Soft, flavorful bread with a focaccia-like texture, perfect for tearing and dipping. Try it along side a bowl of your favorite soup for a relatively easy, elegant, homemade, soul-satisfying meal.
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Rosemary Focaccia
Description
This is a simple herbed yeast bread that compliments nearly any soup, salad, or pasta dish.
Ingredients
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
Add flour mixture to yeast mixture along with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Mix well. (I put it in my stand mixer with the dough hook on). Slowly add remaining flour to make a very soft dough– try and resist the urge to add too much flour. You want a soft, wet dough.
Cover and allow to rise 45 min- 1 hour or until double in size.
This bread tastes a lot like the loaves that you get at Macaroni Grill, only (at least I think) better: warm, soft, a little salty; rip off a piece (no knives here) and dip it in some extra-virgin olive oil with a dash of balsamic vinegar and some freshly ground black pepper and you have a meal! If you’re more interested in balanced nutrition, slice each loaf in half length-wise and add Garlic-Herb Sandwich Spread, smoked turkey, Provolone, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce and then cut into wedges. Or try it alongside a bowl of Italian Turkey Soup. This recipe makes 2 small loaves, and each is studded with fresh rosemary and full of flavor.
How do I start making bread?
Scared of making yeast bread? Don’t be! Follow our handy-dandy yeast tips and you’ll sail through with flying colors! You’ll start by proofing yeast– it should look nice and bubbly like this:
Add flour mixture to yeast mixture along with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Mix well. (you can just toss everything in your stand mixer with the dough hook on).
Next Step: Create Your Dough:
Slowly add remaining flour to make a very soft dough–try and resist the urge to add too much flour. You want a soft, wet dough.
Rise and Shape your Bread Dough
After your dough rises, you’ll divide it in half to make 2 loaves and place each of these loaves on your baking sheet to rise one more time.
How to Bake and Serve your Rosemary Focaccia Loaves
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until very lightly golden-brown. This is the type of bread you’ll want to serve immediately, while it’s warm. Just tear chunks to serve.
There is something soul-satisfying about tearing into fresh bread with your hands. These loaves are so soft and tender and full of flavor.
I came to your blog today looking for some type of fabulous bread to have with Sunday Dinner. Bingo! This was SO good…and SO like Mac Grill. We had 4 adults and 2 small kids, and I should have doubled it. It was gone before I could blink 🙂 Thanks for a great recipe.
Guess what — tried it again and it was fantastic!! Thanks for taking the time to personally give me advice. I did two things different. I bought new bread machine yeast. I was out of the other stuff so I needed to buy more anyway. And I used a towel to cover the bowl and not the air-tight lid from the bowl. I’m a rookie, what can I say? My 10 year old son said “Mom this tastes just like the bread from that place we get pasta!” And who doesn’t love Macaroni Grill Focaccia!! Success 🙂
Jessica–What a bummer that it didn’t work out! 🙁 If it wasn’t bubbling after 10 minutes, you either need new yeast or the water wasn’t warm enough (or, possibly, too hot). Before you run out and buy some more, I’d try just the yeast activation process again (dissolving it in warm water) and see if it works. If not, it was probably your yeast.
It’s best to cover your dough with a towel; yeast is a living organism and thrives on oxygen to rise properly, so it may not have gotten adequate oxygen or circulation with the lid on.
Try it again sometime soon and let us know how it turns out! Good luck!! 🙂
Oh, and Lindsay, I have no idea but I think you have EXCELLENT grounds to do some experimenting and let us know how it turns out… 😉
So, so good–and so easy, too, like every single one of your recipes that I’ve tried. How do you guys do it? You’re great.
So, do you think you could use different herbs in this bread–thyme, basil??
