Flour, yeast, fruity olive oil and salt, mix it all with a wooden spoon and then let it rise in the bowl. This whole wheat rosemary focaccia is about the easiest bread you can make!! 
Click here to PIN Easy Whole Wheat Rosemary Focaccia!
When the dough doubles in volumn, spread it in the pan using your fingers. Let it rise in the pan. Just before baking, poke finger holes all over, to hold puddles of olive oil.
Classically, focaccia is shaped into large rounds. For this focaccia, bake the dough in a rectangle baking sheet.
Serve easy whole wheat rosemary focaccia as a snack, as table bread with meals, with soups, salads, and with antipasto platters.
About the Italian flatbread focaccia:
- Focaccia, (foh-KAH-chee-ah) is similar in style to pizza dough except the dough is much wetter and you spread it in the pans with your fingers instead of rolling it out.
- You might want to sprinkle your focaccia with chopped red onions and cheese in addition to the fragrant chopped rosemary and kosher salt. If you don’t have fresh rosemary, you can substitute a dried Italian herb mix.
- Feel free to substitute regular whole wheat flour ground for the white whole wheat flour. You can make rosemary foccacia with unbleached white flour too.
What is white whole wheat flour?
- White whole wheat flour, like regular whole wheat flour, includes the bran, germ and endosperm of the wheat grain. The difference is white whole wheat flour is ground from white wheat berries while regular whole wheat flour is ground from hard red wheat berries. White whole wheat flour is lighter in color and flavor and has all the nutritional advantages of whole wheat flour. Both are 100% whole grain.
*** These Oatmeal Rosemary Scones are another flavorful recipe showcasing fresh rosemary.
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Whole Wheat Rosemary Focaccia
Ingredients
- 3 cups white whole wheat flour (see notes)
- 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon instant dry yeast (see notes)
- 2 ⅔ cups very warm water (120°F.)
- 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil , plus more for pan and top of focaccia
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast.
- With a wooden spoon, mix in the hot water, the salt, the 1/4 cup of oil, and the first 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary.
- Beat vigorously for about a minute. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk—45 minutes to one hour.
- Coat a large baking sheet (12 x 16-inch) with oil.
- Turn the dough out of the bowl onto the pan. It will be sticky. Pour a bit of oil on top and press until the dough fills the pan completely, trying to keep the thickness even. It will seem super thin but remember the dough doubles with rising. It doesn't need to come all the way to the edges.
- Rub olive oil over the surface and cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Let rise again until doubled—about 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Dimple the surface of the dough, using oiled fingertips to poke the holes. Drizzle with a generous dose of olive oil, letting the oil fill the cavities. Sprinkle with the kosher salt and the remaining chopped rosemary.
- Bake about 25 minutes, until golden.
- Let cool a few minutes and then cut into 3-inch (approximately) squares.
Notes
- White whole wheat flour, like regular whole wheat flour, includes the bran, germ and endosperm of the wheat grain.
- Feel free to substitute regular whole wheat flour ground for the white whole wheat flour.
- You can use all unbleached white flour if you prefer.
- You can substitute active dry yeast if that is what you have. Active dry yeast is a slightly different and weaker strain of yeast, so use 25% more (1/4 teaspoon more for each teaspoon of yeast) and dissolve the active dry yeast in warm water (105°-110° F) before adding to the dry ingredients.
- With instant dry yeast there is no reason to hydrate or first "proof" the yeast. As in this recipe, simply add the yeast to the dry ingredients and mix with a hotter water, 120°F.
- Fleischmann’s instant yeast is trademarked “RapidRise.” Instant dry yeast is a slightly different genetic strain than active dry yeast.
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Nutrition
I think I smell it baking! GREG · 11 September, 2016
This looks wonderful, but it’s not whole wheat bread so I can’t try it. White whole wheat is not whole wheat at all.
But it does look wonderful, and I’ll bet it tastes wonderful, too! · 30 January, 2019
Hi Deb. Thank you for your comment. Just like regular whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour includes the bran, germ and endosperm of the wheat grain. The difference is white whole wheat flour is ground from white wheat berries while regular whole wheat flour is ground from hard red wheat berries. White whole wheat flour is lighter in color and flavor and has all the nutritional advantages of whole wheat flour. Both are 100% whole grain. Here’s a link from Oldways Whole Grains Council explaining white whole wheat flour. Feel free to substitute regular whole wheat flour ground for the white whole wheat flour. (I am finding organic white whole wheat flour more difficult to get than before. I can still buy it at Natural Grocers and online from King Arthur Flour.) · 30 January, 2019
Thank you for the information and link. I suspect I am confusing it with products called “white wheat”.
I’m always happy to learn something new! I’d prefer the taste of a flour less bitter than whole wheat, but with the same (or nearly the same) food values. · 30 January, 2019
Any chance this could be made with All/Only White Whole Wheat Flour? (and no all purpose flour ). Would any changes in water amount need to be made?
Thanks ! · 27 February, 2020
Peter, Yes–feel free to make this focaccia with all white whole wheat flour. The foccacia will be a bit more dense but I wouldn’t add more water. Thanks for writing! · 27 February, 2020