Roasted Garlic Focaccia (With Lots Of Olive Oil) Recipe

Bread making can seem intimidating to home cooks, but when you consider the fact that most breads consist of four simple ingredients, it's actually not difficult at all. With just a little flour, salt, water, and yeast, you can create almost anything you'd find in the bread aisle in your own kitchen. If it's your first time making bread, be sure to read the recipe carefully and measure accurately to avoid the most common mistakes.

Baker and food stylist Alexander Roberts brings us this delicious recipe for roasted garlic focaccia (with lots of olive oil) with the amateur bread baker in mind. "This is a no-knead recipe, which is the simplest type of bread out there," says Roberts. "Just mix your ingredients together, perform a few simple folds, and let the yeast and fermentation take care of the rest. Less is more when you bake bread, so try your best to trust the process." 

For starters, you'll need the four key ingredients to almost any bread recipe: water, flour, salt, and yeast. You'll also need a healthy amount of olive oil (higher-quality extra virgin olive oils will taste best). For topping the bubbly focaccia once it's risen, you'll need some fresh rosemary stems and 6 cloves of garlic. Other than that, you just need a little time and patience! 

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cut the root end off of the garlic cloves.

Enclose the garlic cloves in a small piece of foil, covering them completely.

Place the foil packet in the oven for 1 hour, until the cloves are golden in color and soft.

Squeeze the garlic cloves to release them from their skins. Set aside.

Add water, yeast, flour, and salt to a mixing bowl. Stir until the mixture is combined and no flour clumps remain.

Cover the bowl with plastic and refrigerate overnight, or leave at room temperature for 4 hours.

The next day, add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Transfer the bread dough to the baking pan and turn it over once to coat with oil.

Gently stretch to the edges of the pan with oiled fingers. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Use oiled fingers again to stretch to the edges of the pan, gently pinching the dough between your fingertips as you stretch.

Let rise for 1–2 hours, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Sprinkle the top of the focaccia with the roasted garlic cloves and fresh rosemary.

Bake the focaccia for 25–30 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve warm.

Focaccia was practically invented for pizza — a bubbly, squishy, sliceable bread that's waiting to be loaded with toppings and drizzled with olive oil? Sign us up. Plus, you don't need to roll out any dough or mess up the counters with extra flour — just use the stretching technique in a rectangular baking pan when making a focaccia pizza. You can use this same recipe with a slightly different method to whip up an amazing pizza. 

Once the bread has fully proofed, add ½ cup of your favorite pizza sauce and spread in an even layer, taking care not to over-stress the dough below. Bake for 10–15 minutes, or until risen, then remove from the oven and add cheese (careful — the pan will be very hot). Return to the oven for 8–10 minutes, or until edges are browned and cheese is melted and bubbling. Cool the pizza briefly, then slice and top with fresh herbs, such as basil or chives, and a classic sprinkling of red pepper flakes or grated Parmesan cheese.

Garlic is an excellent pairing for focaccia, perfectly complementing the classic flavors of olive oil and yeast. Roasting the cloves until golden brown gives them a sweeter flavor, softening the sometimes-too-powerful bite of pungent garlic. Caramelized onions wouldn't be a bad idea, either. If you're looking for a sharper garlic flavor, try pressing full, raw cloves into the bread instead of roasting them first.

Instead of rosemary, you could use practically any other hard herb: thyme, sage, oregano, or even marjoram. Using drier herbs is going to be best since the focaccia is baked at a high temperature; soft herbs like parsley or scallions would burn to a crisp. However, soft herbs can be added to the focaccia after the baking is done. In addition to dried herbs, anything else dried from the spice cabinet would work well here, too, such as sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or an everything bagel seasoning mix.

Fresh fruits and veggies are a fun spin on classic focaccia, also: Whole red grapes would be an interesting, sweet-and-savory spin, while halved cherry tomatoes could offer more of a pizza vibe. Finally, why not try pitted olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or marinated artichokes?