
- Pumpkin, roasted
- Red onion
- Red pepper, roasted
- Ricotta
- Sausage, cooked, crumbled
- Sautéed mushrooms
- Sesame seeds
- Smoked salmon
- Sour cherries
- Sun dried tomatoes
- Za’atar
Recipe
Easy Focaccia Recipe
Yield: 12
Description
A super simple focaccia bread recipe that comes together quickly that you can customize with your favorite toppings.
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowl
- baking sheet
- Wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 Tablespoon rapid rise yeast
- 1 ¼ cup hot tap water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¾ cup olive oil, divided
- Focaccia toppings of choice
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix flour and yeast.
- Stir hot water, salt, and sugar together in a glass measuring cup until salt and sugar dissolve.
- Add ½ cup olive oil to hot water mixture and pour everything into the bowl with the flour and yeast.
- Mix everything together with your hands until all dried bits of flour are incorporated into one dough ball.
- Lightly sprinkle countertop with flour. Knead dough 40 times, adding more flour if necessary.
- Grease bowl with 1 teaspoon olive oil, place dough ball into bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 425ºF (220°C).
- When one hour is up, pour half of remaining ¼ cup of olive oil onto a baking sheet.
- Punch down dough ball and place on sheet, moving around to grease underside with olive oil.
- Drizzle top of dough with remaining oil and spread out gently with hands to a thickness of 1-inch.
- Press on dough hard enough with your fingers to leave imprints all over.
- Add focaccia toppings, and bake 23-25 minutes, or until golden.
Video
Notes
See our list of 40 Focaccia Topping Ideas - we recommend using a maximum of three toppings per focaccia loaf.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 249kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Sodium: 382mg | Fiber: 1g
Did you make this recipe?Let us know on Instagram @baked_theblog or tag #bakedtheblog!
Sean Long says
I’m currently in a baking course and work as a baker. I enjoy focaccia and have been wondering if you could use different toppings of course you can try it. I would love to hear some feedback on the history and different ideas.
Kelly Neil says
Hi Sean! If you scroll up in this post you’ll see we’ve included a list of 40 ideas you can try as focaccia toppings. We haven’t delved too far into the history at this point, however, it’s something we may consider in the future! Thanks for visiting!
Lark Johnston says
Thank you for the fantastic list of toppings!! My dough is proofing in the frig overnight and I can’t wait to make this tomorrow!!
Yvonne Tan says
I’m wondering what is the reason for lining the pan with olive oil when you place the dough on it? Is this part of the recipe or merely to ensure the dough doesn’t stick? If so, will using a non-stick tray help without olive oil?
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Yvonne, the olive oil is an integral part of making focaccia. It’s what gives the special crunchy outer texture, I don’t recommend leaving it out of the recipe.
Sandra D says
This was delicious! I added fried onions and sun-dried tomatoes on mine. Yum!
Yvonne Tan says
I tried adding sundried tomatoes but they burn after baking. I find fresh tomatoes work in this case.
Wonder how you did it.
Susan says
This was a very quick bread to prepare. I love that. My only question I have is the balance between salt and sugar. My bread is very, very salty – unpleasantly so. The salt (2 tsp) did seem like a lot, the sugar very limited. I would not want ihis bread to be sweet. Otherwise a great recipe. 😊
Kelly Neil says
Thank you so much for the comment Susan! We’re happy you liked the bread and also glad you commented about the salt amount, as we haven’t re-visited this recipe for a while. We will re-test and adjust this week! Thank you again so much!!
Barb Eltz says
Did you use kosher salt or regular? They measure differently.
M Patterson says
The recipe was very to put together and well written, I was disappointed in the outcome. The bread had no flavor. Tasted like over baked Bisquick biscuit’s. I wasted my rosemary, tomatoes and olives. I could not even smell the bread baking. It was disappointing when my mouth was watering for some good tasting bread. I tried a different focaccia recipe from a different website. Was disappointed with that recipe too.
Alexandra Daum says
Hi there – based on your disappointment with more than one recipe and lack of smell while the bread is baking, is there a chance that your sense of smell/taste are out of commission at the moment?
Zhenya says
Is it possible the recipe omitted the herbs and seasonings after Step 2 — thuyme, oregano, basil, garlic ?..
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Alexandra Daum says
Hi Zhenya, the recipe states to ‘add focaccia toppings and bake…’ in step 7. Is that what you mean?
Veronica says
I do my focaccia with cherry tomatoes, olives and pieces of anchovies here and there. Delicious!!