This cheesy focaccia with tomato and garlic confit is the perfect bread – and it’s no knead! It’s crispy and golden on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and full of garlic infused olive oil aka liquid gold. It tastes exactly like pizza bread… but better!
Tomato Garlic Confit Cheesy Focaccia
This focaccia recipe is perfect for beginners and combines all of my favourite flavours into one. It uses my famous garlic confit, cherry tomato confit and lots of mozzarella cheese. It’s finished off with a drizzle of garlic infused extra-virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of fresh herbs, flaky sea salt and black pepper. You could also add a teaspoon of dried herbs such as oregano. You can make the most delicious sandwiches with this focaccia. Check out my Chicken Parma Focaccia Sandwich here.
My top tips for making the best cheesy focaccia
Leave the dough to rest and rise as long as you can – if you have the time, I recommend leaving it for 24 – 48 hours in as this will result in a fluffier and lighter dough. If you are short on time try and leave it for a minimum of 8 hours. Leave your dough to rise in a big bowl with either a silicone lid or plastic wrap covering it. Your dough will double or even triple in size so it will need a lot of room to grow.
Use a high quality extra virgin olive oil and don’t be shy with it – this is a recipe that relies heavily on extra virgin olive oil not just for the taste but also for the texture and that golden and crunchy crust. It’s important we are not skimping on the quality which is why I recommend using Rich Glen olive oil. If you are not a fan of adding the garlic confit, you can simply omit this from the recipe and use Rich Glens Wild Garlic Olive Oil or their signature extra virgin blend.
Find a warm spot in your house for the second rise – a room temperature environment will help the dough rise for its second rise. If you are making your focaccia in winter, a little trick I learnt is to leave the light on in your oven and let the focaccia dough rise in there.
Top tips cont…
Don’t be afraid to get creative – my favourite topping for cheesy focaccia is garlic confit and fresh rosemary however, these are only optional toppings! This can be kalamata olives, potatoes, onions, shallots or plain with some kosher salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. Don’t be afraid to get creative and personalise it to your personal taste.
Use the right flour – while bread flour will leave you with a chewier texture, it can be a little hard to find! All purpose flour will work just as well!
It’s all about the baking sheet – I use a baking dish that is 34cm x 23cm x 5cm. You can also use a rimmed baking sheet so your focaccia doesn’t rise as high or a cake pan which will give the focaccia a circular and deep shape. It really comes down to personal preference!
Rise baby rise – if you’re using an active dry yeast, it needs to feed off honey in warm water. Leave it to sit in the bowl for 5 minutes or until bubbles start to form. This will indicate your yeast is alive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I leave my dough to rise for a shorter period of time?
There are recipes that allow the dough to rise in a short amount of time however, this recipe will not work unless you leave your dough to rise for a minimum of 8 hours for the first rise in the fridge and a minimum of 2 hours in a warm place for the second rise. I always recommend leaving it for as long as possible to get the best result.
What size baking tin do you use?
The baking tin I use is 34cm x 23cm x 5cm. It’s important your baking dish is large and deep enough for the focaccia to rise in.
Can I use an active yeast?
Absolutely! The yeast I use is a non active dry yeast which is why we need to activate and feed it with the honey. If you are using an active yeast you can skip this first step and simply add the yeast to your flour with your water and salt.
How long does the focaccia keep for?
Bread is always at its most delicious on the day it’s made. I recommend freezing the bread on the day it has been made to maintain its freshness for as long as possible. If not, you can use it for up to 3 days before it goes stale. But keep in mind, stale focaccia can be turned into the best golden brown breadcrumbs!
Confit
I have affectionately become known as the garlic and olive oil girl and I am not complaining! My favourite way to cook something is to confit it and one of my favourite things to eat is garlic so why not combine the two! You can read everything you need to know about garlic confit here and tomato confit here.
If you make this recipe, please tag me on Instagram, Tik Tok or Pinterest so I can see your wonderful creations!
If you have any questions or would like to leave a review, please do so here! I always love answering your food and recipe related questions and hearing your feedback on my recipes.
View my garlic confit focaccia, green and black olive focaccia and spicy garlic confit butter recipe.
Cheesy Focaccia with Tomato & Garlic Confit
Ingredients
Tomato & garlic confit
- 250 g cherry tomatoes
- 3 heads garlic
- 3 cups olive oil
- 3 sprigs rosemary
Focaccia
- 2.5 cups lukewarm water 2 cups cold water + 1/2 cup boiling hot water (600ml)
- 1 sachet dry yeast 7g
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 5 cups all purpose white flour 740g
- 2.5 tsp flakey sea salt
- 10 garlic confit cloves
- 10 confit tomatoes
- 125 g buffalo mozarella
- 8 tbsp garlic and tomato confit olive oil
Instructions
Tomato & garlic confit
- Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius.
