Oven-baked Italian Olive & Herb Focaccia Bread filled with fantastic flavours of olive oil, garlic, sundried tomato, olives and herbs. Great as a side with pasta recipes to soak up the juices. Equally great, served as a starter and make up some extra oil for dipping the focaccia bread into.

Make flavoured oil for Olive & Herb Focaccia.
The first step is to create a delicious oil for using in the bread mixture and drizzled on top. We used Gia Garlic puree, Gia Sundried Tomato Puree, mixed herbs and black pepper and mixed it all into Olive Oil.
If you can’t find the puree’s then use 4 garlic cloves and 6 sundried tomatoes and make your own paste in a blender before adding the herbs and oil.
If you are serving this up for a starter, sharing platter or snack you may want to double up on this oil so you can use it for dipping the cooked focaccia bread in.
How do you make Olive & Herb Focaccia from scratch
Our version of focaccia uses plain flour, which gives a soft fluffy bread. But, if you are after a more authentic Italian Focaccia with denser, chewy texture, you may want to substitute 1/2 plain flour & 1/2 strong bread flour.
Follow our step by step guide to creating your own Olive & Herb Focaccia bread. See our video on how we made our focaccia bread, full ingredients and cooking will found on the recipe card below.
Mix together yeast, honey and warm water whisk together to combine, leave for 5 minutes to let the yeast activate.
Add half the flour and 4 tbsp of the flavoured oil to the bread yeast mixture. Stir through and leave aside for another 5 minutes.
Add the remaining flour and the salt, stir it all together. The dough should be fairly wet and sticky at this point, keep stirring until it forms a sticky ball.
Sprinkle some flour on a board and knead the dough for 5 minutes, only adding flour to the board if really needed. Kneading should help make it less sticky, you don’t want to make it too dry with flour as it will affect the rise of the bread.
What tin to bake focaccia bread in
We decided to cook our focaccia in a 24cm (9 in) spring-form cake tin. However, you can cook in a similar-sized square/rectangular tin, a large loaf tin or for a flatter bread a small baking tray.
Don’t forget to oil the tin you are baking the bread in.
How long to proof dough for focaccia bread
Place the kneaded dough in the oiled tin which you will be cooking it in. Cover with a dampened tea towel. Find a warm place to help it rise quicker. Leave to rise for at least 1 hour, if it has not doubled in size it may need longer? It all depends on the temperature of your home.
Dimple the bread with your finger (put some oil on your finger to stop the bread sticking to it) when pushing into the bread push all the way down until you hit the base.
Drizzle 2 tbsp of the oil mix over the dimpled focaccia bread, allowing it to enter the dimples. Push your olives slightly into the dimples you created.

Finally, sprinkle some fresh rosemary leaves and add some salt.
How long to cook Foccacia?
Cook in a preheated oven at 200°C /400F for 20 minutes.
Once cooked, remove from the oven, glaze with the leftover flavoured oil mix.

Let sit for 10 minutes before removing focaccia from the pan.
Slice and serve! Enjoy

Perfect bread, see how the sundried tomato and garlic herby oil soaks into the dimples, so delicious, you will love it!
How to store focaccia bread?
Cover focaccia with cling film keeping at room temperature, for 2 days. Serve cold or reheat in a 200°C /400F oven for 10 minutes.
To freeze focaccia, place in a freezer bag, and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw for 1 hour and reheat in a 200°C /400F oven for 10 minutes.

Olive & Herb Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
Olive Oil Mix
- 120 ml Olive oil
- 2 tsp Gia Garlic Puree or 4 cloves garlic blended together with below
- 1 tbsp Gia Sundried Tomato Puree or 6 Sundried Tomatoes blended with above
- 1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
- Black olives A handful of black olives chopped in half
- black pepper to taste
Focaccia Bread Mix
- 300 grams Plain Flour
- 2 tsp Dried yeast
- 1/2 tsp Honey
- Salt Pinch of salt
- 240 ml Warm water
- 3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary (Optional)
Instructions
- In a bowl combine the Olive oil, Gia Garlic puree, Gia Sundried Tomato puree, dried mixed herbs and black pepper and place to one side.
- In a large mixing bowl stir the yeast, warm water and honey together and set to one side for 5 minutes.
- Add 120 grams of flour and 4 tbsp of the oil mix to the large mixing bowl with the yeast, warm water and honey.Stir together and until all ingredients in the bowl are mixed in and place to one side for another 5 minutes.
- Stir in the remaining flour and salt, until the dough forms together, the dough should be fairly wet and sticky at this point.
- Sprinkle some flour on a board and knead it for 5 minutes, only adding flour to the board if really needed. The kneading should help make it less sticky, you don't want to make it too dry with flour as it will affect the rise of the bread.
- Place 2 tbsp of the olive oil mix into the cooking tin and spread all over the base and around the sides.
- Place the kneaded dough in the center of an oiled baking tin with a dampened towel over the top and let it spread and rise for 1 hour. It may need longer, keep it somewhere warm away from draughts. It will be ready when it has double in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C /400f
- Once the dough has doubled in size. Start to dimple the bread with your finger/thumb (put some oil on your finger/thumb to stop the bread sticking to it) when pushing into the bread push all the way down until you hit the base.
- Drizzle 2 tbsp of oil mixture over top the of the bread, allowing it to sink into the holes. Push olives into the dimples slighty, bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven, glaze with the leftover oil mix.
- Let sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Slice, serve & enjoy 🙂
Nutrition
If you enjoyed making this Italian Olive & Herb Focaccia Bread, how about also making out our some of our other bread recipes?

Or something a bit more adventurous?


Please spare some time to comment below, letting us know what you think or how you got on with making it.
Yum how delicious! Love the special touch of sliced black olives on top for presentation too,Thanks!
I can snack on this bread the whole day. Delicious and flavorful too. Soft and moist as well.
I love all things bread! So I was eager to try this recipe! Let me tell you, it did’t disappoint! Perfect amount of herbs and so much flavor! Thank you so much for sharing!
So happy to hear you love it as much as we do!
That’s an incredible bread, I love it so much. We can’t have enough of it!
Great to hear Jenny!
I love that everyone is baking so much these days! Focaccia is a great bread to have for a quick lunch because you can flavour it with so many things according to taste, just like you have done here.
We love this bread, it tastes great dipped in oil!
I’ve made focaccia before but never thought to flavor the oil. Game changer! This was outstanding!
Thank you Andrea!!
The combo of olives and herbs is fantastic! Such a great focaccia recipe.
Yes it is fantastic, our favourite bread!
Hmm yum! This Olive & Herb Focaccia Bread looks really scrumptious. The combination of olive oil, garlic, sundried tomato, olives and herbs are perfect together. We’re definitely going to have this on our table.
It is perfect like you said!
Oh man, this olive herb focaccia bread looks heavenly. I’ve never made focaccia bread before but I can’t wait to bake this and share it with my family.
Thank you Kelly!
This focaccia is absolutely delicious! I just love the flavors the sun-dried tomatoes and olive add, and it has the perfect texture.
Thank you Amanda!
I finally got my hands on some yeast and can hop on the bread making bandwagon ahaha I’m so excited to try this one this week!!
We have the problem of no yeast in the shops too 🙁 We only have 2 sachets left!)
Love this bread it’s a perfect way to start dinner off. I can’t wait to make this at home soon.
It is a great bread, hope you get to try it soon?
Thank you for this! Going to try it now.
Our pleasure, enjoy! x