Foccacia is a flat, oven-baked bread often described as a “bread pizza” or “pizza bread”. It’s known for its tender, airy texture and distinctive dimpled surface, which results from pressing the dough with fingertips and plenty of olive oil.

It can be enjoyed as a side dish, sandwich bread, or even on its own. I love to add mine to a charcuterie board and flavour it with garlic salt and rosemary. However, the beauty of focaccia is that you can flavour it with whatever you fancy, and this recipe is super easy, baking in just 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

7g dried active yeast

500g strong white bread flour

Two teaspoons of salt

Lots of olive oil

Salt and rosemary to taste, optional

Method:

Mix the yeast with 400ml of warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. Then, add the flour and salt to a bowl before pouring over the mixture and stirring it to combine.

Once combined, drizzle over one to two tablespoons of olive oil and then cover with a tea towel or cling film for 30 minutes.

Then it’s time for stretch and folds to achieve that springy texture. Take the top of the dough with oiled fingers and fold it over to the bottom, and turn the bowl to perform this three more times around the edges.

Cover the bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes. Repeat these steps twice before covering with cling film and putting the dough in the fridge for at least four hours, but ideally overnight.

Remove the dough from the fridge and pour it into the dish you will be baking it in, making sure it’s well oiled. A square or rectangular shallow dish works best for this bread.

Leave this for two hours before preheating the oven to around 220C or 200C Fan. Drizzle the dough with yet again more olive oil and then press your fingers into the dough to create dimples. Make sure to touch the bottom of the dish when performing this step.

Sprinkle some garlic sea salt over the dough, and then oil up the rosemary sprigs before placing them in the dough to avoid burning in the oven.

Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes and enjoy warm with some balsamic vinegar.