Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Homemade rosemary focaccia bread is made from a few simple ingredients combined together in one bowl. This recipe includes a full step by step tutorial with photos. The process is easy and your kitchen will smell amazing!

Are you looking for an easy bread recipe that tastes amazing? Rosemary Focaccia Bread follows an easy process that requires no kneading and no dough hook. The entire recipe is prepped in one bowl. It requires some time to allow the dough to rise, but it’s hassle free and worth waiting for.

What is focaccia?

Focaccia bread is a flat oven baked Italian bread made with flour, yeast, olive oil, salt and herbs. It’s rich in fat and salt which creates a rich depth of flavor. It’s often served as an appetizer, table bread or snack.

Making this focaccia is a two step process. First, you must prepare the biga and then let it sit for 24 hours.

Making the biga

So what exactly is a biga? A biga is a starter batch of bread. It helps to enrich the flavor, generate larger holes in the bread and keeps the bread light, crisp and airy. It is an easy process to make the biga and will significantly enhance the aroma and flavor of the bread.

• Make the biga (Images 1-4) – Stir together flour, water and yeast in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

• Make the focaccia dough (Images 5-10) – Add additional flour, water and yeast to the big with a wooden spoon. Mix together until a ball of dough forms. Cover and let rise 15 minutes. Stir in the salt, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
• Rise and fold the dough (Images 11-12) – Using a rubber spatula that is coated in olive oil, fold partially risen dough over itself by lifting and folding the edge of dough towards the middle. Turn 90 degrees and fold again until you make your way around the entire bowl. Cover and repeat the process again.

• Bake the dough – Split the dough into two pieces and place in the middle of two 9-inch cake pans coated in olive oil. Sprinkle with additional salt and chopped fresh rosemary.

Other Homemade Bread Recipes

• Whole Wheat Bread
• Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Bread

While the actual time spent making the dough really isn’t much time at all, the entire process takes over 24 hours. It is absolutely necessary to prepare the biga and let the dough rise for the recommended amount of time. Fortunately, no kneading is involved and all you need is a large bowl, spatula and wooden spoon to prepare the dough.

This recipe is my favorite bread recipe. We know that you will love it too.

Try it and let us know what you think!

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Cooling Time: 35 minutes mins

Total Time: 4 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

This focaccia bread is made with a few simple ingredients and follows a simple process.

5 from 3 votes

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Ingredients 

For the biga:

• ▢ ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1/3 cup warm water, 100-110°F
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon instant yeast

For the dough:

• ▢ 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups warm water, 100-110°F
• ▢ 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• ▢ 3 teaspoons kosher salt
• ▢ 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ▢ 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Instructions

• To make the biga, combine ½ cup flour, water, and yeast in a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients form a wet and sticky ball and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.
• To make the dough, stir the flour, water and yeast into biga with a wooden spoon until ingredients form a wet and sticky ball and no dry flour remains. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 15 minutes.
• Sprinkle 2 tsp. salt over dough and stir into dough until thoroughly incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. Spray a rubber spatula with nonstick cooking spray and fold partially risen dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees, fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough 6 more times (for a total of 8 turns). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding, turning and rising 2 more times, for a total of three 30-minute rises. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, place a baking stone on rack, and preheat oven to 500 degrees for at least 30 minutes before baking.
• Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface. Lightly dust top of dough with flour and divide in half. Shape each piece of dough into a 5-inch round by gently tucking under edges. Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each. Sprinkle each pan with ½ tsp kosher salt. Place round of dough in pan and slide dough around pan to coat bottom and sides; flip over. Repeat with second piece of dough in second pan. Cover pans with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes.
• Using fingertips, press dough out toward edges of pan. Using dinner fork, poke surface of dough 25 to 30 times, popping any large bubbles. Sprinkle rosemary evenly over top of dough. Let dough rest until slightly bubbly, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Place pans on baking stone and reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees. Bake until tops are golden brown, 22-25 minutes, switching placement of pans halfway through baking. Transfer pans to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Remove loaves from pan and return to wire rack. Let cool 30 minutes before serving.
• Loaves can be wrapped and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Notes

• If you do not have a baking stone, bake the bread on an overturned, preheated rimmed baking sheet set on the upper-middle oven rack.
• This recipe was passed on to me from a family member. I do not have the original source of this recipe. It was originally published on this site in 2013. 

Nutrition

Calories: 120kcal, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 437mg, Potassium: 32mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 7IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 4mg, Iron: 1mg

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Ashley C.

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