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French Focaccia Bread close up photo of baked bread

French Focaccia Bread

French Focaccia Bread is what happened when I had leftover French bread dough and starting experimenting. The result was a deliciously tasty, crispy, chewy satisfying bread!
Course Bread, Side Dishes
Cuisine French Inspired, Italian Inspired
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes
Servings 20 servings (2 large loaves)
Calories 98 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

For the bread dough

  • 4 cups flour for whole wheat focaccia use 2 cups of white flour and 2 cups of whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 tbsp instant yeast
  • 2 tsp sea salt

You will also need

  • cherry tomato halves
  • pitted kalamata olives
  • sea salt
  • black pepper
  • fresh thyme or chopped fresh rosemary
  • freshly grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients except 1 cup of the flour to the bowl. Using the dough hook on your electric mixer, mix together well and allow to run on low speed for about 10 minutes. The dough will be loose and sticky but don't worry about that, just allow it to rise in a warm spot for a couple of hours or more before turning it out into a bread board and kneading in the other 1 cup of flour by hand. You may have to use a little more or a little less flour depending factors like local humidity.
  2. Divide into two portions and roll out into about 10 inch rounds. Push the tomatoes and olives into the dough
  3. Brush the entire surface of the dough with garlic olive oil (Garlic Olive Oil recipe here) then sprinkle the sea salt, pepper, rosemary and parmesan over the entire loaf.
  4. Allow the dough to rise on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet until doubled in size. Bake in a very hot oven fromn 425 - 450 degrees for about a half hour or until evenly golden brown.