Homemade Focaccia

A delicious homemade focaccia topped with sea salt, rosemary and oil. Light, airy and easy to make yourself at home

There is something about bread that absolutely steals my heart, especially when it’s freshly baked, warm and smells like heaven. Walking around a bakery when the bread has just come out of the oven is the best, but when you can have it at home it’s even better. 

Homemade bread

I adore making bread. I find it very therapeutic to bake bread because it’s a bit of a process and it takes a little time. So, if you don’t want to go through the effort or take the time that is totally fine, but this recipe probably isn’t for you. 

Making bread yourself such as my granary loaf, my soda bread of even my honey and oat bread are all utterly glorious. All of them are pretty easy to make and have a variety of flavours within each recipe and I adore that. I love making a batch of bread, slicing it up and freezing the slices so I have homemade bread ready to toast all of the time. 

Focaccia

Now when it comes to types of bread that I like, I pretty much love all of them. Bread is bread, bread is good. However, there are some that I find much more fun to make, but also much more flavoured and delicious. Focaccia, is my obsession, and it was definitely finally time to give you my homemade focaccia recipe. 

This recipe creates the most flavourful focaccia that is the perfect texture, so easy to make, and I make it weekly at this point. However, albeit being easier to make in my opinion, as technically there is no kneading involved compared to other breads, it does take a little time. I would say it’s worth it however, for that perfect bake. 

A delicious recipe based on the classic Italian bread, and I adore it. It’s just so completely different to your standard white loaf, and I adore it to make a snack, part of a lunch, to dip into soup, to grill and make garlic bread, or to make a loaded focaccia sandwich – it’s just better and better compared to a standard bread. 

The bread dough

When it comes to the base bread dough, it’s quite a simple mix of ‘store cupboard’ ingredients that hopefully you will all have already. If you don’t they are are super easy to grab at the supermarket so it’s super easy to make this dough. 

• Water – the dough starts off with warm water. I usually just run the tap until its still touchable in temperature and nice and warm and pour into the jug
• Honey – the honey feeds the yeast – you can use a maple syrup, or even a bit of brown sugar if you want instead but I use honey 
• Yeast – I use a dried active yeast, but any yeast works. The yeast is added into the warm water and honey so will activate anyway 
• Flour –  I use a basic supermarket own strong white bread flour for the dough 
• Salt – I use a chunky sea salt as they’re my favourite – table salt is stronger so you may need less 

Making the focaccia 

I would always say it’s best to start making the focaccia the day before you want it. I always post a bread based recipe and people ask how to make it fresh for the following day, so this recipe is an overnight recipe anyway. There are ways to make it ‘same day’ but it can slightly change the texture or flavour profile. 

I start this dough by putting the honey and yeast into the water and leaving for ten minutes. After ten minutes I add the flour and salt into a large bowl. This is a bowl the dough can stay in as it’ll take a while to produce the recipe. I pour the liquid mix into the bowl and combine with a spatula – you really don’t need to use a bowl with a dough hook. 

Mix to a wet and sticky dough, drizzle on some olive oil, and leave to sit for 30 minutes, covered, in a warm place. After the 30 minutes, you can do the ‘folds’. I am going to describe this as best as possible, but there are videos of this recipe on my instagram and tiktok channels which may help. I use a spatula (but you can 100% just use your hands) and you fold the dough four times. 

The folds

To fold, I basically fold the dough as if I am folding a brownie mixture, turning the bowl each time. So basically, I do a big turn, turn the bowl 90º, turn again and repeat a total of four times. The dough is super sticky and wet, and it should be, but this is why I use a spatula, personally. Traditionally, you’d use your hands. 

This dough then has to sit for another 30 minutes, you do another set of folds, sit for another 30 minutes, and another set of folds. In total at this point, you have let it sit for 30 minutes, three times, and done three sets of folds. Each time, the dough should be growing and becoming bubbly. 

On the last set of folds, I then cover the bowl in clingfilm and place this in the fridge overnight. This is going to create a delicious flavour of dough, as well as give the dough a slow rise. 

Baking the focaccia

Once the dough has rested in the fridge overnight, you then tip it into an oiled baking dish. The olive oil in a focaccia recipe is IMPORTANT. You can’t afford to scrimp on the oil, as it just won’t be the same. I usually live by the rule as there’s no such thing as too much olive oil in focaccia, but there probably technically is. 

I line a baking dish (just to make it easier to get the bread back out), heavily oil the bottom, and tip the dough into the dish. I fold it to make a rectangle, and put the smooth side on top. Leave this for a couple of hours to come to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 200ºc fan. 

You have to drizzle the focaccia with more oil, and then you do the dimples. You basically just stick your fingers into the dough, all over, to make the shape and look of the focaccia. If there are large bubbles, try not to pop them. Once dimpled, I sprinkle on some extra sea salt, and some lightly oiled rosemary sprigs and then bake in the oven. It turns into a golden, heavenly, crunchy and light focaccia that is SO full of flavour. 

Tips & Tricks

• You can try different flavours in the dough if you want – especially dried flavours. I have made this and added 1tsp garlic powder and onion powder and it’s delicious 
• The rosemary is optional – it’s best to oil it to prevent it burning in the oven. I also use garlic salt so it can catch slightly but I don’t mind this
• This dough is best on the day of baking, but definitely lasts 3+ days after. It can also freeze really well for 3+ months 
• I love dunking my focaccia into a balsamic oil dip 
• You can make this on the same say if you want – skip the fridge stage and leave to rise for 2 hours after the last set of folds, then transfer into the dish and carry on with the recipe 

Homemade Focaccia!

A delicious homemade focaccia topped with sea salt, rosemary and oil. Light, airy and easy to make yourself at home

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Category: Bread

Type: Bread

Keyword: Focaccia, Rosemary

Prep Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Resting time: 13 hours hours

Total Time: 14 hours hours

Servings: 8 people

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

• 400 ml warm water
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 6 g dried active yeast
• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 2 tsp sea salt (plus extra)
• 5-6 tbsp olive oil (plus extra)
• rosemary sprigs (lightly covered in oil)

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

• Pour the warm water, honey and yeast into jug and whisk together. Let it sit for 10 minutes. 
• Add the flour and salt to a bowl, and pour over the honey yeast water mix and combine with a spatula – stirring as little as possible. 
• Drizzle over 1–2 tablespoons of the olive oil, then cover for 30 minutes.
• Fold the dough four times. (See blog post for details)
• Cover the bowl again, and let sit for 30 minutes. 
• Repeat these steps twice more. 
• After the last fold, cover with clingfilm and place the bowl in the fridge overnight. 
• In the morning, remove the bowl from the fridge and pour the dough into an oiled dish. Let it come to room temperature – this will take about 2 hours.
• Towards the end of the 2 hours, preheat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan. 
• Drizzle the dough with a little more oil, then press your fingers into the dough to create dimples. Sprinkle some sea salt and rosemary sprigs over the dough. 
• Bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes.

  Devour the beautiful bread 

Notes

• You can try different flavours in the dough if you want - especially dried flavours. I have made this and added 1tsp garlic powder and onion powder and it's delicious 
• The rosemary is optional - it's best to oil it to prevent it burning in the oven. I also use garlic salt so it can catch slightly but I don't mind this
• This dough is best on the day of baking, but definitely lasts 3+ days after. It can also freeze really well for 3+ months 
• I love dunking my focaccia into a balsamic oil dip 
• You can make this on the same say if you want - skip the fridge stage and leave to rise for 2 hours after the last set of folds, then transfer into the dish and carry on with the recipe 

ENJOY!

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