Focaccia no knead | Two focaccia toppings

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Focaccia no knead is an Italian focaccia recipe that is easy to make, with a spoon and a bowl, without having to knead it with your hands.

Of all the Italian focaccia recipes, we show you how to make two of the most popular focaccia toppings: one with rosemary and olive oil, the other with tomatoes and herbs.

Jump to:

• Introduction
• What is focaccia no knead?
• Ingredients & Substitutions
• How to make focaccia no knead
• Tips
• Storage
• Dinner Ideas
• YouTube
• Recipe

Introduction

Focaccia, pronounced FOKACCHA, is a flat, oven-baked Italian bread that looks and tastes like something in between pizza and bread.

In some regions of Italy, it's made quite flat, and it's called "pizza bianca", which literally translates as "white pizza".

In others, it's made taller, cut in half, and filled with grilled vegetables, cheese, and cold cuts, just like bread.

What is focaccia no knead?

In this blog post, we show you a homemade, easy recipe for no knead focaccia bread. The measurements at the bottom of this page are for 1 focaccia.

The result is a focaccia that is truly Italian in taste, but that is easy and super fun to make.

You'll just need a spoon, a bowl, and a baking tray!

Some Italian traditions

Our recipe for this incredibly easy focaccia is the result of several experiments made after learning from the many regional Italian traditions of focaccia-making.

For example, pushing down the cherry tomatoes deep in the dough is typical of the focaccia eaten in Bari, Apulia.

Cherry tomatoes, releasing their liquid during cooking, create that "gooey" texture which, combined with the crunchy crust, is just perfect.

The seasoning with sage, onion, and rosemary, on the other hand, is typical of central Italy, especially Umbria, where sage and rosemary grow everywhere. Watch a short video story HERE.

Together, these flavors give a rustic, countryside spin to the focaccia.

Or the grains of coarse salt tossed on top of the dough before baking it, typical of the Genoese tradition, where the slice of focaccia is eaten turned upside down to stimulate the taste buds on the tongue with salt.

Deep-pan vs flat focaccia

And as you can see from the pictures, with the same dough you can make deep-pan focaccia or a flatter one based on the occasion.

The procedure is exactly the same, but for the deep-pan one, you just need a smaller, deeper baking tray, or baking dish.

Flatter focaccias, like the one you see in the picture above, are generally eaten on their own, like a slice of pizza, often as a mid-morning snack, quick lunch, or mid-afternoon snack.

Even better, they are perfect as a convivial dinner with friends and family, with lots of trays of freshly baked focaccias with several focaccia toppings.

Deep-pan focaccia, on the other hand, is more like bread. You can cut it in half and stuff it with grilled vegetables, dip it in soup, or with salad on the side.

Those, of course, are just suggestions. Imagine that some people in Liguria (a beautiful north-western Italian region) dip their focaccia in their cappuccino for breakfast!

So you can definitely eat your focaccia however and whenever you want to.

Ingredients & Substitutions

For the focaccia no knead dough

• Flour: you can use bread flour, all purpose flour, or a semi whole-wheat flour, sometimes known as first clear flour. We tried all of these flours and the results are all great!
  
• Water: I use lukewarm tap water. The lukewarm water helps the yeast to start rising as quickly as possible, thus reducing proofing time.
  
  It also helps us to hydrate the flour faster, and this is important in this preparation as we are not going to knead the dough much. Do not use hot water or you'll kill the yeast and your dough won't proof.
  
• Yeast: I use instant dry yeast, but you can also use fresh yeast, or active dry yeast. If you use fresh yeast, you need to triple my instant dry yeast amount.
  
• Salt and sugar: the salt is for flavour, the sugar is to help the yeast do its job, and to help the dough brown in the oven.

For the focaccia toppings

You can use any topping for this no knead focaccia. The topping I recommend and show you here are two:

1) A classic one with extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, and corse sea salt.

2) A rustic one made with cherry tomatoes, onion, rosemary, sage, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and a few grains of coarse salt.

In both versions, you can replace the coarse sea salt with flaky salt or salt flakes.

How to make focaccia no knead

Make the dough

In a large bowl add all the ingredients for the dough: flour, yeast, sugar, lukewarmwater, and salt.

Mix all ingredients well for two minutes, stirring with a spatula or a spoon. 

You should have a sticky and wet dough.

NB: always read the instructions for your yeast on the back of the yeast package. Mine can be put directly into the flour. But many other dry yeasts must first be dissolved in lukewarm water and sugar.

Proofing the dough

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth, leaving enough space between the dough and the cloth.

Proof in a slightly warm oven for 2 hours. The dough should double in volume.

To warm up the oven, turn it on for 30 seconds, then turn it off. That should be enough heat for the dough to proof well.

Folding the dough

After proofing, fold the dough over on itself from the outside to the inside, still in the bowl and with a spatula (or with a spoon).

There's no need to touch it with your hands. Fold it 40 times. This will take about 1 minute. 

Shaping and second proofing

Grease your baking tray with olive oil, then dust it with flour. This will help the focaccia come out of the tray easily once baked.

NB: If you want to reduce the amount of oil you can use parchment paper but it is more difficult to shape the dough on parchment paper.

Transfer the dough to the center of the baking tray, then with the back of two spoons (or two spatulas) spread the dough out until the whole tray is evenly covered.

To prevent the spoons from sticking to the dough, wet the spoons with water. If the focaccia gets a little wet it's even better.

Put back in the slightly warm oven to proof for another 45 minutes, this time without covering it.

