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.
Rosemary Focaccia
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm 105-115 degrees Fahrenheit water
- 1 tablespoon yeast
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt plus more for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 2 tablespoons rosemary dried or fresh, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 1/4-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until bubbly. While the yeast is getting bubbly, combine 2 cups of the flour, salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary, oregano and garlic powder.
- 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.
- Lightly flour your work surface and transfer dough onto this surface. Divide in half. Shape each half into a rounded loaf and place on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone. Cover and allow to rise another 45 minutes.
- Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use remaining tablespoon of olive oil to brush over tops of loaves, discarding excess if you have any. Sprinkle with remaining rosemary and some Kosher salt.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until very lightly golden-brown. Serve immediately (if you can) with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (if you want).
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. Â 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.
Questions & Reviews
Making this for the second time today. Was so good! This time I separated it into 4 parts and made large hamburger buns. My family is delighted by this recipe.
So I am bread making failure. 🙂 I get super intimidated with yeast and the bubbling process. If I put the yeast and other beginning ingredients in the metal kitchen aid bowl, is that going to be too cold for it and keep it from bubbling first?
They type of bowl doesn’t really matter- you want to make sure you’re mixing with warm water in order for the yeast to activate. Think bath tub warm, not hot!
HOLY YUM!!! My mama used to make a dough like this every so often (with help from her bread maker.) Now that she’s 100% Keto, I wonder if I could steal it from her and make this all the time.
These look delicious! I can’t wait to make them for my family this weekend!
I made this on Saturday, and even though I slightly overworked the dough, it was lovely. Many praises from my husband. I’ve been telling all of my friends to try the recipe. Question: can I freeze the dough after the first rise? I’m trying to decide if I can make a couple of loaves in advance, freeze, and then defrost and let it do the second rise. Thoughts?
What should I do if I want to make the dough in the morning when I have more time, but bake it before dinner so that we’ll have piping hot bread?
I made this bread last weekend… WOW!!! It’s the first bread that I’ve made with only white flour for several years. I usually make WW or an herb d’provence bread that is 1/2 WW. My husband really enjoyed this one! I’m wondering about using 1C soft whole wheat flour… any thoughts? We usually have bread with dinner, and also am attempting to remove white stuff (flour, sugar) from our diet as much as possible. Thanks again for this recipe!
the bread looks so good and yummy! how long do we have to knead it in the bread machine for??
No idea–Sara and I have had bad luck with bread machines, so we’re not a lot of help in that area. 🙂