While the word “focaccia” dates to the 14th century, the Romans baked panis focacius which was a flat bread baked in a hearth. In other words, this type of bread has been around quite a long time. It’s one of the simplest, most straightforward breads to make, and this version of it is super simple, only requiring mixing. No kneading, no folding.

Yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t baked any kind of bread for weeks because of my increasingly busy schedule of work. So, I resolved to remedy that and decided that I’d make some focaccia. I also realized that even though I’ve made it many times, I never posted a recipe here.

Don’t let the title of this bread make you think it’s something special or complicated to make. Focaccia al Rosmarino is simply focaccia topped with rosemary. Here’s the recipe:

Overall Formula

Flour	100.00%
Warm Water	88.00%
Salt	2.00%
Yeast	1.00%
Total %	191.00%

Final Dough

1/2 Bread / 1/2 AP Flour	529g
Water	465g
Salt	11g
Yeast	5.29g
Total Yield	1010g

Other Ingredients

Rosemary (fresh or dried, whole or chopped)	1 tbs
Butter	1 tbs
Olive Oil	~1/4 cup

Mix Dough. Mix all the dry ingredients together until fully combined. Gradually add water and mix dough until smooth. This is wet dough. If mixing by hand, I highly recommend using a Danish dough whisk if you have one. Otherwise, a stand mixer works great!

Bulk Fermentation. If you used a mixer to mix the dough, transfer the dough to a large glass bowl. At this point, you have two options: 1) Let the dough rise at room temperature until the dough ball doubles in volume or 2) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and pop it into the fridge for 8-12 hours. Option 2) is better as that allows some organic acids to form to give the bread a slight twang.

Final Fermentation. Liberally grease a 9″ X 13″ glass baking pan with butter, then spray or spread olive oil on the bottom of the pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, placed roughly in the center. Transferring will degas the dough, but don’t worry, it will re-gas. Spray olive oil on the top of the dough. Cover with plastic or a tea towel and allow the dough to expand out to the edges of the pan, again doubling in volume. Once doubled, using your fingertips, dimple the dough to spread it out to the extents of the pan and to create little pockets on the top of the dough. Sprinkle rosemary all over the top, then liberally spray olive oil on the top as well. Allow the dough to relax for another hour.

Bake. Bake at 425℉ for 25 minutes (the top should be golden brown). Once baked, transfer the loaf to a cooling rack. Brush butter or olive oil on top then lightly sprinkle salt on the dough.