🫒 How to make focaccia

What you’ll learn

1. Put the slab backChoose King Arthur's same-day all-purpose focaccia over a supermarket slab, Kenji's overnight dough, or Geary's bread-flour pan, and scale a first 9-inch batch.Put the slab back. Tonight is three cups of flour, four folds, and a 9-inch metal pan. An adult owns the 475°F oven. You mix.
2. A wet dough on purposeName 79 percent hydration, all-purpose protein, salt's jobs, a teaspoon of yeast as a clock, and oil in the dough, pan, and dimples.Flour is protein. Water is 79 percent. Salt is the brake. Yeast is a teaspoon clock. Oil fries. Sugar browns.
3. Fold, don't kneadWeigh or spoon-and-sweep the flour, perform four bowl folds with a wet hand, and keep water under 139°F.Spoon and sweep. Mix, rest, fold four times. A wet hand, not flour. Lukewarm lives.
4. Dimple all the way downRise until puffy, transfer to an oiled metal pan, wait until marshmallowy, and dimple all the way to the pan so oil can pool.Puffy, then marshmallowy. Metal, not glass. Dimple to the pan. Salt tonight. Rosemary later.
5. Bake gold, then waitBake at 475°F until the high spots bronze, finish 5 to 7 minutes in the off oven, cool at least 20 minutes, and name overnight and tomato-olive as later work.475°F until gold. Off-oven for crisp sides. Wait, then tear. Plain bread on the counter. Cheese or meat follows the leftover clock.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• King Arthur Test Kitchen, Big and Bubbly Focaccia, King Arthur Baking, 3 cups (360 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) table salt, 1 teaspoon (5 g) granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon (3 g) instant yeast, 1 1/4 cups (284 g) water warm 90°F to 110°F, 1 1/2 tablespoons (18 g) extra-virgin olive oil in the dough, 2 tablespoons (26 g) oil divided for pan and topping, flaky sea salt, four bowl folds 15 minutes apart, rise 1 hour until nearly doubled, 9-inch square metal pan with parchment strip, 1 tablespoon oil in the pan, rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours until marshmallowy and jiggly, dimple to the bottom 1 1/2 inches apart, bake 475°F lower rack 15 to 18 minutes, lift out and return to the off oven on the lower rack 5 to 7 minutes, skip 8-inch pans and skip glass, 10-inch skillet or 9-by-13 or quarter-sheet as alternatives, make-ahead 8 to 24 hours cold after the folds then 2 to 3 hours in the pan, desired dough temperature 82°F to 86°F, best the day it is made, leftovers loosely in foil at room temperature and reheat, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/big-and-bubbly-focaccia-recipe
• Sarah Jampel, We finally found it — our forever focaccia, King Arthur Baking, 3 January 2025, 2025 Recipe of the Year, ready in under four hours, small enough that four to six people finish it on day one, about two inches high, 1 teaspoon sugar for flavour balance not sweetness, folding required because a same-day dough cannot be fast and no-knead, King Arthur all-purpose 11.7 percent protein for height plus a tender crumb, other flours rose shorter or baked cake-like, off-oven sit borrowed from baguettes for a shatteringly crisp shell, dark anodized pan browns more, Cyprus flake salt, inspired by Martin Philip in the Big Book of Bread, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2025/01/03/recipe-of-the-year-focaccia
• PJ Hamel, No-Fuss Focaccia, King Arthur Baking, 5 tablespoons (60 g) olive oil divided, 1 1/2 cups (340 g) warm water, 1 1/4 teaspoons (8 g) table salt, 3 1/2 cups (420 g) all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon instant yeast, 9-by-13 pan sprayed then 2 tablespoons oil, mixer 60 seconds on high, rise 60 minutes until puffy but not fragile, poke with an index finger, drizzle oil, bake 375°F for 25 to 30 minutes, wait 5 minutes then turn out, under 2 hours door to door, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-fuss-focaccia-recipe
• Jessica Battilana, What does folding bread dough mean, exactly?, King Arthur Baking, 31 July 2023, folding links short gluten chains into longer strands so the dough can trap gas, gentler and more gradual than kneading, bowl fold: wet hands, stretch a section up and fold to the centre, rotate 90 degrees until a full circle, then flip smooth-side up, high-hydration slack doughs are nearly impossible to knead by hand but easy to fold with a wet hand, Martin Philip argues folding achieves the greatest dough strength for home bakers, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2023/07/31/what-does-folding-bread-dough-mean-exactly
• Andrea Geary, Light and Airy Focaccia, America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated, 17 January 2026, 2 1/2 cups (390 g) bread flour, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast, 1 1/2 cups (340 g) room-temperature water, 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil divided, 2 teaspoons table salt, 3/4 to 1 1/2 teaspoons flake sea salt, withhold salt 20 minutes, 30 stretch-and-folds, letter fold, parchment in a 13-by-9 with 3 tablespoons oil, pan rise 2 1/2 to 3 hours until jiggly, dimple to the bottom and break bubbles larger than 1 inch, bake 475°F for 16 to 20 minutes, cool at least 20 minutes, best the day it is baked, leftovers up to 3 days at room temperature, oil opened no more than one month, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/17414-light-and-airy-focaccia
• Rebecca Hays and Andrea Geary, Focaccia That's Light as Air, America's Test Kitchen, 17 January 2026, high hydration makes the dough slack and easy to work and is one key to the bubbles, pan corrals the dough so there is no shaping, no overnight ferment required because oil, salt, and a browned crust add flavour, bread flour for a stronger gas-holding net, autolyse withholds salt because salt is a water hog, excess water in a high-hydration dough leaves gluten-forming proteins on the surface that bond to the pan, parchment then oil so the dough fries, dimples hold oil and break giant bubbles, 475°F for puff, crisp bottom, and deep browning, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/8654-how-to-make-focaccia
• J. Kenji López-Alt, Easy No-Knead Olive-Rosemary Focaccia With Pistachios, Serious Eats, 500 grams (about 3 1/4 cups) all-purpose or bread flour, 15 grams (about 1 tablespoon) kosher salt, 4 grams (about 1 teaspoon) instant yeast, 325 grams water, 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided, 4 ounces pitted green olives sliced, 1/4 cup roasted pistachios, 2 tablespoons roughly chopped rosemary, coarse sea salt, mix until no dry flour remains, rest on the countertop at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours, then 2 hours in the pan at room temperature, bake 550°F, overnight enzymes break down proteins so the dough needs no kneading, https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-no-knead-olive-rosemary-pistachio-focaccia-kenji-recipe
• Sasha Marx, Homemade Focaccia, Serious Eats, 500 grams bread or all-purpose flour, 10 grams Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 4 grams instant dry yeast, 400 grams room-temperature water, 20 grams olive oil, stir until no dry flour remains about 2 minutes, rest 1 hour at room temperature, refrigerate at least 18 hours or up to 3 days, high-hydration bread flour for a crisp crust and tender chewy crumb, https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-no-knead-focaccia

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