Okay I gave in.

I gave in to the COVID bread making craze and made my very first bread. What a bread it turned out to be! Everything about this focaccia was delicious. I suppose you could say the working from home, no more wedding planning stress and a kitchen to myself has resulted in some awesome experimenting. The husband is pretty happy with it all.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is completely simple, doesn’t require kneading and can be customised to your tastes with the toppings. The original recipe that I used to formulate this one is by Bon Appetit (click here to see the recipe) which finishes the bread off with lashings of garlic butter (Yum!). It’s the perfect and simple recipe to get started with bread, however I found myself making a number of adjustments to make it work for me.

This is a really important comment to make – the temperature, humidity and conditions will impact your dough significantly so be wary that it may take longer or not as long. Your oven ultimately is different to the one I use and the one used in any recipe so watch your bread in the oven. If it looks like it is browning too quickly or not quick enough, adjust the temperature or the height at which you have kept the tray. It’s the little adjustments that will ensure you get the best out of your dough.

The best thing about having a base recipe to start with is that you can make it your own! Here I have opted for some fresh cherry tomatoes (you can find wonderful punnets of mixed cherry tomatoes in the markets now!) and fresh rosemary from our brand new balcony herb garden. You could stick to garlic and rosemary embedded in the dough, or similar to the Bon Appetit recipe you could make a garlic and rosemary infused butter to slather over the top of the bread. Make it your own and make it unique each time you bake.

On a side note, please wish my plants the best of luck. I hope they survive under my care!

How beautiful is the risen dough!

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Let’s get started!

Blooming the yeast. This is essentially the key to getting that beautiful rise in the bread and without a good rising agent the bread simply won’t get that fluffy finish. Remember to always use yeast that is (reasonably) fresh and by that I mean NOT expired. Always check this date. If the yeast is expired, it is dead and throw that out immediately.

The ‘living’ aspect to the yeast is what gives you that beautiful bloom which in this recipe we aid using honey. This offers the focaccia the distinct sweetness that we know all too well. Essentially to get the yeast to proof we follow the simple formula of yeast + water + sugar = bloom. You could use agave if you wanted to make the recipe vegan, or sugar, but just remember these will alter the flavour of the bread just a bit.

In this recipe you need to whisk together the lukewarm water, yeast and honey together until you see a bit of the foam. After this, leave the mixture to proof for 5 minutes. If after a couple of minutes you cannot see any foaming of the yeast, you need to start again. The water MUST be lukewarm or warmish – hot water will simply kill the yeast. Cold water won’t quite get the action to start. My first forays into using yeast in the kitchen has involved multiple throw away batches and it was almost always because the water temperature was off or the yeast was dead.

Now to add the flour

After the yeast has bloomed we add the flour. Sifted is preferred, but look if you are short on time, just dump it in – it’ll all work fine in the end. It seems like a lot, but we definitely need 5 cups of flour to make our dough. The original recipe from Bon Appetit uses 5 tsp of salt of a particular brand, which didn’t really feel right for me.

Which salt?

Another side note here. If there is a recipe featuring a particular brand of salt, or kind of salt, and it is simply not something you own or are able to find, use your best judgement. Salt is essentially a flavouring to balance the recipe and if you lack some in the dough itself, you can always salt some butter and smear it over the top. Less is always more!

Back to the dough! My recipe uses 3 tsp of regular salt (literally the kind you buy in a bag at the supermarket, nothing fancy to see here). At this point we simple use a silicone spatula to bring the flour together until it forms a shaggy looking dough. You don’t need to stress to much about lumps, just aim to shake away the visible dry dough and bring it together.

I used the bowl from my stand mixer to do this before preparing a larger bowl (something to accommodate doubling the dough) with a generous 4 tbsp fresh olive oil. Transfer the shaggy dough to the prepared bowl and use your hands to get that oil coating the dough everywhere. Now we get to the patience part – cover the bowl with cling foil or with a silicone lid and set aside.

Use good quality Olive Oil

Before I explain more about temperatures, let’s have a chat about the olive oil.

Similar to the yeast, you MUST use olive oil that is fresh and definitely not expired. All too often I have seen people wasting fabulous quality olive oil by leaving it in the pantry to expire. If you have your hands on wonderful olive oil do me a favour and just go ahead and use it! Leaving it past the expiry date will leave you with rancid oil.

Now for the rising of the dough. If you have the time, leave the dough in the fridge to rise for at least 8 hours and if possible up to 18 hours. If you are a bit short on time, leave the dough in a cool spot outside for at least 2 hours. The longer you let the dough rise the better! If it is a very dry day, keep the dough in a cool spot away from the sunlight. Essentially you need to monitor the rise of the dough every few hours. The dough is ready for the next stage after the dough has doubled completely and is bubbly with plenty of air pockets.

Preparing to Bake

To prepare for the next stage, generously butter a baking pan and add a little over 1 tbsp of olive oil. It’s easy for me to tell you the size of the baking try – the one I used could also fit a turkey if that helps. Ideally use something between 12×18 inches and 10×15 inches. The smaller the tray the thicker the focaccia will be.

To prepare the dough to transfer into the tray, use two forks to loosen the dough from the bowl and fold the dough into the centre. This will remove most of the air from the dough. Once it forms into a good mound of still sort of shaggy dough, overturn this into the baking tray. Turn the dough over a couple of times to coat in the oil and let the dough sit uncovered in the tray at room temperate for at least 1 and a half to 4 hours, until the dough has yet again doubled in size. I let mine rise for just over 2 hours.

Checking the dough

Before moving to the next part, check the dough. Start by putting olive oil on your hands and coat. This will prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers. To check if the dough is ready simply push your finger into the dough. If the dough springs back immediately you need to let the dough rest for another hour or do. If the dough doesn’t spring back and you can see a clear depression remain in the dough, you are ready! If you are not quite ready to bake at this point but the dough is ready, you can place the dough in the fridge for another hour or so.

If you are ready, it’s time to dimple the dough and pre heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius and prepare the middle rack. With the dough, you want to make a scattering of dimples everywhere so apply a good amount of pressure to make the indents. Don’t be gentle! Now, you can leave the focaccia without any toppings, but I decided to add a few. My favourite toppings include some rosemary leaves pushed lightly into the dough and some cherry tomatoes. You could add some onions and rosemary, or even some sage. Honestly the possibilities are endless here.

Almost ready to get baking!

Once you are happy with the toppings, drizzle over another tablespoon of the olive oil (or a little more never hurt anyone) to cover the top and sprinkle sea salt over the top. Place the tray in the oven and bake for roughly 20-30 minutes. Check on the bread half way through the process to check the browning of the bread. If it looks overly brown, reduce the temperature to 200 and monitor the cooking.

And there you have the easiest, simplest and yet superb focaccia. It’s absolutely brilliant! To serve simply brush over butter, or serve with same balsamic and olive oil to dip the delicious bread in. You could also use this bread as sandwich bread or use a base recipe as a pizza base too. For the recipe keep reading on below.

And we have the recipe!

Let me know how you go with this recipe. It is one of my absolute favourites, and is something I make pretty much every couple of months. The question here really is, when are you making Focaccia?

Be sure to share your versions with me @theminiaturelife on Instagram. Also make sure you DM me because sometimes I can’t see the photos!