We finally found it — our forever focaccia

Every spring, when it’s time to decide the next Recipe of the Year, the employee-owners at King Arthur gear up for lengthy discussions and fierce-but-friendly debates. We’ll hem and haw over the merits of chocolate chip cookies versus coffee cakes versus cinnamon rolls, gathering opinions from across the company about the worthiest baked good. 

But this year, the deliberation was surprisingly short. We rallied around focaccia — early and fervently — because, for so many reasons, it’s a no-brainer: It’s easy to make, it’s even easier to eat, and it’s everywhere. (I recently ate focaccia at four different establishments over the course of 36 hours in New York City.)

Now, we have a lot of existing focaccia recipes, but we wanted one that checked every box: ready in an afternoon; small enough to eat in one day; ultra flavorful; and nice and thick with a bronzed, bubbly exterior. So we took everything we've learned about focaccia over the years and developed our dream version, using Martin Philip’s recipe in the Big Book of Bread as our launching-off point.  

We spent several months tweaking the salt and oil levels, the type of flour, the size of the pan, the amount of water, the amount of yeast, the oven temperature, the bake time — you name it, we tested it. In the end, our Big and Bubbly Focaccia was born.  

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

Visually stunning, flavorful yet versatile, and easy enough for anyone to make, this recipe is The One. And how do I know? Because even after baking and tasting dozens and dozens of focaccias throughout development, I still want to get into the kitchen and bake (and eat) this exact iteration. Yes, there are thousands of focaccia recipes out there, and more every day, but I finally feel settled: This is my forever focaccia, and I hope it can be yours, too. Here’s what makes the Big and Bubbly Focaccia so special.

1) Wonderfully flavorful without an overnight rise 

Many focaccia recipes take at least 24 hours. Happily, this isn’t one of them. This loaf is ready in under four hours, which means you can decide to make it well after lunch and still have it on the table for dinner.  

We homed in on the exact amount of salt and olive oil to ensure that the bread is super flavorful even without a long fermentation. During our development, the final flavor clincher was the addition of 1 teaspoon of sugar. That tiny bit of sugar doesn’t add sweetness; instead, it enhances and balances the savory notes for a more well-rounded taste.  

2) Folding > kneading 

Because this dough proofs relatively quickly, there isn’t enough time for the gluten to passively develop strength. In other words, this focaccia can’t be fast and no-knead — some manual agitation is necessary. But instead of kneading, you’ll perform a series of four bowl folds to aid in gluten development during the first part of the rise. This largely hands-off approach is a great way to tackle a wet, sticky dough, even as a beginner. The bowl folds contribute enough structure so that the dough can bubble when dimpled and rise high in the oven, yet they’re gentle enough that the finished bread is tender and light once baked. Which brings me to my next point …

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

3) Impressively tall and incredibly tender

It can be hard to nail a dough that’s strong enough to rise high in the oven yet not so strong that the crumb is tough and chewy. But thanks to our Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, which has 11.7% protein, this focaccia is statuesque (look at that height!) with a light and airy interior (look at that crumb!) that's compressible, rather than chewy and bouncy. When I tested the recipe with other brands of flour (I won’t name names), I could tell even during the folding process that the dough was not as extensible. Not surprisingly, those focaccias didn’t get the same height in the oven: One had almost no chew at all (more cake-like than bread-like), while the other had a less airy interior.

4) Just the right size 

For all of focaccia’s incredible qualities, it has one major flaw: It’s not amazing the next day. With the goal of avoiding unwanted leftovers (or publishing a recipe you could only bake for a crowd), we skipped the typical half-sheet pan and chose a 9" square instead. The resulting focaccia is small enough that four to six people can easily polish it off on day one. And, at about two inches high, it’s perfect for slicing in half for sandwiches yet not so tall that you couldn’t tear off pieces and eat them as is, no adornment necessary.

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

5) Remarkably crispy 

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the tender interior, but isn’t the so-golden-it’s-nearly-fried exterior just as important?  

This focaccia has a shatteringly crisp shell (that stays that way!) due to a trick we borrowed from crusty breads like baguettes: Once it’s finished baking, it’s returned to the turned-off oven, where it takes on more color and dries out slightly. If it sounds tricky to get a puffy loaf out of a hot pan, we’ve got you covered: The pan is lined with a parchment strip with overhanging tabs so that it’s easy to lift the bread and slide it directly onto the oven rack. The heat from the rack kisses the bottom of the loaf, while the sides get their first direct exposure to hot air.  

For the most dramatic exterior, our Fabulous Focaccia Pan is, as the name suggests, unparalleled; it’s made from black anodized aluminum, and the darker pan yields a darker crust. (You can still get crisp results in other metal pans — even disposable aluminum pans from the supermarket. Just please, don’t use glass.) The final textural touch is a generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Cyprus Flake Salt consists of gigantic — like, visible from space — pyramids that make the whole loaf sparkle, which is exactly what it deserves.

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

I’ve baked, tasted, and developed a lot of focaccia recipes, and I can confidently say that this one is my favorite. But enough about me: It’s your turn to find out! Bake our newest Recipe of the Year, Big and Bubbly Focaccia. Share it with us on Facebook and Instagram using #RecipeOfTheYear, and please leave a review and let us know what you think.

Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.