This thick, fluffy focaccia pizza is my favorite at home pizza recipe. An easy overnight dough bakes into the most bouncy, bubbly deep-dish pizza. This pizza recipe will easily be a monthly (jk – weekly) staple.
I stand in two camps when it comes to pizza. I firmly believe that there is no. bad. pizza. which is why I’ll preheat my oven and throw in a store-bought cauliflower crust frozen pizza and eat the entire thing on my couch watching old episodes of Scandal, obviously. I also believe that there is such thing as GREAT pizza. And typically, GREAT pizza is not something we make at home. Great pizza is picked up piping hot from Pizza Delicious in New Orleans or from a restaurant with a wood-fired oven and lambrusco on their wine list.
But great homemade pizza? I’ve always thought of it as elusive until I started topping focaccia dough with pizza toppings.
If you aren’t familiar with focaccia, let’s get acquainted. It’s one of the easiest and most satisfying homemade bread loaves you can bake. Focaccia is a yeast-leavened flat bread soaked and steeped in olive oil. Of course we have the Italians to thank for this particular carb so pizza really is a logical lateral move. It’s a simple dough that requires very little fuss save for a few minutes poking your fingers across the dough. What I love most about focaccia is its bounce – sturdy but downright joyful.
This overnight focaccia dough makes a perfect base for homemade pizza because it’s not actually trying to be anything other than great focaccia. No need to worry about shaping pizza dough this enough or heating the oven to mimic a wood-fired machine. This is simply focaccia with a whole mess of pizza on top.
Fair warning – this pizza is so dang good it’ll become a winter staple. Just prepare your heart and maybe invite a few friends over, too.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy focaccia pizza:
• all-purpose flour (though this is a great recipe to use bread flour if you have it on hand)
• active dry yeast
• fine sea salt or kosher salt
• warm water
• extra-virgin olive oil (It wouldn’t be focaccia without it!)
• grated mozzarella cheese (Buy the block and cheese and grate it yourself, it makes for a much more melty pizza cheese.)
• thick sliced pepperoni (Thick is my preference but any pepperoni is great.)
• jarred pizza sauce (I like RAO’s pizza sauce the best.)
• ricotta cheese (This is optional but I love the extra cheese dollops.)
• dried oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, and sea salt
Other topping ideas: roasted garlic, fresh basil, caramelized onions, browned sausage bits, fresh mozzarella, pesto, roasted tomato slices
I would argue that one of the best things about this focaccia pizza (besides eating it) is the ease with which the dough comes together. This is the sort of dough that crosses my mind while I’m brushing my teeth for the night, I can pass through the kitchen and quick-stir it together, tuck myself into bed and look like a pizza master the next day. Just glorious.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, yeast, and salt. Stir together warm water, olive oil and honey. Add the wet ingrediens to the dry and stir to a very soft and very sticky dough with a wooden spoon or firm rubber spatula.
I find it really helpful to measure both the wet and dry ingredients using grams and a scale. A scale will give you the most accurate measurement of ingredients (and make the dough super quick to assemble).
Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before placing the bowl in the refrigerator overnight (at least 12 hours and up to 48 hours).
The focaccia dough will rise to fluffy and bubbly overnight. The time in the refrigerator will build the structure of the dough. It will still be loosey goosey, but will bake up to a beautiful pizza bread.
We’ll bake our focaccia pizza 9×13-inch cake pan so, according to math, we’re making A LOT of pizza. Drizzle the bottom of the pan with a generous amount of olive oil. I find that 3 or 4 tablespoons is enough to pool around the dough which is exactly what you want.
Flip the dough in the oil inside the pan. Don’t worry about stretching the dough to the corners of the an at this point. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow to rest and rise for 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature.
Once the dough has risen, rested, and warmed from the chill of the fridge, it’s time to stipple the dough from edge to edge of the pan. Lightly coat your fingers in olive oil and press dimples into the dough, spreading the dough in an even layer to each corner. Sprinkle a thin layer of mozzarella cheese across the dough.
Dollop pizza sauce over the cheese and spread gently with the back of a spoon. There’s no need to have an entirely even layer of sauce across the dough. Spread lightly to preserve the air bubbles across the surface of the dough. I think it’s nice to have pockets of sauce and tucked in slices of pepperoni. Cozy! Follow your topping with another generous sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.
I like to use a tablespoon to add dollops of seasoned ricotta cheese just for pockets of extra creamy cheesiness. Its not totally necessary but wow, why miss a chance for extra cheese?
Bake this pizza on middle rack of the oven for just under 30 minutes, which is also time enough to throw together a little green salad for good measure.
This pizza will come out of the oven as caramelized and bubbly as you could ever want. The dough rises to just about meet the edges of the pan. The tomato sauce will concentrate. The cheese will melt to stretchy. The ricotta will sink just so. It’s a victory and it’s all yours.
Allow the focaccia pizza to cool just slightly before removing from the pan as a slab. Slice into thick chunks and good luck even making it to the table before you devour your first slice. Finish with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, or my favorite: candied jalapeños and pickled red onions.
It’s insane. Just go ahead and tape a print out of this recipe inside a kitchen cupboard now.
xo Joy
(Recipe inspired by The Kitchn and Erin Jeanne McDowell’s focaccia in Savory Baking.)
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The Easiest Most Delicious Focaccia Pizza
- Prep Time: overnight plus 1 1/2 hours
- Cook Time: about 30 minutets
- Total Time: overnight plus about 2 hours
- Yield: 1 large 9x13-inch pizza that feeds 4 hungry people 1x
- Category: dinner
- Method: baking
Description
This easy overnight focaccia dough transforms into a thick, fluffy, and downright bouncy pepperoni pizza. It’s quickly become my favorite homemade pizza recipe – a perfect weekend movie night couch meal.
