Focaccia and pizza are close relatives, and the line between them is blurry. In the 1850s the Neapolitan writer Emmanuele Rocco described focacce and schiacciate as “something similar” to pizza, “but they are the embryo of the art,” and Modernist Pizza uses that line to make the point that topped flatbreads are centuries older than pizza as we know it. A focaccia pizza sits on that border: a focaccia dough, baked in a pan, with something on top.
What focaccia is
The word covers a lot of breads. Modernist Pizza describes the focaccia of much of Liguria as “a thick pan-baked dough, slicked with olive oil, and often sprinkled with salt,” and contrasts it with the focaccia of Recco, on the same coast, which is stretched thin enough to see through, filled with cheese and covered with a second paper-thin layer before baking.
Rome has its own versions. Ken Forkish describes Roman pizza bianca as “like a thin focaccia,” oiled and salted and pressed with the fingertips, and Modernist Pizza goes further: by its definition, Rome’s pizza bianca and pizza rossa aren’t pizza at all, but bread. Forkish also notes that thicker doughs like Genoa’s focaccia do well in pans lined with oil beneath the dough.
Three things make focaccia, focaccia: a wet dough that rises in the pan, oil under and over it, and dimples pressed in with the fingertips before baking.
Focaccia, Sicilian and Detroit
All three are rectangular or square pan breads, and recipes overlap. King Arthur calls the crust of its Sicilian-style pizza “almost focaccia-like.” The differences are in the topping and the bake:
For more on the pan pizzas, see Sicilian vs. grandma pizza and Detroit-style pizza at home.
Big and Bubbly Focaccia
This follows King Arthur Baking’s published recipe (checked October 14, 2026). It makes one 9-inch square focaccia. King Arthur prefers a 9-inch metal pan and warns against 8-inch and glass pans; it says a 9 × 13-inch metal pan or quarter-sheet pan also works, for a thinner focaccia, and a 10-inch cast-iron skillet for a slightly taller one.
Dough (about 679 g, calculated)
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Unbleached all-purpose flour | 360 g | 100% |
| Table salt | 9 g | 2.5% |
| Granulated sugar | 5 g | 1.4% |
| Instant yeast | 3 g | 0.8% |
| Warm water, 90 to 110°F | 284 g | 79% |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | 18 g | 5% |
Baker’s percentages are calculated. King Arthur says to use the cooler end of the water range in warm months or a 70 to 75°F kitchen, and the warmer end when the room is about 65°F.
For the pan and top
- 13 g extra-virgin olive oil for the pan
- 13 g extra-virgin olive oil for the top
- Flaky sea salt: 1 generously rounded teaspoon Cyprus flake or ½ teaspoon Maldon
- Nonstick spray
- A parchment strip about 3 by 16 inches, rated for 475°F
Method
- Mix. Whisk the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water and oil and stir until no dry patches remain. Cover and rest 15 minutes.
- Fold. With a wet hand, lift sections of dough from the edge into the center, going around the bowl 8 to 12 times, then flip the dough smooth side up. Cover and rest 15 minutes. Repeat for four folds in all, resting 15 minutes between them. By the last fold the dough should feel fairly strong.
- First rise. Cover and let it rise at 70 to 75°F for 1 hour, until nearly doubled and very puffy.
- Prepare the pan. Spray the pan. Press the parchment strip across the center with an overhang on two sides, spray it, add 13 g of olive oil and tilt the pan to spread it.
- Pan rise. Move the dough into the center of the pan and flip it so it’s coated in oil, handling it as little as possible. Cover and let it rise at warm room temperature for 1 to 1½ hours, until it’s “marshmallowy and jiggly,” nearly fills the corners and is close to the top edge.
- Heat the oven. Near the end of the rise, heat the oven to 475°F (245°C) with racks in the upper and lower thirds.
- Dimple and top. With oiled fingers, press dimples down to the bottom of the pan about 1½ inches apart, firmly but gently. Drizzle with the remaining 13 g of oil (it’s fine if it pools) and sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Bake on the lower rack for 15 to 18 minutes, until the high spots are brown and the crevices golden. If the top needs more color, King Arthur suggests 1 to 2 minutes under the broiler on the top rack, watched closely.
- Crisp the sides. Lift the focaccia out by the parchment and peel off the paper. Turn the oven off and set the focaccia directly on the lower rack for 5 to 7 minutes, until the sides are golden and crisp. Cool on a rack.
Time: about 25 minutes of active work and about 3 hours 40 minutes in all.
Overnight option. After the four folds, King Arthur says you can refrigerate the covered dough for 8 to 24 hours, then let the cold dough rise in the prepared pan for 2 to 3 hours, until it nearly reaches the corners.
Focaccia is best the day it’s made. King Arthur suggests wrapping leftovers loosely in foil at room temperature and reheating them.
Topping it
King Arthur’s advice on its half-sheet Golden Focaccia applies here: focaccia “isn’t pizza,” so keep the toppings light. It suggests chopped olives, feta, anchovies, sweet onions or capers. For sauce and melted cheese over the whole surface, switch to the Sicilian-style method, which bakes the crust plain first and then tops it.
Why a wet dough suits a pan
In a pan, the dough doesn’t have to hold its own shape. King Arthur’s method lets it rise in the oiled pan until it nearly fills the corners, and builds its strength with bowl folds instead of kneading. When Modernist Pizza’s authors varied the water in their own master focaccia, they saw no meaningful differences in the dough across the range they tested; only when they pushed it much wetter did the volume change, for the worse. That’s one experiment on one formula, not a rule for all focaccia.
Plan a sheet-pan pizza
The Pizza Planner doesn’t have a focaccia preset. Its closest style is the Sicilian-style pan pizza, based on King Arthur’s recipe, in a 13 × 18-inch half-sheet pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What hydration should focaccia dough be?
- Published recipes vary widely. King Arthur's Big and Bubbly Focaccia works out to about 79% water, while its half-sheet Golden Focaccia, made with the recipe's own preferment, is closer to 63% (both calculated). Wetter doughs give a more open crumb but are stickier to handle, which a pan and bowl folds make manageable.
- What's the difference between focaccia and Sicilian pizza?
- Focaccia is mostly about the bread: oiled, dimpled and lightly topped. A Sicilian-style pizza uses a similar thick pan dough but is topped with sauce and cheese across the whole surface. King Arthur calls its Sicilian crust 'almost focaccia-like.'
- Can I bake focaccia in a glass pan?
- King Arthur advises against it for this recipe and recommends a 9-inch metal pan. A 9 × 13-inch metal or quarter-sheet pan works for a thinner focaccia.
- Can I make focaccia dough the night before?
- Yes. King Arthur's recipe allows refrigerating the dough for 8 to 24 hours after the folds, then letting it rise in the pan for 2 to 3 hours before dimpling and baking.
Sources
- King Arthur Baking (Test Kitchen), “Big and Bubbly Focaccia”, updated December 14, 2025. Checked October 14, 2026.
- King Arthur Baking (PJ Hamel), “Golden Focaccia”, updated November 12, 2025 (topping advice; hydration of the preferment version, calculated from its 226 g water and 360 g flour). Checked October 14, 2026.
- King Arthur Baking, “Sicilian-Style Pizza” and “Weeknight Detroit Pizza”, as used by the Pizza Planner. Checked October 14, 2026.
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1: page 17 (Rocco on focacce and schiacciate), page 19 (Ligurian and Recco focaccia), page 108 (pizza bianca and pizza rossa as bread) and page 289 (their master focaccia hydration experiment, described qualitatively).
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016), chapter 1 (Roman pizza bianca, pan-baked focaccia from Genoa).