Easy focaccia bread recipe | Jamie Oliver bread recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to make focaccia? ›

Flour - I used a mixture of bread flour and All-purpose flour (high grade or strong and plain if you're not in the US). Bread flour is slightly higher in protein than All-purpose, so gives the focaccia just a little more chew. I love the mix of both, but just AP flour works just fine too!

Why is my focaccia not fluffy or chewy? It could be the type of flour you used. The best flour to use to make focaccia bread is bread flour which gives you fluffy baked bread. Or, it could also be because you did not knead the dough enough for the gluten to form a structure which can result in flat or dense bread.

Now, focaccia uses plenty of olive oil, not only in the dough, but for kneading, proofing, in the baking pan, and on the bread's surface before baking. All this fat means the texture is light, moist and springy, the crust emerges golden and crisp, plus the center stays soft for days afterwards.

How Is Focaccia Different From Other Bread? Focaccia is ½" to 1" thick with a light crust on the top and bottom. It's often described as "flatbread" or "Italian flat bread," but unlike the flat bread we're used to, it isn't flat at all, but thick and fluffy.

Traditionally Tuscan focaccia is medium thick and medium soft but crispy on the outside. Salt and rosemary are its usual companions. However, throughout Tuscany you can also find a thin and crispy version as well thick and very soft. Tuscan panini with cheese and cold cuts often use focaccia for a base.

After the first rise, many recipes call for the baker to deflate — or "punch down" — the dough. It's an important step: When the dough is punched down, the yeast cells are redistributed. They form a closer bond with the moisture and sugar, which aids fermentation and improves the second rise.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Oven temperature: If the oven is too cold, it can lead to dense bread as it doesn't heat the gases in the dough enough to make them expand and rise. Preheat the oven and don't leave the door open too long when placing focaccia inside. This ensures the oven is nice and hot.

Olive oil: Makes focaccia taste delicious, adding to its texture and flavor. The secret to the best focaccia bread is using a great olive oil.

Which olive oil is best for focaccia? ›

Use a high quality extra virgin olive oil and don't be shy with it – this is a recipe that relies heavily on extra virgin olive oil not just for the taste but also for the texture and that golden and crunchy crust. It's important we are not skimping on the quality which is why I recommend using Rich Glen olive oil.

Focaccia (pronounced fo-kah-cha) is a flat bread similar to pizza dough that can be either sweet or savory.

focaccia, traditional Italian bread with many variations. A precursor of pizza, focaccia is one of Italy's most ancient breads. It is thought to have originated with the Etruscans. The earliest focaccia were unleavened flatbreads made from flour, water, and salt.

Today, I am sharing a simple focaccia bread recipe that is crispy on the outside and airy, fluffy in the inside. I used only bread flour for this recipe but feel free to use all-purpose or whole wheat flour.

Focaccia made with high-protein bread flour produces the best results, but all-purpose flour will work as well.

Both are great, but bread flour has a higher protein content so it yields a chewier texture. This recipe calls for 4.5–5 cups of flour, and if using bread flour, you'll need closer to 4.5 cups since it absorbs more water. If using all-purpose flour, you'll need closer to 5 cups.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.