This golden brown colored Whole Wheat Focaccia, topped with fresh veggies is incredibly flavorful, well-baked, and is moist and spongy. With a soft texture inside and a crispy crust, this Italian whole wheat flour bread is amazingly delicious and would be a hit in the family!
Focaccia Bread is one of the most amazing breads in Italy and traces back its origin to the Mediterranean regions. In due course of time, it has become an art bread that is decorated with rosemary, cherry tomatoes, onion, and garlic flavored with olive oil.
Olive oil has always been an important ingredient of focaccia bread and once the dough is done we top it with olive oil for a smooth textured bread.
This healthy vegetarian Herbed Focaccia Bread is rich in savory Italian flavors and topped with vegetables like bell pepper, onion, and tomatoes. Team it with a hot bowl of soup to have a hearty meal!
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Why Would You Love This Recipe?
- Well-Risen Homemade Bread.
- Bursting with Italian Flavors.
- Healthy and Easy Recipe.
- Kids Friendly.
- Moist, Airy and Soft Textured.
- The Best Whole Wheat Focaccia Bread Ever!
Ingredients
- Whole-Wheat Flour- This recipe is a twist to the classical focaccia recipe and uses whole wheat flour. The wheat flour tends to be denser than the all-purpose flour. It would be sticky and not so stretchy when kneaded and this is normal. Hence, this bread won't be stretchy and would need a little bit more oil than the usual flour. You may use the same recipe with GF flour, bread flour, or whole wheat pastry flour as well.
- Desi Ghee- I love creating recipes with ghee. Ghee is my first preference always. Feel free to use coconut oil or avocado oil to make this recipe vegan.
- Olive Oil- Since focaccia's prime ingredient is olive oil, I have used a combination of olive oil and ghee. You may use just the olive oil. I recommend using extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt- Salt adds the perfect balance of flavors to this bread. I have used normal table salt in this recipe. Feel free to use sea salt.
- Yeast, Sugar, and lukewarm water- Active Dry yeast of any good brand would work well. Make sure to use a fresh supply. An old yeast may not be activated properly and yeast is the most important ingredient of this bread recipe as it helps in the fermentation process. A combination of warm water, sugar, and yeast helps create a frothy mixture which helps create a porous, airy, and soft-textured bread. You may also use instant yeast.
- Vegetables for Topping- I have used a combination of fresh veggies- Bell pepper, onion, garlic, and tomato. The freshly chopped coriander leaves helped me create an elegant art on focaccia. You may experiment with the veggies to be used as topping. For greens, fresh rosemary, parsley or basil would work too.
Variations
- No Knead Focaccia Bread- For busy you, you may skip the kneading part. You may use a dough machine or simply take a large spatula and mix everything gently.
- Vegan Focaccia- Replace ghee with vegan oils to make this recipe fully vegan.
- Add another green- You may add fresh rosemary, thyme, or any other leafy green as a topping to this focaccia.
Storage Suggestions
The leftovers, if any, can be stored in a dry airtight container with a lid in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days. For use again, you may reheat in the oven for about 5 min or warm up on the stovetop on slow flame on an iron flat tawa.
Expert Tips
- Always use the dry yeast in warm (and not hot) water with little sugar to activate it. If it doesn't get frothy (in 5-10 min), don't move ahead as it means you won't get a risen dough and hence not a porous or aerated bread. So buy new yeast and start again then be disappointed.
- Give enough time to give two risings of dough.
- Fermentation is an important step that yields great textured bread. If your environment has high temperatures, fermentation would be easy. However, for the winter zone, you might need to keep the dough in a warm place. You may try keeping it inside a Microwave or over a boiled/ hot milk/ food.
- Kneading dough more always is a good idea. Bread is made with sticky dough and won't leave your hands but that's the exact texture we wish. You might apply oil on your hands in between.
- Patience and Patience. It's not at all tough to bake bread but it needs you to be positive throughout the process
FAQ
Made of whole-wheat, desi ghee with the toppings of Vitamin C rich Bell peppers, fiber-loaded tomatoes, minerals, and many more vitamins from green coriander leaves and garlic, this focaccia is indeed a healthy snack. It keeps you full for longer.
