Focaccia is a classic for a reason—it’s packed with crisped pockets of olive oil, making it a combination of a crouton and the fluffiest bread in one bite.
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00:00 Hey, I'm Alejandro, I'm at Delish.
00:02 I'm gonna be showing you how to make focaccia.
00:03 It's no prep, it's no need,
00:06 and it's great for a charcuterie board.
00:08 If you wanna get into bread baking,
00:09 this is the perfect recipe to start with.
00:11 This recipe is only four ingredients,
00:13 so it's very approachable and very cheap to make.
00:16 In a large bowl, we're gonna add our flour,
00:19 salt, and yeast.
00:22 Whisk all that.
00:23 Before adding our water, make a well,
00:25 because it'll be much easier
00:27 to incorporate everything evenly.
00:29 We're looking for a very shaggy, wet dough.
00:32 It does not have to be perfect or smooth or anything.
00:35 Next, we're gonna grab a very large bowl,
00:37 oil it with our olive oil,
00:40 and coat it all nice and evenly
00:42 so that the dough doesn't stick.
00:44 Then we're gonna transfer the dough,
00:46 and we're gonna cover it with plastic wrap.
00:48 Okay, it might seem like a little bit too much oil,
00:51 but I promise you, this dough is very sticky,
00:53 so we need all this oil
00:55 to keep it from sticking to the bowl.
00:58 We're gonna have this proof until doubled in size.
01:00 That can be either on the counter for three to four hours
01:03 or in the fridge overnight.
01:04 All right, we have this fermented dough
01:11 that's been resting all night,
01:13 and it is going, I'm telling you.
01:15 Look at the bubbles.
01:16 I mean, it smells like beer.
01:19 It smells like alcohol, and that's what fermentation is,
01:22 so we're good.
01:23 This looks beautiful and all,
01:24 but sadly, we're gonna have to punch it.
01:27 Why?
01:28 Well, because there's too much air in the dough right now,
01:30 so we have to deflate it
01:32 so that we can give some room for more air
01:35 for the second proof.
01:36 I'm oiling my hand a little bit
01:38 so that the dough doesn't stick to me.
01:40 We're gonna pour the rest of our olive oil
01:44 into our 9x13.
01:46 This oil adds a lot of flavor,
01:48 and don't forget to coat all the sides.
01:52 Transfer the dough,
01:52 and we're gonna stretch it out as much as we can.
01:55 It might show a little bit of resistance, but it's fine.
01:57 Once you let it rest, it's gonna relax on its own,
02:00 and it's gonna fill the whole entire pan.
02:02 So we're gonna cover this right now,
02:04 and because it's gonna rise,
02:06 we don't want the dough that's very sticky
02:08 to stick to the Saran Wrap,
02:09 so we're just gonna wrap some of this oil over here.
02:12 Kind of spread it around, coat it,
02:16 and we're gonna cover it.
02:19 Now we're gonna go for our second proofing,
02:24 and we're gonna leave it on the counter
02:25 for one to three hours, or until doubled in size.
02:28 The reason why we're doing this
02:29 is because we just deflated it,
02:31 so we need a little bit more air.
02:32 We need to add structure, we need to develop gluten,
02:35 so that we put it in the oven,
02:36 and it'll create this beautiful,
02:39 puffy, golden brown focaccia.
02:41 The second proofing has just finished,
02:43 and as you can see, look at all of these bubbles.
02:47 It's doubled in size, and it looks gorgeous.
02:50 Now the only thing left to do is to dimple it.
02:53 I'm gonna show you how to do that right now.
02:55 And we're gonna put some flaky sea salt on top,
02:57 some rosemary, and into the oven.
03:00 Before taking off the plastic wrap,
03:02 be very careful because the dough is very sensitive.
03:05 So if you just, you know, rip it out,
03:08 it's gonna deflate, and you don't want that.
03:10 Okay, it's dimple time.
03:13 The reason why we do this
03:15 is because we have so much air in right now
03:17 that if we put it into the oven,
03:19 it's gonna puff up too much.
03:21 This is how we're gonna do the dimpling.
03:23 First of all, the dough is very sticky,
03:26 so we're gonna put our fingers
03:27 into some extra virgin olive oil.
03:30 Get that nice and coated.
03:33 Just a little bit more.
03:36 And with your 10 fingers,
03:38 you're gonna, from front to back,
03:41 you're gonna start dimpling very confidently
03:46 all the way to the back.
03:49 About half an inch in between.
03:53 Focaccia is such a blank canvas.
03:55 I've seen it with sun-dried tomatoes,
03:57 shallots, Parmesan, garlic, basil, you name it.
04:01 But I'm going with rosemary and flaky sea salt.
04:04 It's the most traditional, and I think it's also the best.
04:08 This is ready to go into the oven at 450 for 20 minutes
04:12 and rotate it in between.
04:13 This is exactly what we're looking for in a focaccia.
04:18 I mean, it's crispy, it's dredged in olive oil.
04:22 We have Maldon sea salt on top.
04:24 It's herbaceous with the rosemary,
04:27 and look at the crumb.
04:29 I mean, I'm so proud of it.
04:32 Perfect.
04:37 Oh my God, get out of here.
04:38 I can't even chew anymore.
04:40 I wanna have this bread with some brie.
04:42 I wanna have it with pasta.
04:44 I wanna have it for breakfast.
04:45 I always wanna have this focaccia in my freezer
04:48 for whenever I'm ready for a decadent and indulgent treat.
04:53 This recipe was so easy to do.
04:55 The prep was very simple, very few ingredients,
04:58 so you literally have no excuses not to bake this recipe.
05:01 And if you want more bread recipes like this,
05:04 stick with us on delish.com.
05:06 (upbeat music)
05:09 (upbeat music)