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Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
This is the perfect unfussy focaccia recipe, that bakes up into a light bread full of flavor from the oil, salt, and herbs. It’s the perfect thickness for sandwich bread or slicing into strips and serving with charcuterie, dips, salads, or pasta. The dough proofs overnight in the refrigerator, where it rises and develops gluten. It’s easy to pull it out the next day for a final rise and shaping before you bake it. The rosemary is a classic focaccia topping; feel free to add other herbs and goodies at the final stage to personalize it to your tastes.
You can bake this bread in a 13- x 9-inch metal baking pan or a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. The cast-iron pan gives the bread beautiful browned and crunchy edges, but takes five to 10 minutes longer to bake because the cast-iron takes longer to heat up. If you want a rectangular-shaped focaccia, use a metal baking pan; you’ll get much better results than with a Pyrex glass pan.
Ingredients
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1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for greasing hands
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2 1/2 cups warm water (about 110°F)
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1 tablespoon honey
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2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from 1 [1/4-ounce] package)
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5 cups (about 21 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
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3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
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3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
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1/2 tablespoon flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)
Directions
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Grease a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of the oil; set aside. Whisk together warm water, honey, and yeast in a separate large bowl until combined; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add flour and kosher salt; stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Drizzle 4 tablespoons of the oil over top, and stir with the wooden spoon to incorporate. Transfer dough to greased bowl; cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 12 hours or up to 18 hours (dough will double in size before it is ready).
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Remove bowl from refrigerator; let stand at room temperature until dough has puffed up and doubled in size, about 2 hours.
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Brush 2 tablespoons of the oil in bottom and up sides of either a 13- x 9-inch metal baking pan or a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Grease your hands with oil. Uncover bowl; with dough still in bowl, lift and fold over the back edge of the dough from the underside, and bring it towards you in the center. Rotate dough 45 degrees. Repeat folding and rotating process until all the edges of the dough are folded into the center, 4 to 6 times. (The dough will noticeably deflate.) Turn dough into prepared pan, and spread gently with greased hands to fill the pan. It’s OK if dough doesn’t reach all corners; it will as it continues to expand at room temperature. Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap, and let stand until dough puffs slightly and reaches corners of the pan, about 1 hour.
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Preheat oven to 450°F. Remove plastic wrap, and sprinkle dough with rosemary leaves. Using greased hands, dimple dough all over with fingers. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and sprinkle with flaky salt. Let stand at room temperature until dough is puffed up, about 15 minutes.
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Bake focaccia in preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes in the baking pan or 35 minutes in the cast-iron skillet. Immediately remove focaccia from pan, and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cooled focaccia may be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature up to 3 days.