Here’s how to make focaccia pizza! This recipe makes a deliciously thick crust for all your favorite toppings: ready in just a few hours.
Oh hello, beautifully fluffy crust and melty cheese. Here’s a new style of pizza to add to your repertoire: focaccia pizza! This is the exact opposite of the Neapolitan style pizza with a thin and chewy crust. Instead this pizza is built on focaccia bread: massively thick, pillowy on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. It’s actually reminiscent of a style of Roman pizza you can get in the city today. It makes a massive sheet pan, the equivalent of three pizzas. Oh, and it will make your entire house smell like a pizzeria. (We know from experience.) Ready to get started?
Want a faster version? Try our Sheet Pan Pizza: you can make it in half the time!
How to make focaccia pizza: an overview
Focaccia pizza is a style of pizza where you’ll make a homemade focaccia bread, then add toppings and bake it like a pizza. It’s actually similar to Bonci-style pizza that Alex and I had in Rome, though that style has a bubblier crust. Why? Well, most focaccia pizza recipes require making the dough in advance and resting it for 24 hours or more.
But for our spin, we wanted a focaccia pizza you can bake in the same day (mainly because we hate thinking ahead!). This is considered a fast focaccia pizza: prep is a little over 2 hours: no advanced planning required! This recipe is great for weekends and days off, or anytime if you work or watch kids from home. The tradeoff of this fast version is that the crust is slightly less bubbly than a traditional focaccia…but to us it’s worth it. (Or, make our sheet pan pizza in half the time!) Here’s a breakdown in the timing:
| Make the dough | 15 minutes, active |
| Rest the dough (Proof 1) | 45 minutes, inactive |
| Press the dough into a sheet pan and rest | 15 minutes, inactive |
| Rest the dough again (Proof 2) | 1 hour, inactive |
| Bake the pizza | 20 minutes |
Making the dough: weights are most accurate
Here’s something to note about focaccia pizza dough. When you’re baking it up, measuring the ingredients by weight is most accurate! Why? The environment and the way you pack the measuring cups can both affect the exact weight. So using a food scale is the most accurate way to measure out quantities when baking something precise like dough.
- Need a food scale? Here’s the food scale we use. It’s also what we use for our morning pourover coffee!
- Don’t have one? Use the spoon and level method. Spoon the dry ingredient into the measuring cup, then level it off (instead of plunging the entire cup into the flour container).
Focaccia pizza crust requires two proofs!
What’s the trick to the best focaccia pizza crust? Two proofs. If you’re an experienced baker (or at least watch the Great British Baking Show), you’ll know this means resting the pizza dough. Proofing is when you let bread dough rest after you’ve added yeast so that it rises. The trick to getting a super thick, pillowy crust is resting it twice. This is the same method as in our cast iron skillet pizza.
Of course if you were making true focaccia bread, you’d rest 24 hours to get massive bubbles. But we’re going for a day-of pizza recipe! If you prefer a super bubbly crust, this is not the one.
Otherwise, baking focaccia pizza is easy
So, you have to wait for 2 hours for your pizza dough to rise. But guess what? The rest of the process is much easier than a traditional pizza? Why? You don’t have to bother with shaping a dough, or using a pizza peel or pizza stone, which we do with our traditional method. Just throw it into the sheet pan, and throw that in the oven. Easy as pie! Pizza pie, that is.
One last note: there’s a specific method to baking this sheet pan focaccia pizza:
- First, bake the crust without toppings for 10 minutes. This is similar to baking up the focaccia bread! It makes it nice and crispy on the edges.
- Then bake with toppings (another 10 minutes). Pull it out of the oven and add the toppings. Take care since the pan will be hot at this point!
This recipe is equivalent of 3 pizzas in 1!