- Peel the garlic by breaking the cloves away and placing them into a heatproof bowl. Submerge in boiling hot water for 5 minutes and drain. The skin will become loose and easy to peel away.
- Place the garlic cloves, cherry tomatoes and rosemary into an ovenproof dish and fully submerge in olive oil. It's important the garlic and tomatoes are fully submerged in the olive oil so it does not burn. Bake for 2 hours or until the garlic has browned in colour.
- Allow to cool and store in an airtight container or jar with the garlic cloves fully submerged in the olive oil for up to several weeks in the fridge.
Focaccia
- In a medium bowl, mix together the lukewarm water, yeast and honey with a whisk and leave to sit for 5 minutes or until the yeast has foamed. This will indicate that your yeast is active.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt and whisk together. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl and bring the dough together with your hands or a spatula until a shaggy and sticky dough forms.
- Coat a large mixing bowl with 4 tablespoons of the garlic confit olive oil and transfer the dough to the bowl. Coat the dough in the olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into the fridge. Leave the dough to rise for a minimum of 6 hours but ideally for 24 hours. The dough will double in size and look bubbly.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and fold it over itself in quarters. Gather up each edge of the dough with your hands and fold it over itself while turning the bowl. The dough will deflate while you shape it into a neat ball.
- Coat a deep rectangular baking dish (I use a pan that is 34cm x 23cm x 5cm) with 2 tablespoons of the garlic confit olive oil and transfer the dough ball to the baking dish. Using your fingers, stretch the dough out slightly into a rough rectangular shape. There is no need to stretch the dough out to the edges of the pan as the dough will rise and spread. Cover the pan with a tea towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm area of your house for 3 - 4 hours. If your dough is uncovered there is risk of too much air getting into the dough and creating a dry and crusty layer on top.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Once the dough has risen, use your fingers to indent or dimple the dough. Scatter the garlic confit cloves, confit cherry tomatoes, torn up mozzarella and rosemary over the dough. Drizzle the dough with 2 tablespoons of the garlic confit olive oil. This will help the crust of the dough get golden and crispy when baking. Finish off with a sprinkling of flakey sea salt. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until the dough has developed a golden crust on top.
- Let the bread slightly cool before removing it from the baking tray. Place onto a wire rack.
- Slice the bread and enjoy on its own or dipped into the garlic confit olive oil with some balsamic vinegar.
So I took it out of the fridge and it felt hard and didn’t bubble very much. It’s in the baking tray now so I’m gonna let it rise and see what happens I could stretch it out too much either I don’t know what I did wrong
Oh no! You may not have added enough water or could have possible overworked the dough when mixing the water through. Give it another try and let me know how you go. How did the focaccia turn out in the end?
Soo that comment was in the middle of it. I completed it thru and OMG my first time making focaccia and it was amazing. Thank you so much. Shared with other family too. They enjoyed it.
Can I use bread flour, that’s what I have the most of right now. Or should I do half and half?
I am so glad you enjoyed it! I always use all purpose flour when making focaccia.
I have made this with all AP flour, a half and half mix and all bread flour. The texture becomes a little more chewy with bread flour, but not at all in an unpleasant way.
I always use AP flour and it turns out lovely!
Can we bake (any) bread in an microwave. And if (yes) then what buttons to select to bake the bread?.
I am afraid that would not work!
What is the two cups of cold water for, and where when do I add it?
Its for the dough and is mentioned in the first step of the recipe 🙂
Made this recipe and was turned out super yummy. One thing though, the bread came out much higher than yours did, higher than an focaccia should. Favor and crust was all on point though. I’m thinking it might be because I used bread flour and rapid acting yeast? That’s all I had on hand. Otherwise I used the right sized baking tin, etc. Any other thoughts as to why it was so high?
It sounds like it may have been the yeast you used! Try a different yeast next time and let me know how you go.
Hi Daen
In the recipe it says only coat 2 tbsp of oil into the baking tray and then let it rise..
But on the video it looks like you also coat the top of the dough with oil again after it has risen and then scatter the vegs
Could you please clarify ?
Thank you!
It’s up to you if you would like to add an extra drizzle of olive oil onto the top of the dough!
Have you used a large cast iron skillet to make the bread in? Do you think it would work??
It would definitely work! Let me know how you go.
