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This easy focaccia recipe requires no kneading or yeast.
Simply mix water and flour together, add some toppings, and pop it in the oven!

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What you’ll need

1 small onion, sliced
1 small potato, paper thin slices (using a wide blade potato peeler works well)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
350 grams self raising flour

250 ml water
Olives
Olive oil
Thyme
Salt & pepper

EQUIPMENT

Potato peeler
Vegetable slicer
Baking tray
Mixing bowl

This recipe doesn’t call for yeast, will the focaccia still rise?

Yes! Traditionally focaccias use yeast as the raising agent. This can take a lot of prep time as yeast needs time to proof. This recipe uses self raising flour in place of yeast, allowing you to mix everything together and let the oven do the magic for you.

I dont have self raising flour, will plain/all purpose flour work?

If you have baking powder in your cupboard then yes! You can make your own “self raising flour” with plain old flour and baking powder – that’s what self raising flour is!

For homemade self raising flour: add 2.5 tsp to the recipe

I don’t have olive oil, can I substitute it for another oil?

Olive oil is undeniably (and traditionally) the best taste combo for focaccias, however, there are a few other oils that may work as a substitute.
As an Italian I will use and back olive oil to the day I die, but in order to sound open minded, here are some suggestions:

Avocado oil – has a smooth nutty flavour when used in cooking.
Sunflower seed oil – try to opt for a good quality, cold pressed sunflower oil. You can definitely tell the difference.
Grapeseed oil – I often see this recommended online as an olive oil alternative. It has a neutral taste, so you won’t have to worry about it overpowering the dish.

Tips

Make sure to slice potato paper-thin. Sticking with the theme of a quick focaccia recipe, I wanted to find a way to cook the potato as efficiently as possible. I decided to trial cooking the potatoes along with the onion (saving time AND extra dishes), this method only works if the potatoes are as thin as possible. The thinner the potatoes = the quicker the cooking time. Use a wide potato peeler or vegetable slicer to achieve paper-thin slices.
Keep an eye on potatoes as they cook. You may need to top up the water as the potatoes cook, you want just enough water to cover potatoes.
Stir potatoes every few minutes. This will prevent the onions/potatoes from getting stuck and or burnt to the bottom of the pan.
Oil hands before handling the dough. This dough can be sticky to work with, before flattening/ denting dough, add a few drops of oil to your fingers to prevent dough from sticking.

The rundown

Add onion to a saucepan and cook until browned

Add 2 cups of water to pan and potato slices, cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until potatoes have softened, you may need to top up water as it cooks

Drain excess water from saucepan

Add sugar and balsamic vinegar to saucepan and simmer until sauce has thickened, set aside

Add flour and water to a bowl and combine

Place dough into a lined baking dish, sprinkle dough with olive oil, and use fingers to spread dough to cover dish evenly

Use fingertips to create dents in dough surface

Spread caramelised onion/potato onto surface of dough and add remaining toppings; olives, thyme, salt & pepper

Sprinkle more olive oil onto focaccia and add to oven – bake at 180c/355f for 15-20mins
or until fork is clean when inserted into the middle of focaccia, sides of focaccia should be golden brown