Rosemary Focaccia Bread {Quick Recipe} - Miss in the Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use for focaccia? ›

Use your favorite kind—I prefer extra virgin olive oil. Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour: I tested this focaccia with both and prefer the bread flour variety. Both are great, but bread flour has a higher protein content so it yields a chewier texture.

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.

Because there is a greater edge-to-middle ratio when you bake focaccia in a loaf pan instead of a sheet pan (not to mention the loaf pan has higher sides), you're ensured a lot of crispy, cheesy bites.

The thickness of a focaccia can vary, too, but an authentic focaccia genovese should be rather thin, even if it needn't be quite as thin as my version presented here.

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.

Rosemary plants need plenty of sun, at least half of the day (6 hours is a bare minimum). Rosemary plants have roots that don't like wet conditions. So, overwatering is one of the main reasons for root rot or loss of plant parts. Root rot eventually leads to the death of the plant.

The longer you cook rosemary, the stronger its flavor will be.

Pan of Choice for Baking – You can bake focaccia using any of these three options – cake pans, a sheet pan, a large baking dish. See below for more details. Parchment Paper – Parchment paper is key for this focaccia. It will make the bread very easy to remove from the pans – you'll be glad you used it!

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.

This recipe, originally from Alexandra Cooks has been our go-to focaccia recipe. A pyrex glass casserole dish is perfect for a thicker bread that can be sliced for making sandwhiches. If not preparing overnight, let the mixed dough rise at room temperature for about 1.5 to 2 hours until doubled.

Should focaccia dough be very sticky? ›

That's okay, it should be wet and sticky! All bread flour absorbs different amounts of water due to varying protein content. Bread flour with 12-15% protein (ie 12-15g of protein per 100g of flour) is best for focaccia.

Venetian focaccia is sweet, baked for Easter and resembles the traditional Christmas cake panettone. Sugar and butter are used instead of olive oil and salt. Focaccia barese, which is common in Puglia in southern Italy, is made with durum wheat flour and topped with salt, rosemary, tomatoes or olives.

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! See FAQ for using only AP flour in the recipe if that is what you have.

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.

For this article, bread flour means Strong White Flour or Strong Wholemeal Flour as it has more protein. This means that during the baking process, it will rise better and hold its shape better than other flours.

Wheat flours are usually the first choice of most bakers. This is due to the lightness and high rise created by higher levels of gluten content. However, if you're intolerant of wheat or looking for gluten-free bread options, there are a wide range of low gluten and gluten-free flour options available.