This Homemade focaccia bread recipe is easy to make, naturally vegan, flavorful and truly the best! Top this soft and pillowy yeast bread with cherry tomatoes, garlic, olives, fresh rosemary sprigs, and sea salt or any flavors you like to create your own favorite focaccia!
The Best vegan Foccacia bread
A versatile basic focaccia recipe that requires just a few simple ingredients should definitely not be missing here on the blog! It is not only very simple but also a great swap for classic baguette, Indian vegan naan or traditional bread. It makes a perfect accompaniment to salads or various hearty dishes with a Mediterranean flair. However, I also like to reheat a piece in the oven just for a quick snack whenever I feel a little hungry. Not only the smell of freshly baked homemade focaccia but also the taste is amazingly delicious so please give it a try!
Use your favorite Toppings
Feel free to experiment with countless options for toppings. I used cherry tomatoes, olives, and fresh rosemary to top the focaccia, however, feel free to sub in your favorite toppings. Caramelized red onion or fennel would be lovely, as would sun-dried tomatoes and thyme, perhaps with a drizzle of honey or agave? Mmmm. The possibilities are endless!
Easy Homemade Focaccia Bread
If you’ve never baked bread before, please don’t be intimidated by the idea of making your own homemade dough! Basically, you only need six simple pantry ingredients to make this focaccia dough. And yes, you do need to work with yeast and use a rolling pin to make this focaccia, but I promise it’s EASY! Please keep in mind though, that you’ll need to let the dough rest and rise for about an hour before you’ll bake it, so you’ll want to make sure you plan accordingly.
Also, another pro tip: Make sure you check the expiry date on your yeast. Sounds obvious, I know, but the yeast is essential for the bread to rise and give you a light, airy, open-crumb focaccia as a result. I’m certain you’ll nail this easy recipe on your first attempt. You’ll never go back to store-bought focaccia again!
Ingredients for vegan focaccia bread
To make this homemade bread dough, all you need are six basic pantry staples. It’s all-purpose flour or bread flour, sugar or agave syrup, active dry yeast, olive oil, salt, and warm water. The toppings are totally customizable, depending on your favorites or what you have at the moment. Red onion, black or green olives, cherry tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes, fennel, fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme and flaky sea salt would all be lovely. You do you!
How to make the vegan focaccia bread
Step 1: Making the yeast dough
The bread dough comes together very easily. First, whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the water (make sure it’s lukewarm) and olive oil and combine everything together with a spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.
You’ll then transfer it on to a working surface and knead with your hands (or use a stand mixer with a dough hook) for about 10 minutes until a smooth dough forms.
Pro Tip: The dough should be more on the wet side. Resist the urge to add more flour if it’s stickier! – More flour will result in denser focaccia.
Shape the dough to a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Let the dough rise covered in a warm place (for example, the inside of your oven with the light on or by a sunny window) for about an hour or so, until it has nearly doubled in size.
Step 2: Assembling the focaccia bread
Next, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out into a large rectangle or circle until the dough is about 1/2-inch thick. Then place it in an oiled baking tin or baking sheet, making sure you stretch it all the way to the corners with your hands. Finally, cover the pan, and let the dough continue rising for another 20 minutes.
Now for those gorgeous dimples on our easy vegan focaccia! Punch deep holes (all the way to the bottom) into the focaccia as you can see in the pictures above. Add your toppings of choice, you’ll want to nestle them into the focaccia. Drizzle 1-2 tbsp of olive oil evenly all over the top of the dough, and sprinkle with salt and paprika. Bake the focaccia for 20 minutes at 400 F, or until the bread is nice and golden on top for the best aroma and flavor. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, slice, and serve warm.
Finally, serve this focaccia bread with a dash of olive oil on the side, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and generously sprinkled with salt, freshly ground pepper and more fresh herbs. This is a fuss-free recipe that is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser. Vegan or not, everyone is going to love this focaccia bread!
This best vegan focaccia bread is:
- Vegan
- Plant-based
- Dairy-free
- Egg-less
- Easy
- Homemade
- Hearty
- Infused with
- Soft & Fluffy
- Flavorful
- So delicious!
