Parmesan Focaccia Bread
on Oct 17, 2013, Updated Jun 25, 2024
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Parmesan Focaccia Bread is a thin, cheesy bread recipe, made with a russet potato! If you’re a lover of Italian food, this bread would be the perfect side to your spaghetti or baked ziti!
There are few things in life as glorious as fresh, warm, tender bread. The simplicity and elegance of a few traditional ingredients combined with the smell and nostalgia makes me so happy and hungry! In my mind, focaccia really means “bread heaven”. This bread is light and super tender in the middle but has a phenomenally crunchy outside thanks to baking it in a heavy hand of olive oil.
Parmesan Focaccia is a fantastic break from the traditional breads that you are serving with dinner and your family will go nuts over it. This focaccia bread calls for a russet potato. Sounds crazy but the addition of a potato makes the dough incredibly soft and tender. If you are making a soup that is a regular in your meal rotation, try switching things up by serving this bread on the side. It’ll be like eating a whole new meal.
The recipe comes from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, so you know it’s a good one. ATK doesn’t lead one astray.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Yummy Texture: Focaccia is known for it’s crispy outside and pillowy inside and chewy texture.
- Homemade Bread: You get the deliciousness of homemade bread without all the time and fuss of waiting for a big loaf to rise and bake.
- Perfect Side: You can serve it with soups, salads, pasta, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Ingredients
- Russet Potato
- All-Purpose Flour
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Yeast: either instant or rapid-rise
- Salt
- Parmesan
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Parmesan Focaccia Bread
Step #1. Boil the potato and reserve one cup of the cooking water. Set the potato and reserved water aside to cool. Once the potato is cool enough to touch, grate it with a box grater.
Step #3. Increase the speed to medium low and mix until the dough starts to pull away from the sides. (Add another tablespoon or two of flour is the dough remains sticky.) Knead by hand for 8 minutes, then place in an oiled bowl, cover, and set aside to rise until doubled.
Step #2. Add the grated potato, 3 1/2 cups of flour, olive oil, salt, and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Slowly add the cooled potato water to the mixer and mix until a dough starts to form.
Step #4. Spread the dough in an oiled sheet pan. Brush with more olive oil and let rise again until doubled. Remove the cover, and dimple the dough with wet finger tips all over. Drizzle with remaining oil and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake 20-25 minutes until crisp. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Recipe FAQs
Focaccia is a lightweight, flat baked bread, comparable to pizza dough. It is traditionally used as a side dish or can be used to make sandwiches.
Focaccia bread is best served within 2-4 days of baking. Store the baked bread covered in plastic wrap at room temperature. Though I do think this bread is best eaten warm the day it’s made.
The dimples in focaccia bread aren’t just for looks. They actually prevent the dough from rising too quickly. I like to wet my fingertips and then dimple the entire top of the dough. Then I will finish it off by drizzling a tablespoon of oil over the top and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese.
Expert Tips
- Fresh herbs would be a great addition. Sprinkle them on when you sprinkle the parmesan over the dough.
- Focaccia should sound hollow when it’s done. Give it a little tap when it’s nice and golden. If it doesn’t sound hollow yet, give it a couple more minutes.
- Make sure you move the bread from the hot pan to the cooling rack when it’s done. Otherwise, it will get soggy on the bottom.
- You can reheat it by wrapping it in foil and placing it in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes.
More Bread Recipes to Consider
Homemade Bread
100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Salads
Homemade Croutons
Easy Appetizers
Bosco Sticks Recipe
Homemade Bread
Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
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Parmesan Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
- 1 medium russet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast, instant or rapid-rise
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 2/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan
Instructions
- In a small saucepan add the cut up potato and 3 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for about ten minutes or until the potato can easily be poked with a fork. Using a slotted spoon transfer the cooked potato to a small bowl and then measure out one cup of the hot potato water and set both aside to cool.
- Once the potato had cooled enough to touch grate it on the largest holes of your box graters and set aside (this should be about one cup of grated potato that is lightly packed).
