It tastes wonderful- slightly nutty from the whole wheat flour, which pairs well with the earthy rosemary, coarse sea salt, and the olive oil that gets soaked up in every delicious bite while baking. You may never want to buy bread from the bakery again after making this!
If you’re not familiar with the no knead bread craze, it’s time for you to get on board. As the name suggests, there is no kneading required to make these breads, which means less time and effort and, best of all, less sticky mess. And the best part about it is after proofing it for an hour or two, you can refrigerate the dough until you want to make it, meaning you can mix everything up ahead of time.
I used part whole wheat flour and part bread flour to make this. You guys- I’ve tried to make 100% whole wheat bread before and I just cannot in good conscious encourage you to do the same thing. Maybe I just haven’t found the right technique or recipe yet, but it always comes out dense and dry, it doesn’t rise enough, and the taste is just too… um… cardboardy. I’ve found that using part whole wheat and part white flour for bread recipes gives it a bit more nutrition without sacrificing taste. You know me- I love healthy foods. But I also just love food in general. If my food tastes like cardboard, I’m not going to eat it. This is a good compromise in my book.
Focaccia is one of the easiest breads to make, and this no knead focaccia is even easier. Because it’s flat, you don’t have to worry about forming it into any special shape. After letting the dough rise, just transfer it onto a parchment covered baking sheet drizzled with olive oil and flatten it out. Then, use your fingers to press the top to form “dimples,” and let it rise some more. Now here’s the best part: drizzle more olive oil on top and sprinkle with fresh rosemary and sea salt. The oil will pool up in the dimples and absorb from the top and bottom as it bakes. Yum yum yum. While the proofing process does take time, the amount of hands on time for this recipe is only about 10 minutes. Which means you can cook up a wonderful lasagna dinner while preparing this focaccia, for an awesome Italian dinner with fresh baked bread. There’s not much better than that! Unless you serve dinner with a rosemary greyhound cocktail. Now that’s taking rosemary up a notch!
I served this for dinner as an appetizer with olive oil bread dip (a simple mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper). It would be great served with Garides Saganaki (Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta) to mop up all the sauce! A word of caution: once you try this no knead focaccia, you might get a little bit addicted to other no knead bread making. I’ve been making about a loaf a week- it’s so fun, so easy, and best of all, it makes your house smell like a bakery.
Other easy yeast bread recipes
Quick and Easy Dinner Rolls Vasilopita (Sweet Greek New Year’s Bread) No Knead Dutch Oven Bread Honey Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
If you have a favorite no knead recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! Here’s the printable recipe :-)
