I love making bread, or in my case, trying to make bread.
But equally, I love to make it as simple as possible. I don’t have the patience for endless kneading of dough and I don’t have a Kitchen Aid to take all the hard work away.
So this, relatively easy recipe for Focaccia bread is right up my street.
And here is the finished product complete with a serving suggestion!
Simple Focaccia Bread Recipe
Servings 4-5 people
Prep Time 1hr 40 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 120 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tablespoon Chopped Fresh Thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon Chopped Fresh Rosemary or 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
- 2 Cloves Minced Garlic
- 230 ml Warm Water
- 7 g Dried Yeast usually comes in 7g packs in a box
- 320 g Plain Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Honey
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper
Instructions
- In a pot, add the extra virgin olive oil, chopped minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, and the black pepper.
Cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure the garlic doesn't brown or burn!
Leave this aside for now. - In a large bowl, stir the warm water, yeast, and honey and leave it to rest for about 5 minutes.
- Add 130g o f the flour and 60ml of the garlic/olive oil/rosemary/thyme mixture to the bowl with the warm water, yeast and honey. Stir until it's all mixed together and try as best as possible to make sure there are no lumps. Leave for another 5 minutes.
- Now add the rest of the flour and the salt and mix until the dough comes together. I sometimes find that it can be a little sticky at this point so I slowly add a little bit of flour until it is no longer sticky/wet.
- Move it to a floured clean surface/board and knead it about 10 or 12 times until it becomes smooth. You may need to knead it a few more times.
- At this point I put it in a large oiled bowl, covered with a towel and allow it to rise for an hour or so. A warmish spot would be useful.
- After about 1 hour, heat the oven to 200C. I have a fan oven.
- Get a 13" by 9" baking sheet and line it with baking parchment. Oil the parchment with some of the garlic/olive oil mix (approximately 2 tablespoons).
- Pop the now risen dough out from the bowl onto the oiled baking sheet and press it down to cover the sheet. Use 2 fingers to create dimples all along the surface and pour the remaining garlic/olive oil mix over the top, spreading it out to cover the dough.
- At this point leave it aside to rise slightly for about 15 to 20 minutes. I personally find that it doesn't seem to rise or rise much at this point.
- Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. I'd recommend checking on it regularly to make sure it doesn't overbake.
Cool it down on a wire-rack.
Recipe Notes
