There's something magical about fresh baked bread. It's warm and tender, and the smell alone is completely intoxicating.
Foccacia is one of those great breads that is more "casual" than a loaf, and adding sun dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary gives it an amazing taste!
This recipe is flexible and uncomplicated, and will give you such delicious homemade focaccia, you won't believe you waited so long to make it!
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Why You Will Love this Recipe
Homemade bread can sometimes seem a bit intimidating. The ingredients are easy but the kneading….eh.
Focaccia is much easier! It's a flatter bread so there's no pressure to achieve that perfect loaf. And with this recipe, no kneading is required. Plus, you can either bake the bread the same day you mix the dough or refrigerate the dough overnight to bake the next day. The timing is super flexible!
Finally, the taste. I add sun dried tomatoes and rosemary to make focaccia that's a beautiful blend of soft, airy dough and the intense, savory flavors of sun-dried tomatoes. You will marvel at every bite!
Ingredients Needed
**Be sure to scroll to the recipe card for detailed quantities and directions**
How to make Focaccia with Sun Dried Tomatoes
The key ingredients for bread are yeast, flour, water, and salt. Warm the water slightly. It should be between 105 and 115F; use a thermometer to verify this.
Place the flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk to distribute. Then add the warm water and stir. The dough will form rather quickly, and as it starts to form add in the chopped sun-dried tomato.
Then continue mixing until the flour is completely incorporated with all the other ingredients.
The dough should easily form into a ball shape. You will need it to rise in a large bowl, either the same one you used to mix or a new one. Drizzle olive oil in the bowl and over the dough, then turn the dough to coat it all around. The oil coating is what prevents the dough from drying out, so do not skip this step.
Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or a silicone lid.
You have two choices for the next step: room temperature or refrigerator.
If you want to bake the focaccia the same day, let the dough rise in a warm place for one to two hours, until it has doubled in size. When I do this, I turn on my under-cabinet lights which tend to produce a little extra warmth, then place the bowl underneath to rise in toasty comfort.
If you want to bake the focaccia the next day, place the bowl in the refrigerator and let it rise slowly, overnight. If you take a peek at it you'll notice the rise by bedtime, it is typically doubled by then for me.
Second rise
Prepare a 9x13 baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. Drizzle a little olive oil on the parchment paper to help coat it.
Take the bowl of dough and use 2 forks to pull and lift the dough away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn the bowl and repeat this step twice, forming the dough into a ball and turning it to re-coat with the oil.
Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and gently pull slightly to resemble the shape of the pan. The dough will finish filling the pan while rising, so there's no need to get too aggressive with this.
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Brush the top of the dough with some olive oil and sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt and chopped rosemary.
💭Top tip: use some of the oil from the sun-dried tomato jar for this step to add even more flavor to the bread!
Cover the pan and let the dough rise again until doubled (about one hour, up to 4 hours works).
Preheat the oven to 425F.
With lightly oiled fingers, create deep dimples in the dough just before baking.
Bake the focaccia for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Lightly drizzle the bread with olive oil, remove from the pan, and cut into squares to serve.
Smaller Batch Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia
I've made this bread a LOT. And with only 2 people in the house I wanted a way to make a smaller amount of fresh bread. Here is the recipe I use for that:
1½ teaspoons yeast
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons rosemary
Use a 7x11 or 8x8 baking pan and follow all other directions per the main recipe.
This gives you delicious fresh focaccia with fewer leftovers to deal with.
However, sometimes the leftovers can be just as delicious!
What to do with Leftover Focaccia
Ok, any fresh bread is undeniably the best on the day it is baked. The next day is still ok but after that, maybe not so much. Especially with focaccia. All the oil starts to catch up with it!
In these cases, your air fryer is your best friend! Use your air fryer to toast day-old focaccia and it will be warm and delicious with lovely toasted edges.
Take it one step further and make croutons! Cut the sun dried tomato focaccia into cubes and toast those in your air fryer basket. They are incredibly delicious on salads or soup!
Also, notice how thick this focaccia is. This means you can slice it horizontally and make a delicious sandwich with it. A little salami and cheese on focaccia make a delightful sandwich for lunch!