This focaccia was a labor of love but the outcome was complete perfection. The light crust on the outside with the soft center was superior to any I have tried or made. I will be making this recipe over and over. Thank you 🙏
Thank you for the lovely feedback!
I made this this weekend, I did cut the recipe in half, but it turned out much taller and fluffier than your picture. I used AP flour and didnt use rapid yeast. It still tasted good but wondering why that could be.
It may have been because you cut the recipe in half or you could have used a little too much yeast!
Amazing recipe! Like many others here, it was my first time making a focaccia and following your instructions resulted in a perfect first attempt! Everybody loved it.
Superb! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! I am so glad to hear that!
hi can i use instant yeast? if i do how do i alter the recipe?
You definitely can! Just skip the step where the yeast is added to the honey and water to activate it. You can add it directly to your flour instead, give it a little whisk then add in your water.
Hi so everything came out well except the last step. My foccacia is stuck to the baking tray. What do I do?
Oh no! Sometimes is can just come down to the pan you are using. You can also line the tray with baking paper but that does take away from the crispy bottom a little.
…focaccia out of fridge, into the warm oven. like one of your commenters above, my dough looks to be a greater thickness in my proper sized pan based on your recommendation. after proofing in the oven for 2-3 hrs…i may transfer to a larger pan and let it settle a bit before making the garlic and tomato wells with fingers. whaddya think?
What an incredible recipe! As someone who only learned how to make bread over the pandemic, this was such a great bread to add to the list. Super easy to follow. As an American, the conversions were this…I used instant yeast so no honey was needed to activate. 2 1/2 teaspoons to be exact. Then the oven temperature conversion is 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I also proofed my dough, after 24 hours in the fridge, in a cold oven with only the light on for 4 hours. You MUST try this recipe along with the confit, absolutely delicious! xoxo
Thank you so much!
Curious about an AP gluten free flour substitute or another GF option that would work well?
I haven’t tried a gluten free version of this recipe so can’t offer much advice I am afriad!
Suggestions for a GF flour substitute? Would an AP or a blend work better?
I haven’t tried it with GF flour I am sorry! I use AP or bread flour!
Hello! I’m so excited to make this, but I have a few questions. First off, when you say “garlic cloves fully submerged in the olive oil for up to several weeks in the fridge.” Do you mean letting the garlic and tomatos soak in the oil for a couple weeks (sort of like pickling something)? If so, would only letting it sit for about 4 hours affect the taste of the olive oil and tomatos/garlic? Also, you said to coat the bowl and the dough with the garlic confit oil, if I just used regular oil instead of the garlic confit, would it affect the taste? (Im asking this because I cannot make the garlic confit at the moment.) Would the focaccia taste sort of like honey if adding honey? Honey flavoring isnt my favorite, so if it does, would it harm the recipe to remove it? Lastly, Im a new baker and have been working on different types of pastries that include dough, and every time the dough isnt soft/fluffy and would just rip apart when kneading. How can I prevent that?
So sorry for asking so much questions but I kind of need this to be perfect, haha.
Thank you so much!
Hello! That is me referring to how you store the tomato and garlic confit! No need to do this before you have made the recipe. Regular oil would be fine to use and the honey is only there to activate the yeast. You will not taste it!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! Everyone loves this and I’ve had Italians tell me it’s very authentic. Question-I want to make a pizza with this, what would you adjust the cooking time too?
Thank you! I use this dough to make a deep dish pizza and cook it for the same amount of time. I just use a thinner sheet pan!
I borrowed from your recipe, specifically, the confit garlic and tomatoes. I’d made oven, roasted garlic before, however, found the results to still be a bit harsh, and strong. Man, cooking the garlic, slow, in oil, in the oven, was a game changer for me. The garlic cloves were soft and buttery. The flavor is much more mellow than oven roasted garlic. What’s wild is that no garlic clove tasted the same. I had one that had notes of strawberry!! For the most part there was no bitterness. I am going to be buying a lot more garlic heads. This confit garlic would be excellent on croutons, instead of butter. Or it would make garlic bread sublime. The confit tomatoes were also excellent – sweet tender and flavor concentrated. Making focaccia with olives, cherry tomatoes and oven roasted garlic – well the eating experience was underwhelming. Acidity was missing. I really didn’t want to make focaccia pizza. But I thought the tanginess of a light, home made tomato sauce would provide the punch a focaccia needed. I am so pleased by the results I achieved today. The dough, tomato sauce, cheese, confit tomatoes and garlic all came together. I am so glad I stopped by your blog and discovered the magic of confit veggies. THANK YOU for your recipe and info!!!
Thank you for leaving such lovely feedback! So glad you enjoyed it.