If you’ve ever made no knead bread, you know how easy and simple it is to have fresh bread from your own oven with little to no effort. This Whole Wheat No Knead Focaccia with Rosemary and Sea Salt is so easy to make!
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 :-)
Whole Wheat Focaccia with Rosemary and Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
- 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 cups warm water
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped, or 1 tablespoon dried
- coarse sea salt to taste
Instructions
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix yeast (1 teaspoon) and 2 cups of warm water (I usually run hot water from the faucet into my pyrex measuring cup, and add the yeast directly in, whisking together to dissolve).
- In a large bowl, mix together white flour (3 cups) and whole wheat flour (1 1/3 cups) with the kosher salt (2 teaspoons).
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the water and yeast mixture. Mix together until no dry spots remain with a wooden spoon. The dough mixture will be sticky.
- Cover bowl dough with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise at a warm room temperature for two hours (see notes for how to store in the refrigerator to cook later in the week, and if your kitchen room temperature is colder).
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread two tablespoons of olive oil on top of the parchment using a rubber spatula.
- Use the same rubber spatula (which will be covered in oil) to scrape the dough from the bowl on to the parchment covered baking sheet.
- Spread the dough out with the spatula until approximately 1" thick across. You can also use your hands, coated in oil, for this. Drizzle the remaining two tablespoons of oil on top and use your fingers to press the dough in and form "dimples" in the dough. Allow to rest at room temperature for one more hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Just before baking, sprinkle the rosemary and sea salt on top of the bread.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked.
- Remove and allow to cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
- Serve warm or at room temperature. It's best eaten within one day- freeze leftovers if you want to save some for later.
Notes
- Prep ahead instructions: After one hour of rising at room temperature, you can move the dough to the refrigerator and save it for up to a week. When you want to make the bread, remove it from the fridge and let rest at room temperature for one hour, then continue with the next step.
- If your kitchen is cold: If you are making this in the winter or your kitchen is cold/drafty, turn your oven on for only a couple of minutes to warm it up, then turn it off, and let the dough rise in the oven. The heat will be retained enough for effective rising. Later, when you are preheating the oven, allow the focaccia to rise in the pan resting on top of the oven, since that area will be warm.
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The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Christopher Cochran
Excellent. I didn’t have whole wheat so I used spelt, also I chopped up some fresh rosemary in the dough. I used a really well seasoned large iron skillet instead of parchment paper on a sheet pan. I was worried it would stick but it made a perfect crust.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! I’ll have to try it in a cast iron skillet next time!
Kelly A Bell
Big hit! I made this for the first time yesterday and everyone loved it. I didn’t have quite enough AP flour so had to use about 1/2 cup of additional whole wheat to make up the difference – that small substitution went well and the bread wasn’t heavy with it.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Stephanie
I found it a bit bland. I needed to add more salt, I believe.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks for this feedback. Next time I make it, I’ll give it a try with more salt and update the recipe accordingly!
Joanna
what if I don’t have whole wheat flour, what measurements of regular flour would I use? looking forward to making this! my friend is having a lasagna dinner tomorrow night so perfect timing!
Elizabeth Lindemann
I would just use 1/4 cup more of all purpose flour – so 3 1/4 cups total. Hope you were able to find out a solution, thanks for your patience with this response as I took time off for Thanksgiving this week!
Vanessa Skody
What if I wanted it to be all whole wheat? How would I substitute for all purpose flour?
Elizabeth Lindemann
You’ll need less whole wheat flour overall as a substitute for all purpose, so I recommend 4 even cups instead 4 1/3. Whole wheat flour on its own is a bit more difficult to work with for bread – it has less gluten so the dough will be a little looser, stickier, and more dense. Just keep that in mind as you make it :-)
Ellen Spear
I love this recipe. The overnight doughs are so easy. I love to wake up to puffy dough. I’ve made this focaccia several times now. I add a scant Tbsp of sugar, a bit more rosemary, and several grinds of fresh black pepper to the mix.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yum, love the idea of adding a little sugar and pepper to the mix! I bet that flavor combination is divine. Can’t wait to try that next time I make this!
Ellie L.
I really loved the taste of this focaccia, but the texture was a bit off. It was soft and chewy in the middle but sort of like a cracker on the outside. I think it could have been my oven, which is sometimes a little too hot. Either way, I will most likely make this again!
Elizabeth Lindemann
I tell ya, bread is hard to get exactly right depending on your oven, the hardness of your water, the altitude, and any number of things! But one thing that can help with bread that’s too cracker-like on the outside is increasing the humidity in your oven. You might want to try filling up an oven-safe dish (like a baking dish) with water, and placing it in the oven on the lower rack. That should help create some steam and keep it more humid, which will help. Hope that helps!
Ellie L.
Thank you for the suggestion!
Daphne Heppding
Focaccia bread is suppose to be soft and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Thats a true Italian bread. Pour olive oil on it after its baked.
Elizabeth Lindemann
You can certainly add olive oil after it’s baked but every focaccia recipe I’ve seen has olive oil poured on top before baking. There are other, rustic Italian breads and loaves that are crustier on the outside. Perhaps there are some regional differences with different kinds of focaccia. Hope that helps!