The Ultimate Focaccia Recipe

Haarala Hamilton

Makes 1 large focaccia

There’s a lot of water in the dough, which you need, as otherwise you can end up with a cakey texture. Focaccia is simple to make, though, because it’s in a pan, so there’s only one way for it to go. Make sure you push the olives, tomatoes and onions right down into the indentations, and use plenty of olive oil on the bottom and drizzled over the top. And don’t overbake this one; you want it to stay light and soft inside.

Ingredients

Dough
4 cups bread flour
1 tsp. fine salt
3 3/4 tsp. instant dried yeast
2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus extra for oiling
1 1/2 cups water

Topping

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata black olives
1 small red onion
10 cherry or grape tomatoes
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
About 2/3 cup olive oil, to drizzle
Flaky sea salt

Directions

Put all of the dough ingredients into a large bowl and stir together to combine and form a dough. Fold a corner of the dough into the middle and push firmly, then rotate the bowl 90° and repeat. Continue this folding and turning action for 2 minutes, then tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for 10 minutes until soft and elastic. Alternatively, use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook to mix and knead the dough, for 2 minutes on slow and 7 minutes on medium speed.

Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a large freezer bag and leave to rise at room temperature for 2 hours until at least doubled in size.

Liberally oil the base of a large, shallow baking pan, about 9 by 13 inches. Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and stretch it to fit the dimensions of the prepared pan. Drizzle with lots of olive oil and make firm indentations all over the surface with your fingers. Put the pan into a roomy freezer bag and leave to proof for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the pan from the freezer bag and put the olives evenly on the dough, pressing them firmly in place. Cut the onion into slim wedges and distribute these over the dough, pushing them in too. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and press them evenly into the dough. Drizzle with more olive oil and sprinkle with the dried oregano and a generous amount of flaky sea salt.

Heat your oven to 450°F. Bake the focaccia for 20 minutes or until golden brown. As you take the focaccia from the oven, drizzle more olive oil over the surface. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Adapted from Bake: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics. Text © Paul Hollywood, 2022. Photographs © Haarala Hamilton, 2022. Reprinted by permission of Bloomsbury.