No Yeast Focaccia Bread Recipe — Smartblend (2024)

Back into lockdown we go. During the first UK lockdown, a high number of the UK public took to baking as a way to keep busy and get through isolation. I can see why, baking is an easy hobby to take up. Just like this blog here, there are many resources available for bakers at any level of expertise. Not only that, but at the end you get to eat. What's better than a hobby where you get to eat?

However, in lockdown part one. Everyone took to soda bread and sourdough. So now we need something new to focus on. Enter focaccia.

What is focaccia bread?

Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread product similar in style and texture to pizza dough. Focaccia can be used as a side to many meals or as sandwich bread.

Focaccia al rosmarino (focaccia with rosemary) is a common focaccia style in Italian cuisine that may be served as an antipasto, appetizer, table bread, or snack. Made with flour, water, yeast and salt

Basically, it’s a delicious Italian flatbread.

For a classic focaccia recipe WITH yeast, check out the recipe below.

No Yeast Recipe

Many, if not all focaccia recipes you will find online call for yeast. Which helps the bread rise and gives it those light pockets inside the bread when you tear into it.

However, this can be a pain. Due to the fact that all the focaccia ingredients are easy to find, except the yeast. All the focaccia ingredients are things most people already have in their home, except the yeast.

In the right climate, focaccia bread will naturally rise without the yeast. Original focaccia never used yeast so why start now? Don’t be fooled into thinking that you need yeast in order to make focaccia, sure, it helps. Having those pockets of air within the bread and that beautiful lightness which the yeast creates is wonderful. But just because you don’t use any yeast, does not mean you will be left with a rock solid, dense brick worth of bread.

As long as you follow the below steps correctly you will still get a light bread without the need for yeast.

Which is great news to all! It means you might already have what you need to make focaccia in your kitchen cupboard right now. Especially if you have flour left over from your last lockdown baking session. Hurray!

Focaccia Bread Art

Before we jump into the recipe. Let’s just quickly cover a focaccia trend that’s been making it’s way round recently. That trend is none other than focaccia art. Which is the process of adding different ingredients to the top of your focaccia bread before baking so you are left with pretty patterns and pictures. Like with the following…

Basic Focaccia Bread Recipe (Without yeast)

Ingredients

• 2 cups/250grams all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup/240ml water

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

Steps To Make Your Focaccia Bread

Step one

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C/200 Fan and gather your ingredients. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Lightly mix.

Step Two

Add one tablespoon of the olive oil and slowly add the water whilst mixing. Mix till combined into a dough. If your dough is too sticky, add some more flour, if it's too dry add a splash more water.

Step Three

Turn your dough out to a floured surface and knead for one minute (Yes one minute, I told you it would be easy)

Step Four

Brush a large baking sheet with olive oil and transfer your dough to said baking sheet. Spread out the dough into a rectangle that's 1 inch thick. Using your fingertips poke holes all over the top of the dough.

Step Five

Season with salt and pepper, add any vegetables or herbs you like (see below recipe for recommendations) and drizzle the rest of your olive oil all over. Don’t worry about adding too much olive oil, it’s difficult to add too much oil to focaccia.

Step Six

Sprinkle over your sea salt and bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Step Seven

Cut into squares and serve warm with dipping oil (Recipe below)

Garlic and herb focaccia recipe

Garlic and herb focaccia is a popular variation of focaccia bread. For good reason, it's god damn delicious.

For this recipe. You will follow the exact same instructions as the above recipe for the basic focaccia. However, when you get to the seasoning section, before your focaccia goes into the oven, we are going to add a few different seasoning, all of which we will sprinkle on top of our focaccia.

Instructions

1. Two pinches of fresh rosemary leaves

2. 1 ½ tablespoon of ground garlic

3. 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Sprinkle the above ingredients over your focaccia dough and continue as normal. Baking your focaccia for 20/25 minutes or until golden brown.

Parmesan and herb dipping oil recipe

Finally we are going to make a quick dipping oil which will pair beautifully with whatever focaccia you have decided to make.

Ingredients

• 20grams Grated parmesan cheese

• ½ tablespoon Black pepper

• ¼ tablespoon Salt

• 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

• 1 Garlic clove crushed

• ½ tablespoon Dried oregano

• 60ml Olive oil

Instructions

• Whisk together all the ingredients except the olive oil until combined.

• Gradually add the olive oil whilst whisking until combined. Or gradually add oil whilst blending for a smoother consistency.

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