After this second proofing, take it out of the oven and preheat the oven to maximum power. 

For a home oven that usually is between 450F and 480F (or 230C and 250C). Static oven is best, not fan assisted.

Focaccia toppings

Now drizzle the focaccia with some olive oil (a couple of tablespoons). Then with lightly wet fingertips of your hands, poke small holes in the focaccia.

OPTIONAL: If you want, instead of the olive oil you can add a mixed solution of 2 tbsp of olive oil + 2 tbsp of water + 1 tsp of salt on top.

This will keep the focaccia even more moist in the little crevices.

Rosemary topping

For a classic rosemary focaccia, all you need to do is to add some rosemary on top. I like to use fresh rosemary.

Add as much as you like. Then sprinkle with some coarse salt on top. You can use flaky salt as well.

Tomatoes and herbs topping

As an alternative, you can season your focaccia with cherry tomatoes cut in half (push them well into the focaccia), chopped sage, rosemary, finely chopped onion, a generous sprinkling of salt, and a few grains of coarse salt.

When the oven has reached temperature, place the focaccia in the medium-low rack of the oven and bake it for about 15 to 20 minutes.

But cooking times varies a lot based on your oven and on how much toppings you put on. It also varies based on flour used.

Focaccias made with all purpose flour cook faster than wholewheat flour focaccias.

Check it at around 15 minutes. The focaccia is cooked when it's nice and crispy on top and bottom, but still soft inside.

Let it cool down for at least 5 minutes before removing it from the pan, cutting it and serving it.

Tips

High hydration

Hydration in this case means the amount of water compared to the amount of flour. In this focaccia, the hydration is 80%, so very high.

High hydration allows us to get a soft focaccia, full of air bubbles and crispy on the outside.

All this without having to knead it, without having to use sourdough, and without having to do very long proofing and maturing of the dough.

Fold the dough on itself several times

This technique, carried out with a spoon or a kitchen spatula, is sufficient to create a strong enough gluten network.

The gluten network is capable of retaining the air released by the yeast during the second rising and during baking.

This is a key and essential step in obtaining airy, bubbly, and soft focaccia.

I made this focaccia many times, and I can tell you with confidence that folding the dough on itself 40 times is the perfect amount of folding. It takes just 1 minute.

Second proofing in the baking tray

The second proofing in the pan allows the focaccia to grow and become lighter.

It also allows air bubbles to form, which, thanks to the gluten network explained above, make the focaccia tall, soft and airy.

Poke with your fingertips

Focaccia to be good must have holes made with the fingertip where the olive oil collects and where the dough is slightly less cooked than the top part of the focaccia.

The combination of the gooey undercooked dough with the crunchy part makes the focaccia truly irresistible when you bite into it.

Moreover, making holes with the tip of fingers allows the air released by yeasts to remain in the dough.

A mistake would be to push the focaccia with the whole palm of the hand.

If you do that, you would push the air out of the dough, making a too-flat and too-compact focaccia.

Add oil and water on top

In many Italian regions, people like to season focaccia with a brine of water, extra virgin olive oil, and salt before baking it.

This emulsion goes into the little holes that you made with your fingers and causes the focaccia to be more flavourful and slightly moist in these holes.

For our focaccia with cherry tomatoes, you don't need this step.

But if you make focaccia with rosemary then I recommend adding the brine made with 15 grams (1tbsp) of olive oil, 60 grams (4tbsp) of water, and two pinches of salt.

Halved cherry tomatoes pushed in

If you decide to make focaccia with cherry tomatoes then make sure to push them well into the dough so they don't come out while cooking.

Also, in this way, the dough underneath the cherry tomatoes will remain slightly less cooked, making the focaccia irresistible.

Coarse salt

"Tossing" a little coarse salt (or salt flakes) over the focaccia before baking it will make this simple snack even more delicious.

In Genova, they make focaccia like this. And in my opinion coarse salt, is the "cherry on top" of good focaccia.

Note: In my opinion, focaccia without oil and salt is not focaccia, but just a piece of bread.

In this recipe you can avoid adding any fat/oil to the dough, I don't think there is a need for it.

But I think it's important to add a drizzle of oil on the baking sheet before laying the focaccia in it, instead of using baking paper.

It's also important to add a drizzle of oil (or even better brine with water, oil, and salt) on the focaccia before baking it.

Storage

Focaccia is best eaten within a few minutes, straight out of the baking tray, and still warm.

If you have leftover, you can store it in a plastic food bag or in an airtight container for a couple of days. At room temperature, not in the fridge.

Then when you feel like eating it, reheat it in a preheated oven at 360F, 180C until it's warm, soft, and crispy.

You can also freeze the focaccia once it's baked and cooled completely.

To thaw it you can use the microwave with defrost function, or leave it out of the freezer for 2 hours and then warm it well in a preheated oven at 360F, 180C for 10 minutes.

Dinner Ideas

Did you know that we develop our recipes to go together for a complete dinner meal plan? Serve this focaccia next to:

Chickpea salad with tomatoes and arugula

Confit tomatoes to eat with the focaccia.

YouTube

Double-tap to watch our Vegan Dinner Series | Episode 4 | on YouTube.

VEGAN DINNER 004 "slow-cook" | Rosemary focaccia no knead | Tomatoes confit | Chickpea salad

Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you might also like:

• zucchini pie
• pasta aglio olio
• homemade gnocchi

Did you try this recipe at home? Let us know in the comments below 🙂

Buon appetito!

Nico