- Add the cooked potato, 3 1/2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, yeast, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook mix on low speed. Slowly add the reserved potato water (that has cooled to 110 degrees) and mix until it starts to form a dough, about 2 minutes.
- Increase the speed to medium low and continue to mix until a smooth and elastic dough is formed. The dough should start to pull away from the edges of the mixer bowl but still stick to the bottom. If after 4 minutes the dough is too sticky add the remaining flour as needed just a tablespoon or two at a time until the dough leaves the edges of the bowl.
- After 8 minutes knead the dough by hand on a clean surface to form a smooth round bowl. Put the dough in a big lightly oiled bowl and let it rise, covered with plastic wrap until doubled, about an hour to an hour and a half.
- Coat the bottom of an 18 by 13 inch rimmed baking sheet with 1/4 cup olive oil. Using wet hands (so the dough doesn’t stick to you) gently push the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan until the whole pan is evenly filled with dough. Brush the top with another 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, 45 to 75 minutes.
- At the end of the final rising time heat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap and with wet fingertips dimple the entire top of the dough. Drizzle the last tablespoon of oil over the top and sprinkle evenly with the Parmesan cheese. Bake until the bread is crisp, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Once the bread has baked carefully transfer it to a wire rack to cool (don’t keep it in the pan). Let it cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Use deliciously flavored olive oil for this recipe since it provides so much of the flavor.
- Kneading is what gives the bread structure and chewiness. Don’t skimp on that part.
- Rising bread doesn’t like drafts or cold air. Cover it and put it somewhere warm.
- Store the bread in an airtight container for up to two days.
Score 1 for the frozen potato water and the shredded tator! Sure the shreds got mushy….no biggy. Pulled the jar outa the freezer to unthaw. Forget about said jar. Put the jar and spuds into the frig for the next day. Ooops…forgot again. So 50 hours after removing the spud-goodness from the freezer, I finally made the bread. Now my brain has decided that every time I make mashed potatoes, I will save the right amount of water and spuds to be ready for the next focaccia craving! My house still smells yummy and I am sure I ate too much bread! 🙂 🙂 🙂
GREAT idea! I’m so glad to hear back! I can’t wait to try that! Thank you!
Oh wow, yum, slobber, drool……I will make this again and again. Halved the recipe and plopped it into a glass 9×13 cake pan. Picture perfect and super good! I only had a large russet, which made 1.5 cups of shreds. I froze 1/2 cup of the potato water in a canning jar, placed 1/2 cup of shreds in a baggy and stuffed it on top of the frozen water. Hopefully, my next batch of focaccia will be partially ready to roll from the freezer! I am already dreaming of additions to this once the herb garden wakes up!!! Thanks for the great recipe!!!
Tell me how the freezing of the tator goes! That’s the one thing that keeps me from making this more often!
The soup is very easy. All you need is 2 cups chopped carrots, 1/4 cup chopped onion. Sautée with 1 tbsp. of butter until tender-crisp. Add 14 and a half chicken broth with 1/4 tsp ground ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Cool slightly. Purée soup in blender; return to pan. Stir in 1/2 cup buttermilk; heat through (do not boil)
Note: when sautéeing the veggies I use fresh ginger; about 1/2 tbsp.
Thank you! That sounds awesome!
This looks AMAZING! Will be doing this with creamy carrot soup. It should impress my in laws!!
That sounds delicious! Do you have a recipe for the soup? My kids actually love carrots and it sounds right up our alley!
This was tasty, olive-oil yumminess. It wasn’t too much work after you have the potato ready to go… more rising time than anything. It was, however, not nearly as fantastic leftover, especially past a day, so unless I have a LOT of people to feed, I’d go ahead and half it in the future.
Completely agree with you! Thanks for the comment Shauna!
Looks so yummy! You’re one busy mama!
Love this recipe. Thanks so much.
Sounds yummy!
Oh I used to work at a pizza restaurant and I loved our focaccia. I ate it all the time. Thank you so much for sharing this!!