Celebrate the holiday season with this beautiful Christmas Focaccia! No kneading is required and it turns out to be so pretty and festive looking.
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💡 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
- 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.
- Stir ingredients together to form a shaggy dough.
- 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.
- Grease a 9x13-inch baking dray with rosemary flavored olive oil.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Then layer more Rosemary angled along the stem to resemble the rest of the tree. It will almost looks like a triangle formation.
- 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
Christmas Focaccia
Equipment
- 9x13 inch pan (23x33cm)
- a mixing bowl and a medium-sized bowl
- reusable bowl cover (alternatively use plastic wrap or kitchen towel)
Ingredients
Focaccia
- 2 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon cane sugar
- 1 cup lukewarm filtered water (240ml)
- 2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (350g)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, more to sprinkle on top
- 1 tablespoon Monini’s extra virgin olive oil
- 6 tablespoon Monini’s rosemary-flavored olive oil
Decoration
- fresh rosemary sprigs
- cherry tomatoes halved
Instructions
- 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. Stir ingredients together to form a shaggy dough.
- 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.
- Grease a 9x13-inch baking tray with rosemary-flavored olive oil. Transfer the risen dough to the prepared tray. Grease your hands with some olive oil and start shaping and stretching the dough into the pan. Then cover it to let it rest for another 30 minutes.
- After its second rise, drizzle with the remaining rosemary-flavored olive oil. Press your fingers into the dough to create the typical focaccia dimples. Your bread is now ready to be decorated (or baked if you want to skip the decoration).
- 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. Then layer more Rosemary angled along the stem to resemble the rest of the tree. It will almost look like a triangle formation. Add halved cherry tomatoes to resemble the ornaments. Press them lightly into the dough also.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 355°F / 180°C for 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt, if wished. Serve as is, or with more olive oil drizzled on top. More serving ideas are in the blog post above.
PS: Don't forget to rate this recipe and leave a comment on your experience - this helps improve my recipes and serves you with the best instructions, tips, and substitution ideas. Plus, I love hearing about your takes on my recipes! Tag me on Instagram @thesimplesprinkle to show me your pictures.
Making this bread for Christmas!
This is such a beautiful Christmas bread. I served it last weekend at a family get-together and got loads of compliments!!!
Love this recipe, it turned out perfectly!
Easy to make focaccia. Perfect flavours for the holidays meals
this focaccia bread turned out perfect! so excited to whip it up for Christmas also!
Great idea!