Print
No-Knead Focaccia
Effortless and delicious!
If you find the idea of baking and/or break making daunting, this is the recipe for you! This no-knead focaccia is so easy to make and you don’t need any fancy equipment. Most importantly, it’s absolutely delicious – perfectly crisp on the outside and soft and light on the inside. It’s incredibly versatile. I topped mine with a simple garlic and rosemary topping, but you can enjoy it plain or top it with anything you’d like.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 6 hours
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Bread
Ingredients
Scale
- 500 ml warm water
- 10 g white granulated sugar
- 7 g fast action dried yeast (active dried yeast)
- 550 g strong white bread flour
- 10 g fine sea salt
- 5 tbsps high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- butter, for greasing, or greaseproof paper
For the topping (optional):
- 2 tbsps high-quality extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves only, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Whisk the water, sugar and yeast in a medium bowl and let sit 5 minutes. It should get foamy, or at the very least, creamy. If it doesn’t, your yeast is dead and you’ll need to start again with fresher yeast.
- Add the flour and salt and mix with a rubber spatula (or wooden spoon) until a shaggy dough forms and there are no dry streaks. It should look and feel wet and sticky. Wet dough = super fluffy focaccia!
- Place 4 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil in a large bowl – emphasis on large, the dough will rise a lot! Transfer the dough to the bowl and turn to coat in the oil.
- Cover with cling film and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours, or until doubled in size. It should look very bubbly. For an even more flavourful focaccia, cover the dough with cling film and refrigerate it for a minimum of 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Line a 38 cm x 26 cm (approx.) roasting tin with greaseproof paper or grease generously with butter. This step might seem excessive, given the amount of olive oil this recipe calls for, but it’s absolutely necessary to prevent sticking, especially if you’re using a glass dish. Pour 1 tbsp olive in the centre of the tin.
- Back to the dough. It should now be wet, bubbly and very fluffy. We’re now going to deflate the dough using a technique I learned from @alexandracooks. Using two forks, release the dough from one side of the bowl and pull it up and over into the middle of the bowl. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this two more times – this will help deflate the dough and form it into a rough ball. See video below.
- Using your hands, transfer the dough to the prepared baking tin. Pour any oil left in the bowl over the dough and turn to coat in the oil. Let rise uncovered in a dry, warm place for 2 to 4 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Place a rack in the middle of your oven and heat it to 220°c. Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl, if using.
- To check if the dough is ready to bake, press it gently with your finger. If ready, it will leave a small indentation that slowly springs back. When the dough is ready to bake, lightly oil your fingers and dimple the focaccia all over, stretching the dough to fill the dish (if necessary). You want to be aggressive with the dimpling – the goal is to create lots of deep dimples.
- Drizzle the garlic oil over the focaccia. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp and pulling away from the sides of the pan. Cut into squares and serve warm – enjoy!