Looking for more homemade dough recipes? Make sure to check out the following:
- Vegan Naan Bread
- Homemade Tortillas Recipe
- Aloo Paratha (Indian Stuffed Flatbread)
- Spinach Tortillas
- Best Pizza Dough
- Vegan Pasta Dough
If you try this best vegan focaccia bread recipe, please leave me a comment and rating. Your feedback is always very helpful for me and other readers. And if you take a photo of your delicious fluffy yeast bread, please make sure to tag me on Instagram @biancazapatka and #biancazapatka because I love seeing your remakes! Happy baking! 🙂
Vegan Focaccia Bread Recipe
Author:Ingredients
Toppings (optional)
- cherry tomatoes
- olives green or black or mixed
- 2 rosemary sprigs or other dried herbs of choice
- 2 tsp flaked sea salt
- pinch of smoked paprika powder
Instructions
*Note: Check out the recipe video + step-by-step-photos in the blog post above!
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, dry yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour in the water and olive oil, then stir everything together with a spatula (or wooden spoon) until the mixture clumps together. Transfer to a working surface.
- Knead with your hands (or use a food processor with dough hooks) for about 5-10 minutes until a smooth dough forms. (If the dough is too sticky, add more flour but try to use as less flour as possible if you want a soft focaccia).
- Shape the dough to a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm location (I set mine by the sunny window) and let it rise for 45-60 minutes, or until the dough has nearly doubled in size.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out into a large rectangle (or circle) until the dough is about 1/2-inch thick (*see notes). Place in an oiled baking tin (*see notes) or large baking sheet, making sure you stretch it into the corners with your hands. Cover the pan, and let the dough continue to rise for another 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (around 10 minutes before the dough has finished rising).
- Press deep holes (all the way to the bottom) into the focaccia with the back of a wooden spoon or with your fingers, as you can see in the pictures above. Then, press the cherry tomatoes, olives and rosemary into the focaccia. Drizzle 1-2 tbsp of olive oil evenly all over the top of the dough, and sprinkle with salt and paprika.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the dough is slightly golden and cooked through. Remove from the oven, and drizzle with a little more olive oil if desired.
- Slice, and serve warm.
Notes
- I used a 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch (33cm x 22.9cm x 5.08cm) baking tin.
- Different people have different preferences on the thickness of their focaccia. If you want yours thinner, just roll it out a little more or roll it out a little less if you want yours thicker.
- For information on how to freeze yeast dough or to see a video on how to make yeast dough, check out my vegan naan recipe (click here).
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Can I make this a day ahead, or does need to be consumed on the day it is baked?
You can make the dough a day ahead and bake the next day as mentioned in the post! 😉
I have the same question, you said you mention this but I don’t see it anywhere on the page, do you go to the last step and leave it in the fridge before toppings and bake the next day?
If you want to make the dough ahead, leave the dough in fridge to rise overnight (in step 4). The next day, continue with step 5.
In step 5 it is mentioned: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out. Then place in an oiled baking pan, cover the pan, and let rise for another 20 minutes. After that press holes into the focaccia and add toppings.
this didn’t work at all… after 10 min of mixing the “dough” looks like a pancake and can’t hold any shape
I highly recommend measuring the ingredients in grams and ml to be sure you use the correct amount.
this recipe is great! so customizable. I’ll be making it for the fourth time. Plan on it taking closer to 2 hours with all the rests.
Glad you love it! Thank you! 🙂
Just made it. Absolutely delicious and the house smells like thanksgiving day. And so easy . I’m not a good baker but this came out great.
Great, thanks for your feedback! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 Happy weekend!
One question, I made this quite some time ago and I added many herbs etc to crust….but in your picture the herb looks to be basil? I think that’d be great, but is the rosemary good, as it’s all I have fresh.
You can use your favorite herbs! 🙂
This recipe is unbelievably easy and hassle free, but the outcome is fascinating!
I forgot to add olive oil, but it did work as perfect as without it. I used kichenaid to be even more hassle free. thanks for an amazing recipe. It did indeed made my day!
Glad you love this recipe! Thanks for your great feedback! 💖
I used this focaccia recipe for my very first focaccia bake while doing Veganuary and I can’t fault it! Easy to follow and the result was fantastic. It was so tasty. 5 Stars from me!
Awesome! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it! Many thanks.
I was looking for a quick and easy vegan focaccia bread recipe so I searched online and stumbled across Bianca’s recipe. Oh my goodness!! It was easy and SOOOO delcious! My whole family enjoyed it. We actually devoured it! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
I’m so happy that your family enjoyed it. Thank you so much for your lovely feedback, Tammy. 🙂
Such a brilliant and simple recipe. Came out amazing!
Thank you so much!