Easy Homemade Focaccia Recipe (fresh yeast or dry)
- Fabio
- Feb 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 24
If I had to describe focaccia, I’d say it lives somewhere between bread and pizza.
It’s similar to bread because we usually bake it plain, without toppings, but it’s also clearly related to pizza since we stretch the dough into a tray before baking.
Structurally it feels like bread, technically it behaves a bit like pizza, and the procedure before baking is what really sets it apart. That’s where focaccia gets its own identity.
To see how this focaccia is made just watch this video:
Is there one authentic focaccia recipe?
Not really. It’s more accurate to talk about focaccia recipes, plural.
In Italy, almost every region has its own version. Shapes, thickness, and methods change from place to place, but it's fair to say that the base ingredients are always the same and very familiar to anyone who makes pizza or bread:
water
flour
yeast
salt
And then there is the detail that sets focaccia dough apart from the vast majority of pizza doughs: extra virgin olive oil. Basically every focaccia recipe I’ve seen or been given includes extra virgin olive oil.
It's basically part of the dough’s DNA.
Mini Focaccia Recipe for One (62.5% Hydration)
For this batch, I’m making a small focaccia just for myself using a tray that’s twenty centimetres wide. But keep in mind that I’m pretty good at smashing carbohydrates, so it could easily feed two people if you plan to stuff it or use it to accompany a main dish.
The dough hydration is 62.5%, and I kept the quantities deliberately simple with round numbers so they’re quick to remember and easy to scale.
Here are the ingredients:
100 g water (room temperature)
80 g bread flour
80 g semolina
4 g salt
4 g fresh yeast
4 g extra virgin olive oil
My efforts to keep the numbers round goes to waste if you only have dry yeast 😅In fact, fresh yeast converts to 1.3 grams Instant yeast or 1.6 grams Active yeast.
If you can’t find semolina, simply replace it with bread flour. Instead of 80 grams of bread flour plus 80 grams of semolina, just use 160 grams of bread flour in total.
The dough still works exactly the same way.
How tray size affects focaccia thickness
This focaccia is quite thick, as it's supposed to be!
The tray I use is 20cm wide, so if your tray is the same size and you enjoy a thick focaccia, you can follow the recipe as it is. If you prefer it thinner or thicker, just scale the quantities up or down. You might want to experiment a few times to find your favourite balance.
How to Make Focaccia at Home (Step-by-Step Method)
Once you’ve weighed your ingredients, the process is straightforward and very hands-on. Nothing fancy, no special equipment, just a bowl and a tray.
1. Mix the dough
In a bowl, pour in the water and dissolve the yeast.
If you’re using both flours, mix them together first, then add half of the flour to the bowl and combine.
Add the salt and the extra virgin olive oil. The oil helps with extensibility and gives the focaccia a softer, more tender crumb.
Add the remaining flour and knead until the dough comes together.
If it doesn’t look smooth at first, don’t panic. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then shape it again. After this short rest, it will naturally become smoother and easier to handle.
Let the dough rise.
2. First rise
Assuming a room temperature of around 20°C / 86°F, the dough should be ready in about two hours. If fermentation feels slow, you can place the bowl in the oven with just the light turned on to create a slightly warmer environment.
3. Stretch the dough into the tray
After the first rise, drizzle olive oil into your tray and stretch the dough directly inside it. Let it rest at room temperature for one hour so it can relax and spread more easily.
4. Dimple and rest again
Using your fingertips, press into the dough to create the classic focaccia dimples.
Then let it rest for another hour.
Halfway through this second rest, turn the oven on to 230°C / 446°F so it has enough time to fully preheat for about 30 minutes.
5. Add the oil emulsion
Prepare a simple emulsion with one spoon of water and one spoon of olive oil. A pimch of salt too if you wish (I prefer a pinch of coarse salt sprinkled directly on the surface because of the crunch it gives. ) I like to use a squeezy bottle so I can shake it well and drizzle it evenly over the surface. Pour it over the focaccia.
If you want to add or anything else for extra flavour, like herbs for example, this is the right moment.
6. Bake the focaccia
Place the focaccia on the middle shelf of the oven.
It should be ready in about 12 minutes, but feel free to trust your eyes more than the clock and bake it until it looks right to you.
Buon appetito!
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