Let me tell you, this Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia recipe is a delight! It’s satisfyingly chewy, terrifically tender, studded with salty-umami fruit, and flecked with crunchy bits of sea salt for a true explosion of flavor. Best of all, this simple recipe is easy enough for even a self-proclaimed bread-making novice!
While this easy focaccia bread takes a bit of time and planning, I promise the actual process is not difficult. Simply follow along with my straightforward step-by-step instructions, and in the end you’ll have a show-stopping loaf of bread your whole family will go nuts for.
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What is focaccia?
Focaccia is a leavened, enriched Italian bread that is easy to identify from its pockmarked appearance. Hailing from Liguria, the name focaccia comes from the Latin word meaning “place for baking.” With large air pockets and a soft crust, the consistency is somewhat similar to pizza dough.
This tender, dimpled bread had quite a moment in 2020 - “focaccia art” was all the rage! While I’m glad the trend brought more awareness to this olive oil brushed Italian bread, traditional or rather rustic focaccia is just as eye-catching and tasty as some of the more elaborate presentations.
Focaccia bread is like many “old world” recipes insofar as it seems that everyone has their own family recipe. Some are as thick as your fist, while others are no more than an inch tall. Some are sweet, others savory!
It can be baked or fried, and topped with any number of delicious ingredients like herbs, cheese, meat, or vegetables. Regardless of the recipe, focaccia should always have a generous amount of olive oil and a sprinkling of coarse salt.
About This Recipe
The world of bread can be roughly divided into two categories: lean dough and enriched (or rich) dough. If you’ve ever had the urge to make homemade bread, starting with an enriched dough like this focaccia recipe is the best place to start.
An enriched dough is one that generally has a higher fat content, and can also encompass breads that are made with significant amounts of sugar, eggs, and/or dairy. I find these doughs to be more forgiving than lean, crusty loaves - it’s quite difficult to overdo it on the mixing side of things.
If you’re getting prepared to make this focaccia recipe, make sure you have adequate time on the calendar. Enriched doughs, though soft and tender, often require longer resting periods and a longer rise. This particular recipe works best with a full 24 hour rest in the fridge, plus another 4 hours to rise.
While you can feel free to get creative with your focaccia toppings, I leaned on some of my favorite Mediterranean flavors for this Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia using sweet, umami sun dried tomatoes, and silky, salty castelvetrano olives.
How to Make the Easy Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia
Preparing the dough
Step 1: Proof yeast. In your mixing bowl, add yeast, honey and warm water, whisking well until combined.
Step 2: Make dough. After 5-7 minutes (once you start to see bubbles rising to the surface of the yeast mixture), add your bread flour and then your salt. Salt can kill yeast, so be sure to create a buffer between it and the salt by adding your flour first.
Using a paddle attachment or a silicone spatula, mix your dough in a scooping motion, until it's all uniformly combined and all clumps are removed.
Step 3: Rest dough. In a separate big bowl, add about ¼ cup of olive oil. Add in your dough, gently turning it to coat the ball in oil. Cover and store in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Step 4: Rise. Grease a 9x13 baking tray and gently pour in your rested dough. Place in a rather warm area (ideally 80 degrees) of your home and allow it to rise for 4 hours uncovered.
Cold Weather Tip: If your house is drafty and the weather outside is frightful, you can easily create a “proofing” box using your oven. Place an empty cake tin at the bottom of the oven, then pour in a few inches of boiling water. Pop your focaccia pan on one of the racks and close the door. It’ll get perfectly toasty and humid in there, providing a cozy spot for your dough to *rise* to the occasion!
Step 5: Shape dough. Once your dough has fully risen and has spread to all sides of your pan, it is time to dimple the dough. Make your fingers into claws and create little holes all across your dough, making sure not to puncture all the way through!
The Bake
Step 6: Preheat oven and add olives. Preheat your oven to 425F. Evenly scatter the olives across the top of the focaccia.
Pro Tip: The temperature gauges on ovens can vary pretty widely, and since baking bread is pretty scientific, we want to eliminate as many variables as possible. This is a great reason to invest in an oven thermometer.
Step 7: First bake. Place your focaccia dough in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Step 8: Add tomatoes during the bake. Scatter the sun dried tomatoes on top and bake for an additional 6-10 minutes, or until the top has browned and the inside temperature has reached 200 degrees F. Tomatoes have a high sugar content, so adding them later in the baking process prevents them from getting too crispy or burnt!
