WHAT IS FOCACCIA?

Focaccia is a fluffy, flat oven-baked Italian bread. The texture and flavor are similar to pizza dough. It’s typically topped with herbs, olive oil, and salt. The dough comes together very quickly in a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook attachment. I like using a stand mixer here, because this is a fairly wet dough. If I were to knead the dough by hand, I’d end up adding too much flour, which results in a dense end product.

How do you make Roasted Vegetable Focaccia?

Start by mixing up the dough in the bowl of a stand mixer. This super simple focaccia dough only has 5 ingredients and can be made, start to finish, in about 3 hours.

We’re using room temperature water, unbleached all purpose flour, dry active yeast, kosher salt, and olive oil.

Knead the dough with the dough hook attachment, and let the dough ferment at room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours, until it has nearly doubled in size.

We’re baking this simple focaccia in a 9×13″ baking pan. Make sure to drizzle plenty of olive oil on the bottom and sides of the pan. This will ensure a crispy bottom crust and crispy edges.

Once the dough has proofed at room temperature again, use your fingertips to really dimple the dough. I let my fingers actually poke through the dough to the bottom of the pan. This will give you that signature focaccia texture that we all know and love.

Finally, arrange all of your vegetables on top, don’t be shy. I like the press the fresh herbs and vegetables down into the dough as well. And then, another drizzle of olive oil, and flakey sea salt to top it all off.

Bake this Roasted vegetable Focaccia at 450 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until the top is deeply golden brown, and the vegetables are slightly charred.

Ingredients

unbleached all purpose flour – I use unbleached all purpose flour from King Arthur Baking Company. It has a higher protein content than most AP flours. You could use bread flour if that’s what you have.

water – I use water that’s about 85 degrees F, slightly warmer than room temperature. It’s important that the water is not too hot, otherwise it will kill the yeast, and your bread won’t rise properly. A lot of the tap water in the US is treated with chemicals like fluoride and chlorine, which can negatively affect the rise of our dough. To avoid this, I prefer to use filtered spring water for all of my bread baking.

salt – I use Morton’s kosher salt in all of my bread recipes. If you are using Diamond Crystal, add another 4 grams of salt.

yeast – I use dry active yeast in this recipe, and my favorite brand is Red Star Yeast for its consistent and professional results. I mix the dry active yeast with the warm water to activate it, or “wake it up.” Also, I always store my yeast in the fridge to prolong its shelf life.