Focaccia Bread

Easy Focaccia Bread Recipe
This basic focaccia recipe can be used as a foundation for making focaccia. Add your own spices, herbs, cheeses, meats or vegetable toppings as desired.

Ingredients You Will Need:
1 ½ cups warm water
1 package dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
5+ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ tablespoons table salt
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Combine ½ cup warm water, the packet of dry yeast and the teaspoon of sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and yeast dissolve. Let stand for five minutes. The mixture should foam.

Add one cup of warm water, two tablespoons of olive oil, the table salt and the flour. Mix until ingredients are well combined.

On a floured surface, knead the soft dough for about seven minutes, until the dough is elastic and smooth. You may be tempted to add extra flour, but do not do so. The dough should be soft.

Put dough in a bowl liberally greased with olive oil. Rub extra olive oil on the dough to grease the dough as well. Place the bowl of dough in a warm place (the temperature should be between 80 and 85 degrees) and allow it to rise until it is twice its original size.  This should take approximately an hour.

Grease a jelly roll pan with olive oil. Press the dough into the pan, spread more olive oil on the dough and place it in a warm place where the dough can rise again to double the size. It should take approximately 45 minutes for the dough to rise sufficiently.

Use your fingertips to make the classic indentations over the bread, approximately an inch apart. Make the indentations deep. You want to come close to touching the bottom of the pan. Spread olive oil over the top of the dough and sprinkle the coarse sea salt (or other toppings) on the dough, lightly pressing the salt (or other toppings) into the dough and deeply into the dimples made by your fingertips. Put the dough back in the warm place to rise one more time, again for about 45 minutes.

While the dough is rising the final time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Move the oven rack to the lowest slot possible in your oven and bake the focaccia on the lowest rack for approximately 18 minutes or until the bread is lightly browned.  Remove from pan immediately and cool on rack.

Dress Up Your Focaccia Bread
The most wonderful thing about focaccia bread is how versatile it is. Classically, focaccia bread is topped with olive oil, coarse sea salt and parmesan cheese. However, you can press essentially any herb, spice, cheese, minced or sliced vegetable or meat into the dough before baking to make a focaccia bread that is as unique as you are.

Try caramelizing sweet onions and pressing those into the top or topping the bread with sliced olives. Typical toppings include rosemary, thyme, cilantro, basil, dill weed, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, sardines, anchovies, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, cheeses of all kinds and olives.

Serving Suggestions for Focaccia Bread
Focaccia is a perfect appetizer. Serve it slightly warmed with a shallow dish of olive oil with pepper or sun-dried tomatoes for dipping.

You can also serve focaccia as a bread accompaniment for any meal.  It's most suited for Italian meals simply because that's where the bread was first used. It is perfect for dipping into any pasta sauce or for picking up the remains of a meal, almost like a scrumptious edible sponge.

Because you can tailor the herbs and toppings on the bread, you can make your focaccia to match the meal you are serving. For example, if you are serving baked chicken with mashed potatoes, you can sprinkle rosemary and thyme on top of the bread before baking, pressing some of the herbs into the dough with your fingertips as you make the classic imprints.