Rosemary & Olive Oil Focaccia Bread – Incredibly fluffy and flavorful focaccia bread that comes together in less than 2 hours, from start to finish.
When chatting about my homemade bagels earlier this week, I told you how much of a carbaholic I am . Welp, count yourself lucky because this carb addiction has brought you another incredible bread recipe this week. Double the carbs, double the fun!
Focaccia is something that I learned to love only recently. I used to think it was too “bready” and dry – chewy, crusty bread was more my style. It wasn’t until I made some from scratch in a cooking class that I really learned to love it.
My favorite thing about focaccia is that you can really get innovated with the recipe just by adding different toppings on the dough before baking. You can use sun-dried tomatoes or roasted red peppers or various cheeses to make the focaccia just how you want it.
So out of all the combinations to be made, how am I possibly to chose one?! Well the choice was surprisingly simple. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with really good-quality olive oils so I wanted olive oil to be the star of this focaccia. You have not lived if you haven’t had bites of focaccia pockets loaded with olive oil! And rosemary packs just the punch of flavor that can take this focaccia to a whole other level so it’s the perfect pairing with the olive oil.
And so…I present to you my Rosemary & Olive Oil Focaccia Bread!
This was not my first attempt at making a rosemary & olive oil focaccia bread. I actually wanted to share a similar recipe with you guys after I learned to make focaccia in my cooking class more than a year ago. But after two failed attempts in one weekend, it just wasn’t meant to be.
After letting my ego heal itself over the past year, I was finally ready to try again. But first, I had to figure out why the other recipes failed so miserably. Here’s what I learned.
The recipes I was referencing were overly complicated – focaccia is a really a simple, rustic bread recipe that doesn’t require fancy flours or techniques. But I kept thinking that the more complicated the recipe, the better the focaccia would be. I was so wrong.
The recipe that I eventually found – and that worked like a charm – only had a handful of ingredients and took less than 2 hours to make from start to finish.
This focaccia recipe is one of the easiest bread recipes you’ll make – very few ingredients and very few steps. But just in case you need some more encouragement, I have some tips for you:
- Because this recipe has only a few ingredients, you need to make sure to use the highest quality ingredients available. That means fresh rosemary, rich olive oil, and flaky fleur de sel (or flaky sea salt). Nowadays, you can find all of these at local grocery stores. But Williams Sonoma also has some great varieties if you’re struggling.
- I love my focaccia thick and fluffy so I bake it in round cake pans. If you don’t have round cake pans, you can use square pans or one big 9×13 pan. But just keep an eye on the bread as it’s baking since the baking times can vary from pan to pan.
- Do not skip the drizzle of olive oil on top of the dough before baking! This drizzle creates the olive oil pockets that I was talking about. And once you bite into those pockets of olive oil, you’ll wish there were more, I promise you!
And there you have it – bread recipe number 2 for the week! Are you excited to get to baking this weekend???
What other bread recipes have you been whipping up lately? I need more ideas so let me know in the comments below!
Rosemary & Olive Oil Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt plus more for sprinkling
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary divided
Instructions
- Add warm water and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and let it sit for 10 minutes. It should be foamy after 10 minutes.
- Remove leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary. Chop up leaves and add to yeast mixture along with flour, olive oil, and sea salt to the yeast mixture. Turn mixer to low speed. Once the dough comes together, increase speed to medium-low and knead for 5 minutes. If dough is still sticky after 5 minutes, add 2 tablespoons of flour and continue to mix until combined. The dough should be easier to handle now.
- Remove dough from mixing bowl and place into a large bowl greased with olive oil. Rotate dough in bowl to coat with olive oil. Cover with a damp towel and set aside to rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Punch down risen dough with your fist to remove the air pockets. Remove dough from bowl and place on clean surface. Cut dough in half and split among two round cake pans. Using your fingers, spread dough out to cover the entire bottom of each pan. Cover each pan and let dough rise for 20 more minutes.
- Once dough has risen, poke holes in dough with your fingertips. These holes will become pockets for the olive oil and rosemary and will become your favorite part about the focaccia - trust me! Drizzle each loaf with more olive oil and then sprinkle each loaf with leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary and a little more sea salt.
- Bake loaves for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove loaves from pans and let them cool for a little longer before slicing and serving. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 5 days.
Oh my goodness, this looks SO good, I love the way Rosemary smells!
Oh, this looks super yummy. I will definitely have to try this. I love trying new recipes!!
Wow! This literally has my mouth watering at my keyboard LOL! This looks both beautiful and delish 😀
This looks so good! I’ve been saying that I need to start making bread, maybe this will be my first recipe 🙂
Its such a great recipe to start with since it’s so simple. Let me know how it goes!
I really need to start baking more bread and you’ve made this sound so easy! I’ll def have to try.
You’re gonna love it!
Carbs with rosemary and seas salt are my favorite! Add in olive oil and i’m on cloud nine.
Yessss I totally agree!
I love focaccia! It’s only one of my favorite breads!!
delicious!
Awesome! Hope you get to try this one out!
This is one of our family favorite flavor profile! The fresh smell of baked rosemary is so addictive! Beautiful bread!
Thanks!
omg I love focaccia so much, especially when it involves herbs and olive oil. That salt also looks glorious!
Yesss totally agree!
I LOVE focaccia with rosemary! I bet this smells amazing while baking. I really like how you’ve baked it in a round pan as well, great idea!
Thanks!! I love round focaccia much better than the square kind because it bakes much fluffier!
This sounds (and LOOKS!) delicious. I absolutely love rosemary. I’ll have to try it!
Thanks so much!