by Raquel Smith
I’m going to put two words together and you are going to call me crazy. Are you ready?
Easy. Bread.
Say whaaat? But no, really. I’ve made a lot of bread, and this stuff is about as easy as it gets. And it’s majorly tasty.
I don’t typically make a lot of no-knead bread because it usually tastes off to me (I can be picky about my bread), but this focaccia is spot-on.
It is 100% beginner approved and 100% boyfriend approved. AJ said, twice, “Man, this is really good, hon!” In AJ language, that means: Winning.
It is also fluffy as heck and almost requires eating the whole loaf in one sitting because: You. Just. Can’t. Stop.
You start with some flour – a mix of all-purpose and semolina that gives the bread a dreamy texture, great flavor, and a beautiful slightly yellow hue.
If you’re not familiar with semolina, it’s a coarse, yellow variety of durum wheat flour that’s actually made from what’s left over in the milling process. It’s commonly used for making pasta, and you can find in most well-stocked grocery stores.
Add a bunch of yeast so this baby rises fast, followed by a bit of parmesan (or vegan parmesan!) for flavor, and then stir in your electric mixer for just 1 minute. No need to use the fancy stuff here – the dry kind in the green shaker container (you know the one I’m talking about) works just fine.
Plop the dough into your baking pan, let it do its thing for an hour, then poke it a whole bunch until you start to feel downright silly. (Cooking should be fun, right?)
Then, bake away for just 30 minutes! You guys, sometimes I can’t even make muffins this fast. Seriously, it’s that easy.
You can leave these long and skinny, like soft, delicious breadsticks.
Or, chop them into more reasonably sized pieces. I go for the smaller ones because sometimes I think the correct number of things to eat is 5 (or whatever number is sticking in my head that day…), and that number does not change when the pieces are bigger.
Oh, and whatever you do, serve these with a side of marinara sauce. With whatever kind of marinara you like – hot or cold, spicy or sweet – it is amazing.
One tip before we get to the recipe: Eat all of these before any of your family members come home. Otherwise, they will disappear and you will never see them again.
That is, until you make another batch!
- Author: Raquel Smith
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 pieces 1x
Description
The easiest focaccia recipe out there! Parmesan cheese (or vegan parmesan) is mixed into the batter and sprinkled on top, with Italian herbs and coarse sea salt. All together, this takes less than 2 hours to make and will WOW the whole family!
Ingredients
Scale
For the Dough:
- 12 3/4 oz (3 cups) all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 oz (1/2 cup) semolina flour, or more all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 12 fl oz (1 1/2 cups) warm water
- 1 1/4 oz (3 Tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
To Finish:
- 3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 2 Tbsp semolina flour
- 3 Tbsp parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs
- coarse salt
Instructions
To Make the Dough:
- Combine the all-purpose flour and semolina flour withthe yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, and mix to combine. Add the salt (don’t add the salt and the yeast at the same time!) and mix well.
- Add the water, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. Beat with the paddle attachment for 60-90 seconds, until the dough is uniform and very sticky.
To Form and Finish the Loaf:
- Generously spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray, then drizzle about 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil on the pan (for a crispy crust). Sprinkle the semolina flour over the oil.
- Dump the dough into the pan and spread with oiled fingers to the corners of the pan (it’ll be ugly – don’t worry!). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 50-60 minutes, until very puffy and doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- When the dough is done rising, oil your fingers and drizzle another the remaining olive oil on top, then gently poke the dough all over to achieve the characteristic indentations. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese (or vegan parmesan) and Italian herbs on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through, until your kitchen smells heavenly and the focaccia is golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack. Let cool for 20 minutes, then serve.
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: focaccia, bread, parmesan
How will you serve this delicious homemade bread? Please give it a five-star rating below so other readers will know how much you enjoyed it, and share your ideas with us in the comments. We love hearing from you!
And be sure to checkout all of our other homemade recipes. Some of our favorites include:
- Artisan Sourdough
- Dark Malted Rye Bread
- Maple Oat Bread
Don’t forget to Pin It!
Photos by Raquel Smith, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published on August 13th, 2014. Last updated: December 28, 2019 at 20:11 pm.
Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Raquel Smith
Raquel is a whole foods enthusiast, an avid mountain biker, and a dog lover. She works by day at Food Blogger Pro and formerly maintained her food blog "My California Roots" (now merged into Foodal).
