Italian Focaccia Bread

You've probably seen many recipes for focaccia across the internet.

While I'm sure those recipes are delicious, I'm teaching you how to make a traditional Italian focaccia recipe from scratch. This was a skill I learned while studying in Italy during culinary school.

This recipe not only uses the classic Italian method to make focaccia. It also provides you with crispy, light, and fluffy focaccia bread.

Plus, I'll teach you how to mix up the flavors of this Italian focaccia recipe with some simple substitutions.

What You'll Learn In This Recipe

Bread flour: It's important to use bread flour for this recipe. Bread flour has a higher protein content compared to all purpose flour, giving you a nice chewy bite on the focaccia.

I personally would not recommend substituting bread flour for all purpose flour. After many taste tests, it will not yield a focaccia bread as fluffy, chewy, or delicious as the one with bread flour.

Instant dry yeast: Yeast is a necessary ingredient for bread making as it allows the dough to rise. Before baking, check that your yeast has not expired.

If you only have active dry yeast on hand, you can substitute instant yeast for 2 ½ teaspoons of active dry yeast.

Water: Water is an important ingredient in focaccia bread because it's considered a high-hydration dough. This means there is a higher percentage of water (typically over 50%) when compared to the other ingredients in the recipe.

When mixing water with your yeast and flour, be sure the water is at room temperature. Water temperatures around 140°F (60°C) will kill the yeast because it's too hot.

Granulated sugar: Sugar is an ingredient in bread that does a small but mighty job. The sugar caramelizes when baked, allowing the bread to take on a beautiful golden brown color.

Sugar's role in baking also helps to retain moisture, so you have a spongy bread.

Extra virgin olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil is a staple in Italian cooking. Be sure to use extra virgin olive oil for the best possible flavor in your focaccia. If you're interested in learning more, check out my guide to Italian olive oil.

Fine sea salt: Salt plays a few important roles in this authentic focaccia recipe. First, it enhances the flavor of the other ingredients.

It also helps tighten the gluten net so our dough can become more resistant and elastic. You'll see this in action once you add the salt to the dough and the olive oil immediately starts to absorb.

Maldon sea salt flakes: You'll also need some flakey salt to sprinkle on top of your focaccia. I would not suggest using iodized table salt for this step. You'll need either flaky sea salt or Morton kosher salt.

First, you'll need to mix up the focaccia dough by adding bread flour and instant dry yeast in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. A stand mixer is necessary for this recipe, so don't try to knead it by hand.

Next, while the mixer is running at medium-low speed, slowly add the water in three smaller batches. Because this is a high-hydration dough, it's important to allow the water to absorb into the flour before adding in another small amount of water.

After the water has fully absorbed, pour in the sugar and mix until it's combined.

Then, pour in the extra virgin olive oil in four batches. Because the olive oil is very slick, I've found it's best to pour it into the center of the dough so it's more easily absorbed into the flour.

If you noticed the olive oil has sunk to the bottom of the mixing bowl and is causing your dough to spin around instead of properly mixing, use a silicone spatula to flip the dough over periodically to help the dough hook catch.

This step takes some patience. Be sure to add the olive oil in slowly. If you try to add the oil all at once, your flour will never be able to fully absorb all of the olive oil.

Finally, once you add in the last batch of olive oil, add in fine sea salt and continue mixing until all the oil has been absorbed (it will look like the dough in photo three). The salt helps to tighten the gluten net and brings this dough all together.

Once the dough is fully mixed, bump the mixer speed up to high and allow everything to mix for about 1 - 2 minutes until you hear a popping sound and the dough is wrapped around the dough hook.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place until it's tripled in size. Don't cut this time short! In order to get a fluffy focaccia, the dough needs to fully rise.

If your house is cold, or you live in a cold environment, the rise time may increase. Typically, it takes about three to five hours for my dough to fully triple in size.

Pour the dough onto the sheet pan, and allow gravity to help you naturally stretch the dough until it reaches the edge of the sheet pan.

If you notice the dough pulling back to the center, allow it to rest in the sheet pan for an additional 10 minutes, then continue stretching. This allows the gluten additional time to rest and makes it easier to stretch.

Next, it's time to make the focaccia topping.

For the topping, you'll mix together water and extra virgin olive oil. Adding water to this mixture is an Italian secret that creates super crispy and crunchy focaccia. You won't see this in many other recipes!

You can play around with the flavor by using infused garlic oil or rosemary oil.

Once the topping is mixed, use your fingertips to make indentations on top of the focaccia dough. Be sure to do this gently, so you don't tear through the dough. You shouldn't make indents deep enough that you can see the pan underneath.

Finally, pour the water and oil topping mixture on the dimpled focaccia.

Next, cover the sheet tray with plastic wrap and allow it to proof in a warm (around 75°F - 80°F or 24°C - 27°C), draft-free place until it has tripled in size. This usually takes about 60 minutes.

I prefer to set my oven on to a low temperature (170°F - 200°F or 76°C - 93°C) and allow the bread to proof on top of the warm oven.

Once the bread has been proofed, it should be full of air. Be careful not to bang the sheet tray around much at this stage. You want to keep as much air as possible in the dough.

Allow the bread to bake for 25 - 30 minutes in a preheated 430°F (220°C) oven until it's golden brown and crispy on the top. 

Once it comes out of the oven, place the focaccia on a cooling rack and cover it with a tea towel. This helps the moisture stay inside the bread, so it's soft when you eat it.

Be sure to allow the focaccia to cool to room temperature before removing it from the pan and slicing it into individual pieces. This size should yield 18 pieces of focaccia bread.

From here, store the bread in an airtight bag in the freezer until you're ready to serve. The freezer keeps the bread fresh longer than allowing it to sit out on a counter at room temperature.

To serve and reheat, heat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place focaccia slices on top. Then, bake for 18 -20 minutes until the focaccia is warmed through and crunchy on the outside.