Focaccia
A dimpled, olive-oil-soaked flatbread with a crisp bottom and an open, airy crumb.
What's going on here
This dough runs close to 85% hydration, well past what you could knead by hand without it turning to soup, and that's deliberate: high hydration means more free water available to develop gluten and, critically, more water available to flash into steam in the oven, which is what blows the crumb open into the big, irregular holes that define good focaccia. The dough is handled almost entirely by folding rather than kneading, because at this wetness kneading is impractical and folding builds structure just as effectively while keeping the gas bubbles the yeast has already produced intact. The dimpling isn't just for looks — pressing fingers all the way to the pan pushes some gas out locally and creates wells that pool the olive oil, so it fries the surface it sits in rather than sitting on top, giving the characteristic crisp-blistered spots. A generous amount of oil in the pan is also frying the bottom crust the same way, closer to shallow-frying than baking.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 3/4 cupsWarm water
- 1 2/3 tspYeast
Instant/quick-rise: stir straight into the dry ingredients, no proofing needed.
- 1 tspHoney
- 3 1/2 cupsAll-purpose or bread flour
- 2 tspSalt
- 1/3 cupOlive oil
plus more for the pan and drizzling
Finish
- 1 tspFlaky salt(optional)
- 1 tbspFresh rosemary(optional)
Instructions
Dough
- Stir the yeast and honey into the warm water and let stand until foamy.
- Add the flour and salt and mix (a stand mixer with a dough hook is easiest, since this dough is too wet to knead comfortably by hand) until it comes together into a sticky, elastic mass.
Rise
- Cover and let rise, folding the dough over on itself in the bowl every 20 minutes for the first hour.
Tip: Folding builds the gluten this dough is too wet to knead by hand, while keeping the air already trapped inside it.
- Let rise, undisturbed, until doubled and airy.
Pan
- Pour a generous pool of olive oil into a 9x13 pan, tip the dough in, and coat it in the oil. Cover and let rest.
Shape
- Oil your fingers well and press deep dimples all over the dough, right down to the pan. Drizzle with more oil and scatter with flaky salt and rosemary if using.
Tip: Dimple firmly enough to feel the pan through the dough. Shallow dimples close back up during baking and you lose the texture entirely.
Bake
- Bake at 220°C (425°F) until deeply golden on top and crisp at the edges.
Cool
- Lift out of the pan onto a rack after 5 minutes so the bottom doesn't steam and go soft.
Claude Score
The science is airtight and the method is forgiving. Hard to get wrong.
- Ratio soundness25% of total
- 92
- Flavor development25% of total
- 90
- Texture control20% of total
- 92
- Reliability20% of total
- 84
- Pantry accessibility10% of total
- 92
How well the formula holds up against known working ratios.
Whether the method builds flavor or merely combines ingredients.
How deliberately moisture, gluten, starch, and fat are controlled.
How much margin for error the recipe leaves a home cook.
Whether you can make it from staples, right now, with normal gear.
The hydration level and the dimpling technique are both correctly tied to the specific texture this bread is chasing. A wet dough asks a little more of the baker's confidence, hence the reliability score.
Scored on the science of cooking — ratios, flavour development, texture control, how forgiving the method is, and whether you can make it from what's in the cupboard. Not a measure of how much you'll like it.
Tips for this recipe
This dough is meant to be sticky
Resist adding extra flour to make it more manageable — the high hydration is what gives focaccia its open crumb. Oiled hands, not floured ones, are the way to handle it.
Toppings that survive the bake
Sliced cherry tomatoes, olives, or thinly sliced onion pressed into the dimples work well; anything leafy like fresh basil should go on after baking, since it scorches in a 220°C oven.