Garlic Dill Focaccia Bread – infused with garlic and dill, the smell of this warm, freshly baked bread is absolute heaven. It’s surprisingly easy to make and just takes a little bit of patience!
I’ve gone and done something dangerous.
I’ve started teaching myself how to make bread and now I won’t be able to stop eating it.
Learning to make bread is something I’ve been wanting to do for about a year now but I kept putting it off (huge procrastinator over here). Finally I went and bought myself some yeast a couple of weeks ago, and the first thing I made with it was pizza dough for this Buffalo Chicken Pizza. That was a great success so next I decided to make one of my favourite types of breads, focaccia.
I love how with focaccia there is such variety with what you can mix in – herbs, mushrooms, cheese, or tomatoes just to name a few. Deciding to start easy with my first try at this, I thought I would use herbs of some sort. I happened to have a bunch of dill in my fridge and wasn’t sure what to do with all of it so I figured I would use some of it for this bread (if you have any other suggestions for dill I would love to hear about it in the comments below!). Thus, garlic dill focaccia was born.
Aside from the time it takes to let the dough rise, this bread is simple to make. It does not require any special kitchen equipment, it is mixed a bowl and baked in a baking dish. This also requires very little kneading with hardly any more than a minute necessary.
You can easily switch up the herbs you use for this as well, keeping the base of this recipe the same. Word to the wise – you’ll want to ensure you use a great tasting olive oil as focaccia really takes on the flavour of it.
This focaccia bread is slightly crisp on the outside and perfectly soft on the inside. Its great plain, with a little bit of butter and it was also great with some bread dipping oil. This bread would be lovely accompanied with soup or pasta as it is wonderful for sopping up sauce!
If you try this recipe please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, post on the Zest & Simmer Facebook page or share photos on Instagram using the hashtag #zestandsimmer. I’d love to see it!
Garlic Dill Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/4 tsp honey
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together the warm water, yeast and honey. Let sit for 5 minutes until foamy.
- While waiting for yeast mixture to foam, in a small skillet over low heat combine the olive oil and minced garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until aromatic. Do not let the garlic get too brown! Remove from heat and set aside. Once it has cooled a bit stir in dill.
- Add 1 cup of the flour and 1/4 cup of the olive oil and herb mixture to the yeast mixture. Stir together and then let sit for 5 more minutes.
- Mix in the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour and the salt until the dough comes together. On a floured surface, knead the dough 15-20 times until smooth.
- Oil the bowl you mixed the dough in, and transfer dough back into bowl, turning to coat. Cover with a towel, set in a warm area and let rise for 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 450°F.
- Spread 2 tbsp of the olive oil and herb mixture into a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish. Transfer the dough to the baking dish, pressing it down and spreading.
- Use your fingers to dimple the dough and then drizzle the remainder of the olive oil mixture over the dough. Let rise for 20 minutes.
- Baking in pre-heated oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until it is golden brown.
Was pretty excellent…. but could use some salt…. that I never put in cause it wasn’t in the directions.
Loved the texture and the flavor from the crusts, but the fluffy inside was so bland! Do I need more salt? Would letting it rise overnight give it more flavor?
Hi Kelsey! I’m sorry you felt the inside was bland! You could try making more of the herb mixture and mixing some of it into the dough so the herb flavour is throughout! I’m not sure if letting it rise longer would do much but it could be worth a try! I usually eat my focaccia by dipping it in a balsamic + oil mixture which adds tons of flavour too!
I try to stick to whole grains and I have all this wonderful fresh dill growing on my counter. I am finding it a challenge to find a recipe with both Dill and whole grain or whole wheat flours. Any suggestions on how I might best tweak this recipe for general purpose whole wheat flour? I will let you know how it goes.
I haven’t made this myself with whole wheat flour so I can’t say for sure. I wouldn’t ever call myself an expert baker haha. You probably could just swap it out, and add a bit more liquid but it will be denser and it will have a bit of a different taste. I’ve done other bread recipes with half whole wheat flour, half all purpose before so you could try that too.
First focaccia I’ve made and this was such a helpful recipe! I think it could use some more flavor but the fluffiness and texture are wonderful!! Really happy with how it came out.
Hi Emery, thanks for trying my recipe! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🥲