Step 9: Cool in pan. Remove the focaccia from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
Step 10: Finish cooling on a rack. Gently remove the focaccia from the pan with tongs or a large spatula and place it on a cooling rack.
Step 11: Final touches. Once cooled, brush the loaf of focaccia with sun dried tomato oil, top with flaky sea salt and freshly grated parmesan, and cut into squares with a bread knife.
Tips & Tricks
- ALWAYS check your yeast. Before you start the bread making process, it’s important to make sure your yeast is alive. Don’t automatically trust the expiration date! Also, be sure to use lukewarm water - you should be able to stick your finger in it without it feeling hot; anything hotter can kill the yeast. If you don’t see the mixture beginning to foam and bubble after about 7 minutes, it’s likely your yeast is dead. Grab another pack and try again! Whatever you do, don’t try making bread with dead yeast - it’ll end up dense and tough.
- Keep yeast in the freezer (or fridge). To keep your yeast from dying, I recommend storing it in the fridge or freezer. Yeast can last even past the expiration if kept in these cold, dark environments. That said, remember Tip #1: ALWAYS proof your yeast.
- Don’t puncture the dough with your fingers, but don’t be afraid to have a firm hand, either. With enriched dough you want to be firm, but sweet.
- Add the tomatoes later to prevent burning. Tomatoes have a high sugar content, which is further concentrated during the sun drying process. To ensure the tomatoes get caramelized and not burnt, add them later on in the cooking process.
- Cool on a rack - not in the pan. If the bread sits in the baking pan for too long, the bottom of the focaccia will start to soften due to condensation. Once the pan is cool enough to handle, make sure to remove the loaf to a cooling rack so that its crust remains crispy!
What’s the difference: Bread Flour Vs. AP Flour
When it comes to baking, your choice in flour is everything. DO NOT try to substitute AP (all-purpose) flour for bread flour, or vice versa. Bread flour is much higher in protein (12-14%) than AP (8-11%), which is essential to creating the proper gluten structure for bread.
If you’re out of bread flour, you can make a close substitute using AP flour and vital wheat gluten.
Consider using a scale
And, as always, let me remind you of the scientific nature of baking. Unlike regular cooking, baking recipes are extremely precise to ensure the proper chemical reactions take place. Now is not the time to riff! If at all possible, I highly recommend investing in a proper kitchen scale. Once you get the hang of measuring ingredients out in grams, I have a feeling you’ll like it better than using measuring cups!
HOWEVER, I realize that not everyone has a scale on hand. If this is the case, be sure you are using dry measuring cups (not liquid ones). You should also make sure to fluff up your flour, then spoon it into the measuring cups before leveling it off with a flat tool to get the most accurate measurements.
Frequently asked questions
Knowing when your dough has properly risen is the biggest hurdle to ensuring a perfect loaf of bread. Luckily, this is a pretty easy step! Using a knuckle, poke your dough like you’re trying to get its attention. If it springs back super fast, it needs more time to rise. If it slowly pops back into place, it’s perfect. If it doesn’t pop back at all, the dough is over-proofed.
I’m a huge fan of serving up a slice of focaccia and enjoying it by itself, but it will also serve you well as sandwich bread, as a side to your favorite meal, or thinly sliced and toasted as crostini.
Absolutely! The honey in this recipe acts as a food for the yeast. Feel free to swap in agave nectar, maple syrup, or even table sugar in its place.
I personally am a fan of the sun dried tomatoes that come in a jar packed with olive oil. They are not only more tender and delicious, but they come with a bonus: tomato scented oil!
Castelvetrano olives are my favorite snacking olive because they are super mild and almost buttery. With an acid green hue, they also look stunning next to the tomatoes. If you opt for a different type of olive, you may want to pare down the amount that you use. Varieties like kalamata or manzanilla are generally much saltier, so be sure to use a gentle hand with them.
More Bread/Dough based recipes
- Pistachio Pesto Babka
- Chocolate Hazelnut Tahini Babka
- Raspberry Pecan Babka
- S’mores Babka
- Simple Seeded Pumpkin Loaf
As always, I love seeing your creations and hearing from you! If you try making this best (easy!) recipe for Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia, please leave a review or share your creation with me on social media! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Pinterest - for more delicious recipes sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter!
