Christmas Focaccia 

Celebrate the holiday season with this beautiful Christmas Focaccia! No kneading is required and it turns out to be so pretty and festive looking. 

Jump to:

• 💡 The recipe in a nutshell
• 🍞 Shockingly easy no-knead focaccia
• 🎄 How to make a Christmas tree shape on focaccia
• 💭 Common questions
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

💡 The recipe in a nutshell

• Vegan (dairy-free and no eggs) 
• Made from scratch
• Preparation: 15 minutes, Rise: 1.5 hours (no action needed during that time), Bake: 30 minutes
• Easy-to-make
• Plant-based holiday recipe 

With this Christmas Focaccia you are sure to bring the flavors of Italian cuisine with a festive spin into your home. 

🍞 Shockingly easy no-knead focaccia

1. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl, and let it sit for ten minutes for the yeast to bloom. While waiting, combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. 
2. Stir ingredients together to form a shaggy dough. 
3. Grease the sides of the dough lightly with olive oil. Cover the bowl and let it rest at a warm non-drafty place for 1 hour, until doubled in size. We like to put the bowl into the oven, with just the light on. 
4. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dray with rosemary flavored olive oil. 
5. Transfer the risen dough into the prepared tray. Grease hands and street shaping and stretching the dough into the pan. Cover and let rest for another 30 minutes. 
6. Drizzle with remaining olive oil. Press your fingers into the dough to create the typical focaccia dimples. Your bread is ready to be decorated (or baked if you want to skip the decoration).

🎄 How to make a Christmas tree shape on focaccia

To make a Christmas tree shape on focaccia, you need homemade focaccia dough, olive oil, fresh rosemary sprigs, and cherry tomatoes.

1. To arrange Rosemary in the shape of a Christmas tree start by lining the Rosemary in a straight line. Push it down gently. This will be your tree stem. 
2. Then layer more Rosemary angled along the stem to resemble the rest of the tree. It will almost looks like a triangle formation. 
3. Add halved cherry tomatoes to resemble the ornaments. Press them lightly into the dough also. 

💭 Common questions

What to eat with focaccia? 

Focaccia is great on its own, with a few drizzles of olive oil. Though it can also be used as sandwich bread or be eaten with savory dips and spreads, as well as antipasti! 

Other ideas include:

• Pesto 
• Nuts
• Fresh greens such as arugula
• Vegetables & Fruit
• Soup
• Pasta
• Cheese
• Appetizers
• Salads

Some great wines to pie with focaccia include Chardonnay, Gavi, Sauvignon Blanc, Soave Classico, Pinot Blanc, Gaillac white, Barbera, champagne and/or Prosecco, Blanc de blancs

How to store focaccia bread?

Focaccia tastes best fresh. If you need to store it for a few days the best containers for storing it are those that can be sealed airtight. That can be a bread box, stone pot, or also a plastic bag. We do not recommend refrigerating the baked focaccia, as it messes with its texture. To freshen up you can stick it in the oven shortly. 

What to do with focaccia bread?

This may be a rather obvious answer, but first and foremost: eat it! 🙂

Focaccia can be eaten as is, warmed up, toasted, or combined with other recipes. It can be shaped and cut into a variety of shapes, including squares, circles, long skinny rectangles, or even triangles. It can be sliced in half to make sandwiches. On top of that, it is a great addition to a bowl of soup, stew, salad, or to a bread basket.

Does focaccia have dairy?

Traditionally focaccia does not contain dairy, and so generally Focaccia is vegan-friendly. The recipe below is of course also dairy free/vegan. 

However, if you are not making the focaccia yourself and instead are buying it from the store, bakery or restaurant make sure it does not contain hidden animal products. Sometimes focaccia is brushed in milk, or butter, parmesan is sprinkled on top, or a buttermilk sourdough starter is used to make the dough. 

📖 Recipe

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