When you find a good thing, it is kinda hard to stop at one attempt, isn’t it?
The LAM, being an ang moh, can eat bread everyday. Well, he does eat bread every day.
For me, though, bread translates to dry breakfasts that I had to swallow with Milo before going to school. Somehow that does not make me wanna go out and buy a loaf of bread to munch on.
Having said that, I really do like focaccias. On days when we go to our usual sandwich place for lunch, I would always have {whatever filling I felt like on that day} with focaccia.
I think I like focaccia because it is actually a tasty bread, seeing that some flavouring is usually added to the bread. I love focaccias with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, and this is the combination I made today.
This is a very similar recipe to the no-knead artisan bread I made last week. It involves dumping the ingredients into a bowl, stirring to combine, proofing for 12 hours (or up to 24 hours), then bake.
If only all things in life were so simple!
To start making the focaccia, I added flour, instant yeast and salt into a mixing bowl.
You need to use instant yeast for this recipe.
If you are using normal yeast, you will need to place the yeast in warm water, wait for the yeast to start reacting before adding it to the flour mixture.
Just a bit troublesome, no?
Using a whisk, I mixed everything together.
I added the water.
And mixed using my danish dough whisk, I mixed until everything was combined. There is no need to over-mix.
If you don’t have a danish dough whisk, just use a normal whisk. For benefits of using a danish dough whisk, see here.
You should end up with something that looks like this.
Cover the bowl with cling film, and let the dough rise for 12-24 hours.
When I was ready to bake, I emptied about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil (use the best one you can afford) into a pan. Here, I used a 8×8-inch pan, but any pan would be okay.
With the help of a scrapper, I transferred the entire dough into the pan. Then, using my fingers, coated with the oil from the pan, I made dimples on the dough. No need to get too excited. In fact, handle the dough as little as possible. But do make sure the top is flat-ish. I didn’t do that (too worried about over-working my dough) and I had a lopsided loaf of bread. 😛
One more thing, you don’t need to make the dough fit the entire pan. Unless, of course, you have OCD. Then, do whatever is necessary to maintain your balance with the world.
I chopped a sprig of rosemary, and minced one clove of garlic. These were scattered onto the bread. Along with some flaky sea salt. I like this one.
No, you should not use table salt. You want a good quality finishing salt.
I placed foil on the pan, and left the dough to rest while I pre-heated my oven to 225C.
The focaccia was placed in the hot oven, and baked for 20 minutes.
Then I removed the foil (be very careful!!), and baked for an additional 20 minutes. After which I removed the focaccia from the pan immediately and placed it on a wire rack to cool.
There you have it.
Freshly-baked focaccia.
And hardly any effort required!
Have you taken part in my Ombre cakes giveaway? Click on the picture below to take part!
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 1/2 cups water (room temperature)
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Sea salt
- 1 spring rosemary, finely chopped
- Mix flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add water. Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
- Cover bowl with cling film and let dough rise 12-24 hours.
- Place olive oil in pan. Add dough. Using fingers coated with oil, make dimples in dough.
- Scatter rosemary, garlic and salt on dough. Cover with foil and leave to rest.
- Pre-heat oven to 225C. Bake bread for 20 minutes, covered.
- Remove foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes.
- Remove from pan immediately and place on wire rack to cool.
Wah, so easy! OK, this HAS to work for me! 🙂
it will work!! can’t go wrong with this one. very forgiving recipe!
Hi Diana,
I love eating foccacia! These looks good, perfect with a cuppa tea!
thanks Joyce! 🙂
Oh wow fantastic… no knead is definitely my kinda bread! Will give this a go.
we all have lazy days, but still wanna eat well. hope you get to try this!
Looking FAB and thanks for the picture tut!
Thanks Emily! I got the whisk from the US!
A baking novice here… Do I put the dough in the refrigerator to let it rise?
Hi Cal no. You need to leave the dough on the kitchen table to proof. Not in the fridge. 🙂
Hi Diana,
Does bread flour work and dried rosemary work? Thanks!
Hi Mae they should work.
Tried this recipe twice and noticed some parts of the dough were tougher than the rest. After baking these same parts were still tough. Did I over handle the dough? Otherwise great bread recipe for first timers like me 🙂
Hi there this some times happens with no knead breads because of uneven distribution of ingredients. You can try this recipe – it is quick and produces very soft bread. Perfect for beginners! http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/04/40-minute-bread-rolls/
Hi! Tried it today and was thrilled that it worked and tasted great! I’ve tried your bunga telang cup cake too and it turned out well! Truly appreciate your generous sharing of recipes! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your adventures in the kitchen! I’ll be trying your other recipes soon!
Yvonne you just made my day!!! Thank you 🙂 🙂
Hi, I tried your recipe today but my bread turned out slightly flat and hard. I proofed it overnight and baked it only after leaving it more than 12 hours. The dough seemed to have risen quite well when I turned it out to the pan to bake.
Hi could there be something wrong with your oven temperature?
Hi Diana,
This is my first time making a bread. This recipe is easy and yummy. I used bread flour and non-instant yeast and they worked. However since I do not have fresh herbs, I used dried herbs which I think not so fragrant compared to fresh herbs. The bread is crispy and abit hard at the base, is yours also the same ?
Thank you.
Hi Diana! I made this for x’mas lunch yesterday and it was yum! But the crust was quite hard 🙁 is there anything I can do to make the crust softer? I really want to try this again.
Here’s what I found online Gina
My Crust is Too Dark.
The most common cause of an overly dark crust is baking too long, which will also result in a thick crust. Some breads require a dark crust and some bakers like a darker crust, so make sure that what you have is a fault and not the desired crust color.
Make sure you didn’t broil the loaf instead of bake it. James Beard has a famous recipe for his broiled bread, which was a mistake that, it could only happen to James Beard, turned out well.
Baking too long. Make sure you bake for the proper time.
Oven temperature too high. Check the temperature before you start to bake. If you consistently have a dark crust, check the calibration of the oven.
Too much sugar in the recipe. This is applicable mainly to enriched breads. Make sure you don’t confuse teaspoons with tablespoons.
If the crust is too dark on the top only, you have probably set the oven rack too close to the top of the oven. Lower it next time.
If the crust is too dark on the bottom only, you probably have the rack too close to the bottom of the oven. Raise it next time.
If you check the loaf when it is half-way baked and the top is already turning dark, you can slow the coloring by putting a sheet of aluminum foil over the loaf.
If you check the loaf when it is half-way baked and the bottom crust is getting very dark, you can slide a cold cooking sheet under the loaf and transfer the loaf to a higher rack in the oven.
Hi Diana! My crust was a perfect colour, it was just hard. I’ll try reducing my oven temperature to see if that helps as other recipes online usually bake focaccia at 200 degrees. I’ve noticed that quite a few of the other comments to this recipe have also been about hardness 🙁
Maybe bake something else?