Focaccia bread is made in high olive oil as comparison to regular bread. This recipe of focaccia bread makes use of whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.
A thick and moist bread, focaccia can be used for making a sandwich, or team it with a bowl of hot soup, or a cup of coffee or have it as is.
What can I team with Focaccia?
- Vegan Gluten-Free Red Pasta
- Lemon Coriander Soup for weight-loss
- Mashed Potatoes salad with Moong Sprouts
How to make a No-Knead Whole-Wheat Focaccia?
You may use a dough maker. I have always been comfortable with kneading by hand as that's how I learned it. One may use the method in which they are most comfortable.
For making this recipe a no-knead, you may mix the wheat flour using a spatula in a large bowl. This recipe doesn't need a lot of kneading. If you can mix well with a spatula, it would work well.
Detailed Recipe with Steps
Step 1 Prep Yeast Dough
In a small bowl, add warm water and add sugar and dry yeast to it. It takes about 5 min for yeast to get activated. If its frothy, the yeast is active, else you may not proceed further.
In large mixing bowl, take wheat flour, salt, olive oil and ghee. Once the yeast is activated, add it to wheat flour gradually.
Step 2 Knead the Dough
The kneading dough seems to be the most important and difficult part. If you are not comfortable kneading with your hands, use a spatula. It works fine to use a spatula for this recipe. We don't wish to over-knead any way and the dough should have a loose sticky texture, else the bread would be dense. The third image on the right is the first rise of the focaccia dough(around 30 min after kneading it).
You may apply oil on your hands while kneading. Knead the dough again and let the dough rest for 1-2 hrs for the second rise. You may use a plastic wrap to cover the dough completely.
Step 3 Second Rise of the Dough
The second rise of the dough was amazingly great. Patience works best for making bread.
Step 4 Ready the toppings
While the dough is rising, you may prepare the toppings. I have used bell pepper, onion, capsicum, tomato and coriander leaves. It's your garden of veggies, feel free to use your favorite toppings and decorate it as you love it.
Step 5 Ready for Baking
After the second rise, knead for few min and transfer the dough ball to a round/square baking dish. Make sure to oil the baking dish first. You may use a greased parchment paper as well. Keep the dough in the baking dish for about 15 min. At the top of the dough, add the veggies, fresh herbs, and Italian seasoning of your choice.
Step 6 Bake It
Bake it in pre-heated OTG (toaster oven) at 180 °C for about 10-15 min. Pls Note if you are using oven, the baking time would increase and it might take 20-25 min to bake this bread.
Step 7 Serve It
The Perfect Focaccia bread is ready. Let it sit on the cooling rack for a few min before serving. Serve it with butter or cheese or a bowl of soup.
Stories From My Kitchen
I had been wanting to make bread for quite a long time as the aroma that is spread while the baking process is happening, makes me so happy. When mom would go to the local bakery shop to give all the ingredients for her Atta Biscuits, I would accompany her always. The reason was not to get any stuff but just to inhale the baking aroma.
To my surprise, the first bread that I had baked happened to be focaccia. I wondered how amazing it really turned out to be especially when it's a loaf of whole wheat bread.
I must mention that I followed the recipe of Dassana. Click on the Link: Dassana's Focaccia Bread
She has art to make things less complicated and I have followed her several recipes and they have been great. This was used primarily for ratios and I modified it by adding my food art.
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If you make this recipe, share the image of it on our instagram account @veg.buffet or twitter account @vegbuffet
Whole Wheat Focaccia Bread Recipe {Without Egg}
Equipment
- 1 OTG (toaster oven) Modern Oven work well
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Mixing bowl
Ingredients
For Bread
- 2 cups Wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon dry yeast
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Desi ghee
- 1.5 cup water
For garden (optional)
- 1 small onion
- 2 small bell peppers I have used red and yellow
- 1 small tomato
- few leaves coriander along with stem
- 3-4 cloves garlic
Instructions
- Take a bowl and add warm water to it along with sugar. Give a gentle mix. Make sure that water is not hot. You may check with a finger dip test. If you can dip your finger comfortably and feel the warmth of water, its good enough.