Want a thinner focaccia? I can understand why, you'll have more crispy outside edges! Just use a bigger pan so the dough can spread out more. For the full recipe, use a 10x15 rimmed baking sheet. For the smaller batch recipe use a 9x13.
Expert Tips/FAQ
Absolutely! You can make the dough in advance, refrigerate it for the first rise, and then proceed with shaping and the second rise for baking when ready. The rising steps both have very wide ranges so you should be able to easily fit this into your schedule.
I've never used the dry kind since I'm such a fan of the oil-packed version. But they should work just fine, just chop them up fine and mix them in.
Regular table salt is all you need to make the bread dough. But a larger grain of salt works better for sprinkling on top. I have flaky sea salt, but Kosher salt should also work, as it is larger than table salt.
📖 Recipe
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Focaccia with Sun Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients
- ¼ ounce active dry yeast instant
- 2 ½ cups warm water 105 to 115F
- 5 cups flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ cup chopped sun-dried tomato
- 1 tablespoon+ fresh rosemary, chopped
- Olive oil
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Place yeast, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together, then add water and sun-dried tomatoes.¼ ounce active dry yeast, 2 ½ cups warm water, 5 cups flour, 2 ½ teaspoons salt, ½ cup chopped sun-dried tomato
- Mix until the dough starts to come away from the walls of the bowl. It will be sticky.
- Form the dough into a ball. Coat the ball with olive oil, all around.Olive oil
- Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm place for one to two hours, until dough has doubled in size. (longer time is okay)
- Take 2 forks and use them to pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl. the pans.
- Prepare a 9x13-inch pan by lining with parchment paper.
- Drizzle some olive oil into the pan, on the parchment paper.Olive oil
- Place the dough into the pan and gently pull, if necessary, to mostly fill the pan.
- Brush a little olive oil evenly over the top of the loaf. Sprinkle rosemary and some flaky salt over the dough.1 tablespoon+, Flaky sea salt, Olive oil
- Cover the pan(s) and let the dough rise again until doubled (at least 45 minutes).
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- With lightly oiled fingers, create deep dimples in the dough just before baking.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned.
- Lightly drizzle the bread with olive oil, remove from pan(s) and cut in squares to serve.Olive oil
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data.
Pam
I love the option of being able to prep the dough in advance but I'm a little confused about how that works. Are you saying that after it's risen in a warm place, you can then refrigerate it? Also, doesn't it need to be warm again for the second rise? How does that work? Thank you!
Sula
Ok, so for the first rise you can put the whole bowl right in the fridge. It will still rise, but much more slowly than it does at room temperature. When I want to use this option, I just leave it overnight. Then the next day, yes, take it out and prep the dough for the second rise, then leave it at room temperature for this step. Anywhere from one to four hours works, then you are ready to bake and enjoy your delicious bread!
Pam
Thanks so much for clarifying that!
Regarding another person's post, the 5 cups of flour with 2-1/2 cups warm water was more than just sticky and wasn't pulling away from the sides of the bowl, though certainly not soupy in my case. The water was definitely warm, but nowhere near hot. Since I'm in the middle of prepping it now, I'm going to add more flour until it's the appropriate consistency. Wish me luck!
Sula
Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Sheri
Any idea why my dough never doubled? I used fresh yeast
Sula
Did you check your water temperature before adding the yeast? Either too hot or too cold can be a problem.
Anonymous
My family loved this! Adding it to our dinner rotation.
Sula
Fantastic! Thank you!
Jenny
We made this Focaccia this weekend, and the flavors were amazing! We served this as a light lunch with some friends and got so many compliments on the flavor!
Sula
Fantastic!
Alex
So delicious! And thank you for the smaller size option. With only two of us, it worked out perfectly. Love that there is no kneading involved. I served it up with our Saturday night pasta and it was awesome.
Sula
We love it with pasta! And making that smaller batch really does make it easier!
Janneke
what did I do wrong?
The 5cup flour to 2.5 cup water ratio = soup.
I've made bread often (not focaccia), and this is almost double the water I'd put in bread.
Sula
I can't imagine why you'd have that problem. As I said in my post, I've made the bread a LOT, and I even included a recipe for a smaller amount which also maintains that 2 to 1 ratio of flour to water. Was there anything special about the flour you used? And I'm sure as an experienced bread baker you know this, but the water needs to be warm, do you measure the temperature?