Simple Focaccia Bread Recipe

Fair warning: If you serve this focaccia bread restaurant style, meaning before a meal, good luck keeping everyone at the table from immediately filling up on the savory, salty, oily perfection that is this focaccia. Laura Sampson of Little House Big Alaska says "this bakery-style focaccia bread with feta and green olives is perfect for snacking or serving with soup." And of course, it's a sublime side at any meal, especially with Italian food.

And don't worry if you're not a restaurant-level chef: The bread will come out tasting great the first time, and with a couple of practice rounds, you'll be baking up moist, fluffy focaccia more than worthy of your social media shares. That is, if you can get a few snaps taken before people sink their teeth in. Also, provided you have a few olives and a bit of feta cheese handy, you likely have everything else needed for this bread in your kitchen right now. 

This focaccia bread recipe calls for a decent amount of patience as you wait for the dough to rise, but it doesn't call for much complex handiwork nor does it use any rare ingredients. In fact, all you need to make the bread are three and a half cups of all-purpose flour, two and a quarter teaspoons of dry active yeast, a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of sugar, one and a third cups of warm water, and a half cup of olive oil, divided.

Then, to top the bread before baking, you'll beed four to six large green olives and about two tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese. And that's it.

Place one cup of flour, the yeast, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, then add the warm water and quarter cup of the olive oil and run the mixer for one minute, making sure everything has mixed together. 

Now, add the rest of the focaccia bread flour to the bowl and run your mixer for another minute until the dough comes together. Knead the dough for about minutes until it's nice and soft.

Lightly grease a medium-sized bowl with oil and then place the focaccia bread dough in it, turning the dough around some to coat it evenly in olive oil. Now cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and put in a warm place to rise.

Let the rise until it is about doubled in size, which will take about 45 to 60 minutes. Meanwhile, line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper and drizzle a tablespoon of the olive oil in and rub to coat the papered pan.

When the focaccia bread dough is done rising, uncover it and gently press down with your fingertips to deflate it, squeezing out air. Now, place the dough in the prepared baking tray and pat it out to fill the pan.

Now it's time poke your focaccia dough all over with your fingers, making those dimples emblematic of this type of bread. Next, cover the pan with plastic and let it rise again for another 15 or 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

As the focaccia bread dough rises the second time, chop the olives and crumble the feta. When the dough is done rising, poke down into the same dimples again with your fingers, then drizzle the remaining oil over the dough. Now sprinkle on the olives and feta, pressing them gently to get them to stick in the dough.

Now bake your focaccia dough for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until the center is no longer doughy.

Slide the bread out of the pan and cool it on a baking rack or, better yet, cut it into pieces and serve your olive- and feta-topped focaccia while it's still warm. Have some extra olive oil out for dipping.