This Italian NO KNEAD focaccia bread recipe is to die for! This bread dough— with 85% water— is a HIGH HYDRATION dough that produces a tall, soft focaccia.
1 large proofing container rectangular for a rectangular bake
1 baking tray
1 kitchen scale optional but recommended
Ingredients
5cupsstrong flourbread or pizza (see notes)
1tspdry active yeast
1 ⅓cupwater
¾cupwhole milk
1tbspolive oil
2 ½tspfine salt
fresh rosemaryoptional topping
coarse or flake saltoptional topping
Instructions
Make the Focaccia Dough
Combine the water and milk (liquids) in a small bowl or cup.
¾ cup whole milk, 1 ⅓ cup water
Combine the yeast with the flour in a large mixing bowl.
1 tsp dry active yeast, 5 cups strong flour
Slowly add the liquids to the dry ingredients, using a large spoon to combine the ingredients.
Mix the olive oil into the dough.
1 tbsp olive oil
Mix the salt into the dough.
2 ½ tsp fine salt
Cover and let the dough rest for 20 minutes to relax.
Fold the Dough (3x)
Transfer the dough to a very lightly oiled work surface. Using lightly oiled hands and / or a pastry cutter, give the wet dough a round of folds. Cover and let the dough rest on the table for 20 minutes.
Do a 2nd round of folds. Cover and let the dough rest 20 minutes.
Do a 3rd round of folds. Transfer the dough to a rectangular container for the first rise.
1st Dough Rise (Container)
Cover the dough and let the dough rise until doubled in size—a few hours.
Transfer the dough to the work surface and give the dough (now full of air) a few more folds. Then put it back in the container (covered) for another hour.
2nd Dough Rise (Tray)
Dust the work surface with flour (semolina is best). Let the dough fall out of the container onto the work surface. Gently pull the dough to stretch it to roughly the same size of your baking tray.
Transfer the stretched dough to the baking tray. Cover and let it rise for 2 more hours.
Bake the Focaccia
Make indents in the focaccia with your fingertips (pushing down and away from you).
Brush a thin layer of olive oil onto the top of the focaccia. Add fresh chopped rosemary (optional) and a sprinkle of coarse or flake salt.
fresh rosemary, coarse or flake salt
Bake the focaccia in a static, preheated oven at 430° F (220° C) for 20 minutes. Turn the oven to 'fan' and bake for another 10 minutes at the same temperature. Or, bake until golden brown. Buon appetito!
Video
Notes
Weighing Ingredients is BestWhen baking, it's always best to weight ingredients for accuracy. Kitchen scales are cheap, so we recommend having one in the house!Watch the video recipe!A video is worth 1000 pictures, so just watch the video recipe to see how easy this recipe is :)Use Strong FlourChoose bread or pizza flours (strong flours) for this recipe. Look for flours that boast a “W” of greater than ‘300.’ Choosing the Proofing ContainerChoose a proofing container that matches the size of your baking tray. So, choose a rectangular proofing container if baking in a rectangular baking tray. This will make stretching much easier!