Homemade bread is one of the most satisfying recipes you can make at home. This fluffy focaccia bread recipe is one of my favourites, especially for snacking and for use as sandwich bread. It’s also an easy focaccia recipe! Knowing this I wanted this recipe to be very fluffy, airy with big bubbles and nice and golden on top. Now, I’m not a fan of HUGE bubbles. That’s because if you’re using it for sandwiches, they’re difficult to assemble with such big holes. I think this recipe has a nice sweet spot of fluffiness.
What is focaccia?
Focaccia is a type of Italian flatbread. This Italian bread is known for its fluffy texture, its golden crispy crust and the little dents on the surface of the dough. A focaccia bread recipe will also have lots of aroma from extra virgin olive oil used in the shaping and baking process. It can be served plain with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar or baked with delicious toppings. In the case of this fluffy focaccia bread recipe, I wanted to be able to snack on it and use it as sandwich bread. The reason is that I’m soon to open a Bistró and I have two sandwiches on the menu that use focaccia. This means that it has to be thin to get a good filling-bread ratio. I also wanted it to be fluffy but not with huge holes or the sandwiches would be impossible to fill.
What makes this a fluffy focaccia bread recipe
When making this fluffy focaccia bread recipe one of the most important factors is the dry ingredient to water ratio in the focaccia dough. The best focaccia is made with a high-hydration dough. The high amount of water makes for an extra fluffy focaccia with lovely bubbles. This means that it’s a very sticky dough and makes it hard to knead by hand. This is why I chose to use a stand mixer instead. Even though there’s the option of doing it no-knead (fold method), I just think this method is more efficient. The final product is very airy, extremely tasty and a beautiful bread to have at the table.
Ingredients for the dough
Making homemade focaccia is a good idea because it uses simple ingredients that can easily be found at grocery stores. I promise that making this fluffy focaccia bread recipe is easy and you will be amazed at the result. Here are the basic ingredients you will need:
- Bread Flour: Bread flour has the particularity that it has a higher protein content (gluten) which allows for a fluffier structure. Since all purpose flour has a lower gluten content, it’s harder to achieve large bubbles and results in a fine crumb rather than an open one.
- Instant Yeast: We use instant yeast or active dry yeast for this fluffy focaccia bread recipe. If you have some sourdough handy, you can make my sourdough focaccia recipe.
- Salt: A nice level of salt is always nice in a focaccia. I add some to the dough but I also like to sprinkle flaky salt on top before baking.
- Sugar: Although it’s not traditional and you can certainly skip it, I like to add a tiny bit of sugar to the dough just for flavour.
- Warm Water: To activate the yeast and get the proofing going nicely I like to use warm water when making my focaccia dough.
- Olive Oil: I like to use a nice quality extra virgin olive oil. It’s the essence of a nice focaccia bread and adds lots of flavour to the final result.
The method for this fluffy focaccia bread recipe
Now that you know everything that you will need to make this fluffy focaccia bread, let’s talk about the process. The method is not that different from any other type of bread and you’ll need the help of a stand mixer.
- Place all the ingredients except the olive oil in the bowl of your stand mixer. Use the hook attachment and give it a mix by hand just to prevent all the dry ingredients from flying everywhere. Place the dough hook attachment in its position and knead the dough on medium speed for 12 minutes or until the dough is no longer sticking to the sides or bottom of the bowl.
- Decrease the speed to low and drizzle in a bit of the olive oil. Once fully incorporated, add more until you use up all the oil in the recipe.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1 hour at room temperature or until it doubles in size. If it’s a cold day you might want to place the dough in a warm place. My favourite is in the oven with no temperature setting but the light on.
- After the first rise, you will prepare a large baking sheet with a generous drizzle of olive oil. There’s no need to place parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. Spread it evenly and then transfer the dough onto the oil.
- Using wet hands, pull the dough to fill as much of the baking sheet as you can. Normally, it shrinks back. Let it rest for 10 minutes and you should be able to fill the pan all the way to the edges.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let it have its second rise for 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
Cooking and cooling
After the second rise, it’s time to bake your fluffy focaccia bread recipe. Before baking you’re going to drizzle more olive oil on top, be generous. Then, use the tips of your fingers to make dents all along the focaccia. Don’t be shy, you should feel the base of the baking pan when pushing down with your fingers. It’s at this point that you could add different flavours to your focaccia. In my case, I sprinkled fresh rosemary leaves and flaky sea salt. We bake the focaccia in a preheated oven at 220C/430F for 15-20 minutes or until it’s nicely golden brown on top. We use a high oven temperature because it helps with forming those lovely bubbles as the air in the bread quickly expands. As soon as you remove it from the oven, transfer it to a cooling rack to prevent the bottom from sweating against the baking pan.
