Easy no-knead focaccia bread
When Babylonstoren asked me to develop a recipe to showcase their delicious range of olive oils, I knew I wanted to make an easy no-knead focaccia bread recipe. It literally drinks olive oil. Focaccia is the easiest bread to make (other than perhaps this easy ciabatta).
If you are at all hesitant about baking yeasted bread, this is the one to try. It’s foolproof and very hands-off. All the heavy lifting takes place in the overnight (or same-day) rise process. The dough is a high hydration recipe so is very soft and bubbly. You can see from my video below that very little intervention is required.
A lot of olive oil is used in the recipe and it’s where all the flavour lies. make sure you use a very good quality product here. Babylonstoren’s newest olive oil, cold-extracted from only Coratina olives, is the latest addition to their olive oil range, alongside their extra virgin Frantoio oil and their extra virgin olive oil blend.
The olives are harvested by hand in the farm’s olive groves and are cold-extracted on the farm before being decanted into these uniquely designed and beautiful tins. Making a perfect gift for any foodie too.
I used their Frantoio for this easy focaccia bread. This special single-variety extra virgin olive oil has an intense green hue and a herbaceous and floral taste that works so well in this recipe. The robust peppery notes stand up so well here and it’s great olive oil for finishing dishes too.
I made this focaccia dough on the same day as well and left it in the fridge overnight and for up to 2 days. Both work out well but I prefer the overnight rise. The flavour develops more and more bubbles form. These bubbles create the signature air pockets in the bread.
What can you top focaccia with?
Focaccia is thick and fluffy so can withstand a lot of toppings. You can top your focaccia with a variety of things such as:
- Sundried tomatoes or fresh tomatoes
- Fresh. herbs like rosemary or thyme
- pesto’s
- Confit garlic cloves
- Caramelized onions or shallots
- Cheese (blue, mozzarella, Cheddar)
- Roasted red pepper
- Olives (black or green)
- Deli meat such as salami or pepperoni or bacon
- Thin slices of potato (with rosemary is a classic combo)
- Thin slices of zucchini or roasted pumpkin
- red grapes
- pear, blue cheese, walnuts, etc
I love my no-Knead Focaccia Shallot Pissaladière
My other popular easy bread recipes:
Easy whole wheat bread Cape seed load
Easy cheese & onion bread with herbs and red pepper pesto
Irish soda bread with rosemary and onion
Ingredients
- 500 gms / 4 cups flour white bread flour
- 2 tsp 8gm instant yeast
- 1 ¾ tsp salt
- 500 ml 2 cups of warm water
- 1 tsp honey or brown sugar
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 – 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil + a few more for coating and drizzling on top
- leaves stripped from a few sprigs of rosemary be generous here
- Sea salt flakes such as Maldon
Instructions
- Make 1 – 2 days in advance.
- Mix the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl with a whisk. In a measuring jug dissolve the one teaspoon of honey with the water. To get the perfect water temperature for this no-knead focaccia, use 1 1/2 cups of tap water with 1/2 cup of boiling water.
- Pour the water with the dissolved honey into the flour and mix with a spatula.
- Once all the flour is incorporated, drizzle the dough with about 1 ½ tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Rub this lightly all over the ball (flip to coat), then seal with cling film and store in the fridge overnight or for up to 2 days. If you want to make this on the same day, then simply leave the covered dough out until it has doubled in size (approx 2 – 3 hours depending on how warm it is.
- Generously grease a 23cm x 33cm x 5 cm (9 x 13 x 2 inch) baking sheet with butter. This is to prevent the dough from sticking to the pan. Then spread 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and gently pull it away from the sides of the bowl and tip it onto the baking sheet. Gently pull the dough into a rough rectangle. Don’t worry too much if it doesn’t fit at this point, it will naturally rise and expand into the corners. Leave in a warm spot for about 2 – 4 hours to rise *this time depends on how warm the room is.
- Preheat the oven to 220C / 425F.
- When the dough has fully risen and has bubbles on the surface (it should be soft and very jiggly), drizzle over more olive oil. Scatter over the rosemary (you want a generous coating) and then using oiled fingers, dimple the dough all over. Sprinkle the surface with sea salt flakes and bake immediately for 22 – 24 minutes until golden brown all over.
- Remove from the pan and cool on a cooling rack (this helps prevent the bottom from going too soft).
- Drizzle with more olive oil and serve with whatever you like.
Notes
*This post is proudly sponsored by Babylonstoren
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This is such an easy and great recipe! I made crackers with the little left over that I had and they were exceptional too!
Just wondering what the butter is for in the ingredients list?
Thanks again!
So glad you enjoyed it Andrea. The butter is used on the bottom of the pan to help crisp / brown it (optional).
I have tried sundried tomatoes and they usually end up burnt and leave a bitter taste….any suggestions? I coat them with olive oil as well as the rosemary, but the sun dried tomatoes always disappoint me. Maybe it’s the kind I’m using?? Maybe just stick with rosemary and flaky sea salt.
Hi Tyler – I don’t much like dried sundried tomatoes. I’m not sure where you are writing from but in South Africa, but we can find soft sundried tomatoes in a vinaigrette which are totally delicious. I prefer to use these wherever sundried tomatoes are called for. Otherwise just stick to other toppings like rosemary, salt, olives or bolstered cherry tomatoes (where you have roasted them slightly before to remove some moisture). thanks sam