I saw so excited to try this bread and it didn’t work 🙁 I’ll admit I’ve NEVER made bread with yeast before so I think I did something wrong. I followed the recipe to the tee, but my bread didn’t really rise and look all light and airy like yours. It was a dense flat bread (although it still tasted great!) and the family still ate it 🙂 I used Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast, but it wasn’t really bubbly after 10 minutes. Does that mean something was wrong with my yeast? I used what I had on hand, but I will try and get the bread machine yeast like you said. Also, does it matter what you cover it with? When it was rising in the bowl, I just used the glass bowl lid, but when it was rising on the baking stone, I covered it with a towel. Did I use too much flour? I’m so confused, but it had great flavor so I really want to try it again! Love your site!!
I have always been afraid to make bread . . . my mom ALWAYS made bread (even ground her own wheat?!). So thanks for the tips and I WILL be making this soon!
I made this for a luncheon on Thursday and it was wonderful (and super easy). Thanks for the great recipe.
Suzanna–To be honest, I’m not sure how well it would work with whole wheat flour. You could give it a shot by all means, but it’s a very lightweight, spongy, almost delicate yeast bread, so you may have a hard time achieving that texture with wheat flour. Someday soon we’ll post some heartier bread recipes, but if you try it out with wheat flour, let us know how it goes!
How does this work with whole wheat flour???
Oh my gosh….incredible!! Thanks for such a fantastic recipe!!
Shannon-
We’ve been meaning to do an entire post about salt because we get lots of questions about it. The main difference in table salt vs. kosher salt vs. sea salt is the texture. Kosher salt also has a very pure flavor, and larger crystals (like you can see in that picture). If you don’t have any, sea salt would be a good substitution. The flavor of Kosher salt is more mild than regular table salt, and sea salt is more mild as well. You could use regular table salt in the dough (where it will dissolve) and sea salt sprinkled on top.
Love Macaroni Grill! I will be trying this. Can you explain the difference between Sea Salt and Kosher Salt? Would Sea Salt work? Thanks!
Manda, these are teeny, tiny loaves–like small enough that I can fit both of them on my pizza stone and they’d easily fit on a cookie sheet. If you truly have a teeny tiny oven (like toaster oven small), then I would probably just pop the other loaf in the fridge… 🙂 Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!
Question- If I can only bake one at a time, what do I do with the other loaf? Stick it in the fridge? Leave it out? This is the main reason I don’t make bread, I have no idea what to do with the extra while the rest is baking. Help please!
Yum!! I made it tonight and oh it was amazing. I was thinking I might have some leftover to make sandwich’s with it, but no luck, it was all gone at the end of dinner!
i made this for dinner tonight and it was a HIT!!! thanks for all of your great ideas.
Great bread, Sara first made this a couple of valentine days ago and it was amazing! Better than Macaroni Grill by far…
Erin, you could use regular salt, but kosher salt is definitely better in something like this.
Does it have to be kosher salt? can regular salt work? Thanks!
Sara gave me this recipe about a month ago because I wanted to make a yummy dinner for my anniversary. I made a pasta dish with the garlic sauce and this bread, it was to die for!! I have made it 3 times since. Definitely a winner!!
I live for Macaroni Grill’s bread. I can’t wait to try this.
Oh I love bread. I am drooling. Can’t wait to have some warm bread.
I think I will need to just go ahead and glue a loaf to each cheek. Cause that’s right where it’s going.
Oh wow, I’m trying this….
Emily- about the fresh vs. dried, the basic rule of thumb is 1 part dry = 3 parts fresh. The amount you sprinkle on top can stay the same, but you’ll definitely want to increase the the amount that goes into the dough to 3T instead of one.
Kate- you don’t like Rosemary very much? We finally found something we differ on! Lol. Rosemary is definitely my favorite herb, I LOVE it in just about everything!
Oh, darn you, this is making me miss my lunch outings with my little sister at the M Grille! I can just imaging the smell when it came out of the oven…
Emily–Yeah, I’m pretty sure you just use the same amount. I really don’t like rosemary very much, but I LOVE this bread!
what about fresh rosemary? would you use the same amount?
I live for good bread!! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Leigh Anne @ http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com
Seriously one of my favorite things. Ever.
It’s been way too long since I’ve made it. It just might have to get added to my menu this week!