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Bread is eaten by almost all cultures in the world. Every culture might have a different kind of bread but at the end of the day, it’s still bread! Today, we shall appreciate the Italian culture and make beautiful crusty and focaccia bread. This focaccia bread recipe will guarantee that the focaccia bread is really soft on the inside.

The other beauty about this easy focaccia bread recipe is that it takes a short time to prepare because it all happens in one single day. So you don’t have to wait for the dough overnight.

Ingredients of the focaccia bread recipe

1½ cups of warm water (110-115 degrees Franheight)
1 teaspoon of honey
2 tablespoons of instant yeast
3-4 cups of all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon of salt.
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
½ teaspoon of salt
2 rosemary sprigs
3 garlic cloves
¼ cup Olive oil

Steps To Follow To Make Focaccia Bread

Get a bowl and pour in 1½ cups of warm water (110-115 degrees Franheight). Make sure you follow the provided temperatures because if the water is too hot it might kill the yeast)

Stir in 1 teaspoon of natural honey and 2 tablespoons of instant yeast.

Stir until the yeast has dissolved in the water and let the mixture rest for about 7 minutes.

After 7 minutes, the mixture should be foamy. If you don’t see the yeast making such foamy bubbles, your yeast could be dead and it won’t be helpful in this recipe.

But if your yeast has made the water foamy, please carry on to the next step.

Pour the flour into a big bowl and whisk in the salt.

Pour the yeast mixture into the flour bowl.

Using a mixing stick, combine these together until you have a sticky dough.

Drizzle 1 teaspoon of olive oil onto the dough and knead the dough until the oil has spread all over it.

Cover the bowl with cling film (plastic wrap) for about 32 minutes at room temperature until it started increasing in size.

While the dough is proofing, we can make the topping.

The topping of focaccia bread

In a smaller bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Add ½ teaspoon of salt and 1½ teaspoon of the chopped rosemary sprigs.

Add 3 minced garlic cloves into the bowl.

These flavors will give the focaccia bread an amazing rosemary and garlic flavor.

Back to the dough…

The dough has now almost doubled in size.

Gently pull the dough and try to stretch it but don’t tear it. Do this about 4 times and let the dough rest again for another 31 minutes.

Repeat the stretching and folding exercise 3 more times while letting the dough rest for 31 minutes each time you stretch and fold it.

After the fourth time of stretching and folding, pour ¼ cup of olive oil onto a bread baking pan. Put the dough onto the pan and stretch it to cover the pan. If it’s stubborn, cover the pan with cling film and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. It will be easier to work with after.

Stretch the dough until it has covered the pan but make sure you don’t tear it.

Cover it with cling film and let it rise again for 40 minutes.

After rising, dip your clean hands into cold water and start piercing all through the dough so that you can make the classic focaccia bread dimples.

Whisk your garlic-rosemary oil mixture and pour it all over the dough.

Sprinkle about ½ teaspoon of salt on the dough and bake the dough in a preheated oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 23 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

After baking, immediately remove the focaccia bread from the pan and put it on a wire rack because if it remains in the pan it could sweat and lose its crust.

You can wait for the bread to cool a little bit and slice it the way you want.

If you have loved this recipe, please check out our Italian baked ziti recipe.

If you have made this recipe, don’t forget to send us your photos and we upload them on our blog.