- Add dry yeast. and cover it for 5-10 min.
- You will notice a froth on yeast-water mixture after sometime. Its perfectly fine to have a frothy mixture. It indicates that we can move ahead.
- Take another bowl and add half of wheat flour. We will use half first and then add other half later.
- Add desi ghee and salt to the wheat flour.
- Add yeast water mixture slowly to the wheat flour. Make sure to mix water and flour in batches and not at one go.
- Mix it well and add more wheat flour. Add water-yeast mixture as needed. The dough would be sticky and its okay. But it should not be very hard or very loose. If you feel its loose, add little more of wheat flour. I have used spatula to give a good mix.
- Keep mixing well the dough. Now you can mix it on the kitchen board as well.
- Apply olive oil to an empty bowl and keep the dough in it covered with a cloth or lid. Keep it near warm place to give it first rise.
- After 30 min, you shall notice that the dough has almost doubled up.
- Punch it and release the air and knead again for 5 min. It would still be sticky. You may apply oil on you hands to avoid it sticking on you hands. Cover it again for second rise for 1-2 hours.
- After 2 hours, it would be risen nicely as shown.
- In the mean time, you can chop the vegetables in desired shapes for making your garden on focaccia.
- Now we can transfer the dough to the utensil in which we wish to bake it. Coat the utensil with olive oil. Gently transfer the dough. It wont stretch too much as its wheat flour.
- You may stretch it to cover the whole pan. Make the garden of your focaccia. Add olive oil at the top once the vegetables are placed.
- Bake it in pre-heated OTG (toaster oven) at 180 °C for about 10-15 min. Pls Note if you are using oven, the baking time would increase and it might take 20-25 min to bake this bread.
- It looks so majestic. It has been baked properly and once it cools off, it would leave the sides too.
- Your focaccia bread is ready. Dip in butter and enjoy!!
Notes
- Always use the dry yeast in warm (and not hot) water with little sugar to activate it. If it doesn't get frothy (in 5-10 min), don't move ahead as it means you wont get a risen dough and hence not a porous or aerated bread. So buy new yeast and start again then to be disappointed.
- Give enough time to give two risings of dough. Fermentation is an important step that yields great textured bread. If your environment has high temperatures, fermentation would be easy. However, for winter zone, you might need to keep the dough in warmer place. You may try keeping it inside Microwave or over boiled/ hot milk/ food.
- Kneading dough more always is a good idea. It would be sticky and wont leave your hands but that's the exact texture we wish. You might apply oil on your hands in between.
- Patience and Patience. Its not at all tough to bake a bread but it needs you to be positive throughout the process.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 pie | |
| Servings: 5 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 221 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 6.5g | 8% |
| Saturated Fat 1.6g | 8% |
| Cholesterol 3mg | 1% |
| Sodium 468mg | 20% |
| Total Carbohydrate 38g | 14% |
| Dietary Fiber 7.3g | 26% |
| Total Sugars 4.8g | |
| Protein 7.1g | |
| Vitamin D 0mcg | 0% |
| Calcium 9mg | 1% |
| Iron 3mg | 14% |
| Potassium 122mg | 3% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
Jami says
I was wondering if it is 1 pie or 1 slice. I am very strict with calories, so I wanted to know. But it looks very good! I will try to make it as I like focaccia!
Deepti says
Hey Jami,
I had made the focaccia in round pan. The calorie count is of one slice (there were total 5 slices of it). It was indeed loved by all at home, though its not stretchy like the usual All-purpose flour breads and is a bit dense. It was layered with olive oil to make it soft from within. Thanks. Happy Cooking!
Vinayak says
Love this. I make a similar recipe with WW flour.
Though I don’t add ghee to mine.
Deepti says
Hi Vinayak, Glad to hear this. Thanks for the lovely words.