The Best (Easy!) Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia Recipe
Equipment
- Pastry Brush
Ingredients
Olive & Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast
- 2 ½ cups (590 g) Lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoons Honey
- 5 cups (600 g) Bread flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons Kosher salt
- ¼ cup (54 g) Extra-virgin olive oil , divided
- 2 tablespoons Extra-virgin olive oil , to coat the baking pan
- 2 Tablespoons Extra-virgin olive oil , to add to the top of focaccia pre bake
- ½ cup (30 g) Sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
- ½ cup (90 g) Castelvetrano olives, pitted & roughly chopped
Final post-bake toppings
- Sundried tomato oil or extra virgin olive oil, for brushing on top of the focaccia - post bake
- Pinch Flaky sea salt
- 3 tablespoons Freshly grated parmesan
Instructions
- In your mixing bowl, add yeast, honey and warm water, whisking well until combined.2 ¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast, 2 ½ cups Lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons Honey
- Next, after 5-7 minutes once you start to see activity and bubbles rising to the surface of the mixture, add your bread flour and salt.5 cups Bread flour, 1 ½ tablespoons Kosher salt
- With a silicone spatula, mix your dough in a scooping motion, until it's all combined and mixed together and all clumps are removed.
- In a separate big bowl, add in about ¼th cup olive oil, add in your dough, and gently turn your dough to coat in oil. Cover and store in the refrigerator for 24 hours.¼ cup Extra-virgin olive oil
- Grease a 9x13 baking pan a few tablespoons of olive oil. Then, gently pour your risen dough into the baking pan. Place in a rather warm area (ideally 80 degrees) of your home and allow it to rise for 4 hours uncovered.2 tablespoons Extra-virgin olive oil
- Once your dough has fully risen and has really spread to all sides of your pan, drizzle with the remaining olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) and wet your fingers with water. Take your fingers and dimple the dough gently - creating little holes all across your dough making sure not to puncture all the way through! Then, top with olives, placed evenly on top of the focaccia.2 Tablespoons Extra-virgin olive oil
- At this point, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Place your focaccia dough in the oven and bake for 20 minutes - then scatter the sun dried tomatoes on top and bake for an additional 6-10 minutes. Adding the sun dried tomatoes later in the baking process prevents them from getting too crispy/burnt too quickly! If your focaccia dough is browning quite quickly, you can always add foil to the top of your pan to prevent further browning.½ cup Castelvetrano olives, ½ cup Sun dried tomatoes
- Remove the focaccia from the oven and gently remove it from the pan with tongs or a large spatula and placing it on a cooling rack. If the bread sits in the baking pan for too long, the bottom of the focaccia will start to soften due to condensation so make sure to allow it to cool completely on a cooling rack so that its crispy crust remains crispy!
- Brush with sun dried tomato oil, top with flaky sea salt and freshly grated parmesan, and cut into squares with a bread knife once cooledSundried tomato oil or extra virgin olive oil, Pinch Flaky sea salt, 3 tablespoons Freshly grated parmesan
Video
Notes
- How do I know if the dough has fully risen? Knowing when your dough has properly risen is the biggest hurdle to ensuring a perfect loaf of bread. Luckily, this is a pretty easy step! Using a knuckle, poke your dough like you’re trying to get its attention. If it springs back super fast, it needs more time to rise. If it slowly pops back into place, it’s perfect. If it doesn’t pop back at all, the dough is over-proofed.
- How should I serve focaccia? What should I serve it with? I’m a huge fan of serving up a slice of focaccia and enjoying it by itself, but it will also serve you well as sandwich bread, as a side to your favorite meal, or thinly sliced and toasted as crostini.
- Can I make this recipe vegan? Absolutely! The honey in this recipe acts as a food for the yeast. Feel free to swap in agave nectar, maple syrup, or even table sugar in its place.
- Should I use bagged sun dried tomatoes or the kind in a jar with olive oil? I personally am a fan of the sun dried tomatoes that come in a jar packed with olive oil. They are not only more tender and delicious, but they come with a bonus: tomato scented oil!
- Can I use a different kind of olive? Castelvetrano olives are my favorite snacking olive because they are super mild and almost buttery. With an acid green hue, they also look stunning next to the tomatoes. If you opt for a different type of olive, you may want to pare down the amount that you use. Varieties like kalamata or manzanilla are generally much saltier, so be sure to use a gentle hand with them.
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