Toppings for this fluffy focaccia bread recipe
So far we’ve made a relatively simple focaccia bread with rosemary and salt. However, this fluffy focaccia bread recipe is the perfect base for different topping options depending on what you like. You want to add these various toppings right before baking on top of the dough. A few options include fresh herbs such as sage, tarragon, parsley, chives and dill. You can even spread some pesto on top for a spectacular result. Another good alternative is to include parmesan cheese or mozzarella cheese as a topping as they become nice and golden. Finally, you can also add veggies such as cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced potatoes, sliced peppers, red onion, or garlic. You can also experiment with fresh fruit! I love how focaccia turns out with fruit, especially if they’re in season. A few ideas include blueberries, peaches, apples and more. I would recommend that the first time that you make it you do a simpler one and as you get more practice you can vary it up as much as you like.
FAQs about this fluffy focaccia bread recipe
Whenever I make focaccia, I tend to get similar questions. These are questions that arise once we have made it or when we’ve never made homemade bread before. That’s why I decided to include a Frequently Asked Questions section for all of you.
Can you freeze focaccia?
Freezing this fluffy focaccia recipe is the absolute best way of preserving it. Freezing bread in general is a good idea, actually. You can freeze it whole or already sliced in whatever shape you like. To reheat it place it in a medium-heat oven for 10-15 minutes or until you have its just-baked texture back.
How to heat up focaccia (how to reheat)
If you want to reheat this fluffy focaccia recipe, you have a few options available.
- Oven: The oven is the most obvious answer and it gives a lovely result. It’s particularly efficient if you plan to reheat the whole focaccia or a large portion of it.
- Air fryer: An air fryer is a small convection oven so it’s great when you need to reheat a small portion of the focaccia or even for a sandwich.
- Grill: Whenever I have a barbecue lunch with friends, I like to make focaccia, slice it and then place it on the grill. The char marks add a lot of character and the result is delicious.
How to serve focaccia
When serving focaccia you have several alternatives. One is to cut long strips of the fluffy focaccia recipe and serve it with a side dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You can even cut it into squares for this purpose. Another option is to use it as sandwich bread. In this case, you would slice it in half and fill it with your favourite ingredients.
How to store focaccia bread
If you’re going to eat the focaccia in the next couple of days, you can keep it wrapped in plastic wrap or in an air-tight container. However, if you’re going to consume it later than that, the best way to preserve it would be to freeze it.
Fluffy Focaccia Bread Recipe
Ingredients
For the focaccia dough
- 600 g bread flour
- 10 g fine salt
- 7 g granulated sugar
- 7 g instant yeast / active dry yeast
- 500 g warm water
- 50 g olive oil extra virgin
For baking
- Olive oil extra virgin
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- Flaky salt
Instructions
For the focaccia dough
- Place all the ingredients except the olive oil in the bowl of your stand mixer. Use the hook attachment and give it a mix by hand just to prevent all the dry ingredients from flying everywhere. Place the dough hook attachment in its position and knead the dough on medium speed for 12 minutes or until the dough is no longer sticking to the sides or bottom of the bowl.
- Decrease the speed to low and drizzle in a bit of the olive oil. Once fully incorporated, add more until you use up all the oil in the recipe.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1 hour at room temperature or until it doubles in size. If it's a cold day you might want to place the dough in a warm place. My favourite is in the oven with no temperature setting but the light on.
- After the first rise, you will prepare a large baking sheet (40x30cm/17x12in) with a generous drizzle of olive oil. There's no need to place parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. Spread it evenly and then transfer the dough onto the oil.
- Using wet hands, pull the dough to fill as much of the baking sheet as you can. Normally, it shrinks back. Let it rest for 10 minutes and you should be able to fill the pan all the way to the edges.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let it have its second rise for 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
- Remove the plastic wrap and drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil. Use your fingertips to create dimples on the surface of the focaccia. Push all the way to the bottom of the pan.
- Sprinkle with rosemary leaves and flaky salt.
- Preheat an oven to 220℃/430℉ and bake the focaccia for 15 minutes or until it's golden brown on top.
- Remove the focaccia from the baking sheet as soon as it comes out of the oven to prevent the bottom from sweating.