Another great feature of this focaccia pizza: it’s the equivalent of 3 pizzas in 1! That means you don’t have to make separate pizzas for the family. Just make this one sheet pan, and it’s enough for everyone. You also may want to split up the toppings, so you get a few different topping options. Speaking of that…
Topping ideas for focaccia pizza
There are many ways to top a focaccia pizza! In the recipe below, we shared what we did. We used our amazing Easy Pizza Sauce, which we guarantee you’ll be obsessed with. Then we topped it with smoked mozzarella cheese and fresh mozzarella, which is an irresistible combination. (Try it! Let us know what you think). But if you prefer, go free form or we’ve got some other ideas:
- Try our American-style cheese pizza
- Go classic Italian with Margherita toppings
- Opt for Pesto pizza or Greek pizza
- Grab Goat cheese pizza or quirky Pickle pizza
- Try garlicky Shrimp alfredo pizza
- Try our fan favorite taco pizza with crumbled tortilla chips and ranch
- Skip the red sauce and go for a white pizza or ricotta pizza
- Make cozy spinach artichoke pizza
This focaccia pizza recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegan, top with Vegan Pizza toppings.
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The Best Focaccia Pizza (Fast!)
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 squares (about 6 servings) 1x
Description
Here’s how to make focaccia pizza! This recipe makes a deliciously thick crust for all your favorite toppings: ready in just a few hours.
Ingredients
For the focaccia
- 562 grams (4 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 355 grams (1 ½ cups) warm water
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
For the pizza
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, for brushing the sheet pan
- 1 ¼ cups Easy Pizza Sauce
- ¾ cup shredded smoked mozzarella
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt, for sprinkling
- Fresh basil, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, yeast, kosher salt, oregano and garlic powder. Add the warm water and olive oil and stir until flour is incorporated.
- Knead the dough: Knead the dough by pushing with the base of your palm, then reforming it into a ball. Continue kneading for 8 minutes until the dough feels pillowy and has a smooth, stretchy exterior. If the dough is very sticky, add a small amount of flour while kneading. Alternatively: attach the dough hook to a stand mixer and start the mixer on medium-low speed, then allow the mixer to knead for 8 minutes.
- Rest the dough (45 minutes): Using floured hands, gently shape the dough into a boule (ball shape) by folding the dough under itself. Place it in a covered bowl and allow it to rest for 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
- Rest the dough in a sheet pan (15 minutes): Brush 3 tablespoons olive oil on the bottom and sides of a standard 13″x 18″ sheet pan. Add the dough and press it with oiled fingers until it evenly covers the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and rest for 15 minutes to relax the dough.
- Rest the dough again (1 hour): Press the dough back into the corners of the pan. Dot the entire surface with finger indentations (see the photo above; this helps the thickness to stay even). Brush top of the dough with a bit of olive oil and rest for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 515 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Bake the pizza dough without toppings: After the 1 hour rest, place the sheet pan in the oven and bake the pizza dough for 10 minutes without the sauce and toppings.
- Add the toppings and bake again: Remove the dough from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the pizza sauce, smoked mozzarella, fresh mozzarella (torn into pieces), and Parmesan cheese, and top with a few pinches of kosher salt. Take care, since the pan will be hot! Bake an additional 8 to 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Sprinkle with torn basil. Cut into pieces with a knife (a pizza cutter doesn’t get all the way to the pan edges) and serve immediately.
Notes
*For vegan, top with Vegan Pizza toppings.
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Keywords: Focaccia pizza, Sheet pan pizza
This comes out perfect every time I make! Thanks so much for sharing such wonderful recipe and technique! It is so easy to follow. It does require staying home, but it is absolutely perfect while working at home due to corona virus or on weekends. ;
★★★★★
Can this be made as no knead (and put in the fridge over night} with current measurements? And can the recipe be halved?
Hi! Yes to both.
My new favorite recipe for thick-crust pizza; thank you! We are crust-lovers in our family, so this is a perfect recipe. It does require a bit of preplanning, but wow, is it worth it! My husband proclaimed his love for this recipe several times in one evening. The long proof gives so much more flavor and loft than our go-to, quick-rise pizza dough.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed! You’ll have to try our pan pizza sometime too — also a favorite: https://www.acouplecooks.com/pan-pizza/
This focaccia pizza was AMAZING! And oh so easy. I made it according to recipe, proofed in fridge overnight. Took it out when I got home from work to come to room temp (in oven w light on) pushed it to the edges of my xl round pizza hut pan (ebay is great) let rest for an hour to let the gluten relax, pushed back to edges and baked. Was absolutely amazing and the whole house polished it off in minutes! Rave reviews all around! So nice to have a no fuss, minimal resting recipe!! Thanks!!
★★★★★
Thank you for making! So glad you enjoyed :)