Olive and Herb Focaccia

This olive and herb focaccia is a simple homemade bread recipe that you can use as a side or to make delicious sandwiches. This focaccia is soft and chewy with a yummy salty, and crispy top flavoured with olives and fresh herbs. This easy recipe is the perfect way to start making bread at home!

Baking bread from scratch always feels like a wholesome Sunday activity. It takes a few hours however most of the time is inactive as you wait for the dough to rise so it’s a great activity in between doing other things. I baked this recently on a dark and rainy autumn day and it was so perfect.

And the smell and taste of freshly baked bread really is like nothing else. It’s so good, and this easy focaccia is no exception. It’s easy to make, with 2 rises and the toppings just make it extra special. It’s best served dunked in soup in my opinion but it also makes a great base for sandwiches.

Making yeast bread is something that takes practise and the more you do it the better you’ll get. But focaccia is a very approachable and easy homemade bread therefore it’s perfect for beginners. The toppings can be adapted based on your tastes and what you have on hand.

Key Ingredients

Making focaccia is not unlike pizza dough. You have 6 simple ingredients for the bread, and then it’s time to be creative when it comes to the toppings.

Note all ingredients and their quantities are laid out in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Warm water – to active the yeast and sugar to make the dough rise, as well as combine everything together.
• Yeast – we’re using instant dry yeast to make the dough rise and give it that ‘bready’ taste.
• Sugar – I use honey here for flavour, but regular white sugar will work fine and also work as a vegan option.
• Flour – you can use regular plain flour or bread flour which produces a chewier texture due to the higher protein content.
• Salt – your bread will taste pretty bland without it! I use regular table salt in the bread and flaky sea salt on top.
• Olive oil – for richness and flavour. This is essential to achieve the characteristics of focaccia.
• Olives – I’ve used chopped green olives as I love the really salty flavour but I’ve also made this many times with sliced black olives which is also delicious. Use what you have and like to eat.
• Herbs – I love fresh herbs for this focaccia but you can also use dried if that is all you have. For the one pictured, I used a combination of both using fresh rosemary and parsley and dried basil and oregano.

Step-by-step Instructions

To make this focaccia, I recommend a stand mixer as it makes little work of mixing up the dough, and even does most of the kneading. If you don’t have one however, you can still make this bread with a bowl and wooden spoon and some extra muscle.

I also am baking this focaccia as a rectangle by using a quarter sheet pan, measurements are 31.8L x 22.9W x 2.5H centimetres (12.5 x 9 x 1 inches). I’ve also successfully made this in a 23cm/9inch round springform pan which works really well and results in a slightly thicker bread.

Start by making the dough. Add warm water, yeast and honey to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix to combine. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 10 minutes until foamy. If your yeast doesn’t get foamy and have a strong ‘bready’ smell, it may be bad so I would recommend getting some fresh yeast and trying again.

From here, add in the flour, olive oil and salt, and slowly start to mix with a dough hook attachment. As the flour begins to incorporate, increase the speed to medium.

Once the dough is completely combined, continue to beat in your mixer on low to knead it for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for another 5 minutes or until smooth.

Lightly grease the bowl of the mixer with olive oil and add the ball of dough back into the bowl, turning to coat the dough with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough to release the air and roll out the dough into a rectangle roughly the size of your baking pan. Drizzle the tray with olive oil and sit the dough in the pan. Cover the pan and set aside for another 45-60 minutes for the second rise.

Once risen, the dough should fill the pan. Drizzle the top with more olive oil and use your fingers to press holes into the top of the dough.

Sprinkle the top with your flaky sea salt, herbs and olives. Bake the bread in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden on top.

Freezing and storing instructions

The bread is best sliced and served straight away while it’s still warm. You can store leftovers at room temperature for 1-2 days, however as the bread get’s older the texture will become slightly crumbly due to the lack of preservatives.

If you want to keep it for longer, wrap the focaccia in 2 layers of plastic wrap and freeze for up to a month. Defrost at room temperature.

You can also warm up any left over focaccia in the microwave, oven or air fryer to give it that freshly baked feel.

More side dish recipes:

Vegan Cauliflower Cheese Bake
The BEST Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Crispy Salt and Vinegar Smashed Potatoes

Olive and Herb Focaccia

This olive and herb focaccia is a simple homemade bread recipe that you can use as a side or to make delicious sandwiches. This focaccia is soft and chewy with a yummy salty, and crispy top flavoured with olives and fresh herbs. This easy recipe is the perfect way to start making bread at home!

5 from 4 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Italian

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Rising Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings

Author: Sally

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Ingredients

• 1 cup water warmed
• 1 teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 ½ cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil plus extra for greasing
• 1 teaspoon salt

Topping:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon flakey sea salt
• 2 teaspoons dried herbs or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped herbs
• ¼ cup olives sliced or chopped

Instructions

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, add warm water, yeast and honey and mix to combine. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 10 minutes until foamy.
• Add in flour, olive oil and salt, and slowly start to mix with a dough hook attachment. As the flour begins to incorporate, increase the speed to medium. Once the dough is completely combined, continue to beat on low for 5 minutes to knead it, before turning it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for an additional 5 minutes or until smooth.
• Lightly grease the bowl of the mixer with olive oil and add the ball of dough back into the bowl, turning to ensure the dough is completely covered with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
• Once the dough has risen, punch it down to release the air and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and continue to knead for about a minute.
• Line the bottom of a 9×13 inch (20cm x 30cm) tray with olive oil. Roll out the dough roughly into a rectangle slightly smaller than your pan. Place the dough into the tray and press down indentations with your fingers. Cover again and let rise for 45-60 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Once risen, the dough should touch the edges of the pan. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt, the olives, and the herbs. Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top. Slice and serve while still warm.

Notes

Flour: I’ve written this recipe to use regular plain flour, also known as all purpose flour as this is what most people have on hand. For a slightly chewier texture though, you can use bread flour.

Herbs: Use any combination you like, but I am using basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley.

Toppings: Use any combination of toppings that you like. Some great alternatives to the olives would be sundried tomatoes or you could top the focaccia with pesto instead.

Vegan Option: This recipe is vegetarian as written but to make it vegan simply use the substitution of sugar instead of honey.

Water: The water must be warm to activate the yeast but not hot. If you can stick your finger in the water and hold it there without burning, that is the temperature you want.

Nutrition

Calories: 128kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 196mg | Potassium: 29mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 0.004mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.3mg

Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.

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This post was originally published on the 10th April 2020 and has been republished to include better instructions, more helpful information and new photos.