Cheesy skillet focaccia has my vote for president. Focaccia is one of my favorite kinds of bread to make. Maybe because it’s simple, maybe because it tastes fantastic. Maybe it’s because it’s both. If I could survive off only two food groups, it would probably be cheese and bread. Clearly a cheesy skillet focaccia needed to be made.
Why in a skillet? Well, you know how pan pizza has those extra crisp edges? I wanted to make a focaccia that had that going on. My regular Overnight Focaccia has crisp edges but I wanted to see if I could get it even crispier. Why cheese?? Who asks that. Because it’s cheese! I’m not sure I trust people who don’t like cheese. If you have a dairy allergy, I wish to give you infinite hugs because what a sad day.
To make this recipe, I took my Easy Same Day Small Batch Focaccia and made it a little bit bigger. So the size of this cheesy skillet focaccia is not quite my big overnight focaccia, but bigger than small batch. It’s the goldilocks of focaccia if you will. So this ends up sort of like a pizza, but not quite. If you want to jump right to pizza I’d recommend my Focaccia Pizza.
Baking Tips
When you drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of the pan before adding the dough, use a little on the sides of the skillet as well. This will help tons when you are going to get the bread OUT of the pan.
Cheesy Skillet Focaccia Key Ingredients
- Cheese – I used a combination of cheddar, Monterey jack and gruyere when I made this. Really you could use quite a large selection of cheeses. Gouda, Fontina, Pepper jack, Muenster, Provolone are all great choices as well.
- Bread flour – Bread flour provides a stronger gluten network which holds up to all the cheese slightly better.
- Olive oil – As always, it’s usually going to feel like a lot of olive oil if you’ve never made focaccia before. But skimping on it will only be detrimental to the bread. Focaccia get’s it’s great outer crust and flavor from all the oil. A good extra virgin olive oil is what you want to use. Graza is one I often use lately.
This page contains affiliate links for products I use and love. If you choose to purchase directly from clicking a link, I may earn a small commission, however I am not being paid to link to these items.
Ingredients
- 360 g Bread flour 3 cups
- 320 g Water 2⅓ cup, warm ~105°F
- 2 tbsp Olive oil divided
- ½ tbsp Sea salt
- 1½ tsp Instant yeast
- 225 g Cheese 8 oz, grated
- ⅓ cup Olive oil divided
Instructions
- In a large bowl, measure out your flour, water, 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt, and yeast. Stir together until it comes together into a wet dough.
- Drizzle 1 additional tbsp of olive oil over the dough, use your fingers to cover the dough, then cover bowl and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, uncover the bowl and using your fingertips at the 12 o clock position of the bowl, grab the dough and stretch it up and then fold into the center of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat, 3 more times for a total of 4 folds. Recover the bowl and let rest for another 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, Sprinkle the top of the dough with your cheese and then repeat your stretch and folds for another 4 folds, incasing the cheese within the dough. Recover the dough and let rest another 30 minutes.
- Repeat sprinkling the dough with cheese and stretch and folds and then cover the dough for a final 30 minutes.
- Drizzle olive oil to cover the bottom of your cast iron pan, 1-2 tbsp. Make sure to grease the sides of the skillet as well. Transfer your dough to the cast iron pan. Sprinkle the top of the dough with cheese again and fold the side in towards the middle in thirds like a letter. Flip the dough over so the seam is facing down.
- Cover your pan and allow to rest for another 30-60 minutes or until the dough has filled out the pan significantly more.
- Preheat your oven to 425°F
- When the dough is ready, drizzle with olive oil then generously sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese. Using your fingers, dimple the dough by pressing down into it.
- Place your skillet on the center rack of your oven and bake your focaccia for 22-25 minutes. Let your bread for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it. Enjoy!