Ingredients
For the Focaccia:
- 4 3/4 cups (570 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoons (12 grams) fine sea salt
- 2 1/4 teaspoon (7 grams) active dry yeast
- 2 cups (452 grams) warm water
- 1/4 cup (60 grams) olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (21 grams) honey
For the Pizza:
- 1 12-ounce jar pizza sauce (I love the RAO’s brand)
- 2 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
- Thick-sliced pepperoni, as much as you’d like
- 1 cup (8 ounces) whole milk ricotta cheese, seasoned with a few sprinkles of salt, red pepper flakes, and dried oregano)
Instructions
- Twelve to 48 hours before you want to bake your focaccia pizza, make the dough. In a large bowl stir together the flour, salt, and yeast to combine. Add the water, olive oil, and honey to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to thoroughly combine, about 2 minutes. The dough will be very wet and sticky. Cover the dough and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Using a dough scraper or damp hands, gently reach under the dough, folding the bottom portion over the top of the dough. Repeat this reach and fold four or five times, rotating the bowl to work your way around the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to 48 hours.
- When ready to make the pizza, bring the dough to room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Grease a 9×13-inch cake pan with a generous amount of olive oil. Add the dough to the pan and gently turn it over so both sides are coated in oil. Don’t worry about spreading the dough at this point, simply cover the pan and let the dough rise until nearly doubled in size, 30-45 minutes.
- Once the dough has nearly doubled, use your fingertips to stipple the dough. This will even out the thickness, spread the dough across the bottom of the pan, and create little dimples in the dough.
- Sprinkle the dough with half of the shredded mozzarella cheese. Dollop and gently spread sauce over the cheese. Tuck pepperoni slices into and on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese and dollop with ricotta in heaping spoonfuls.
- Allow the dough to rest while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with the rack in the center of the oven.
- Once preheated, transfer the dough to the oven to cook for 25-32 minutes, until deeply golden brown and bubbling.
- Allow the pizza to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and slicing into thick squares. Serve warm.
53 Responses
Made this recipe a couple of times and it’s always gone down well, tend to find that a 15-20 pre bake before putting the toppings on is always best though, either way it’s absolutely amazing reheated in the air fryer the next day.
If I wanted to make a similar sized pizza but for it not to be as thick could I reduce the quantities and gradually stretch it out over a few hours when it comes to that stage? Or would it be too elasticity?
Can I make the dough with my stand mixer? Or would that overwork the dough?
You can use your stand mixer with the dough hook if you’d like. You won’t need to work the dough much so just keep that in mind!
Made this yesterday and it came out great
Could I use this dough for sandwiches?
You absolutely can!
Thanks Nancy. I will try that—it sounds great.
Love you,
Auntie Mary
This was so good! I made a double recipe for a casual backyard gathering and everyone loved it. So easy to make, too. Thank you, Joy!
I love this pizza dough! Super easy to make, and is absolutely delicious. Thank you for this recipe!
I will note that I split the dough into two to make two pizzas in 9×13 pans. They come out very thick! I can’t imagine how much thicker it is to use the dough in one pan..
I love this pizza recipe and will use it again as it and for focaccia.
I am also playing around with vegan version of this recipe with maple syrup (instead of honey), plant based cheeses and veggie toppings. The honey substitute was easy, the vegetables once roasted work great, but the cheese substitute doesn’t hit right just yet. Anybody else venture toward plant based, and find success please reply and let me know what you know.
Yes, hello plant based adaptation! I am making this weekend with Miyoko’s Pourable Plant Milk Mozzarella, Field Roast Pepperoni slices, and Kite Hill Ricotta! I think it will be a slam dunk. Thanks for the inspiration, Joy!
I made this twice (second time is right now as I type — it’s in the oven) and it’s super delicious. That said, I am scratching my head because both times it has taken considerably longer to bake than the recipe says. Everything else has been the same — I didn’t make any changes or medications, measured everything using a scale, did the proper refrigeration and rises, etc. The one I have in the oven now has been baking for almost an hour and is still sort of gooey inside. (After the first 30 minutes I covered with foil since it was bubbling and brown but the inside was still not ready.) Any idea what I’m doing wrong? My oven is only a year old so I *think* it’s fairly accurate when it comes to temperature, and I don’t live at a high elevation or anything like that (i’m at sea level, actually). Help!
On my 3rd try, I split my dough into 2 pans & baked one as pizza and the other just as plain focaccia – for science! LoL. Comparing the exact same dough, the toppings definitely contribute moisture, especially in the center. Different brands of sauce & cheese might vary even further vs Joy’s results? I was always getting nice crispy edges so splitting into smaller pans starting with my 2nd try has helped – but I still bake for 30min even in the smaller pans!
Thank you! Going to try that! (Sorry for months late reply!)
This was a huge success. I made the dough about 18 hours before I wanted to cook it, using bread flour and omitting the honey. I made two focaccias, one with pesto, scamorza and zucchini and another one with a spicy tomato sauce and jamón serrano – both were delicious. The dough rose beautifully and the texture was just perfect, crispy edges and pillowy. A keeper.
The rise on this focaccia was just wow! I made as-is and appreciate the flexibility to change up the toppings in future makes. Definitely a keeper, thank you for sharing this recipe.
We make good food in our house. I made this (added sauteed vegs to the top and reduced the pepperoni to 12 slices!), and my husband ate his first wedge and said, “I think this is the best pizza I have ever eaten.” We have a cold house so I tucked it in a lightly warmed oven for the post-fridge rises. A.MAY.ZING!
I made this for a Super Bowl party and got rave reviews. It was very easy to make! I did get nervous I’d screw it up, so I used a scale to weigh ingredients, but it was good to get some basic math reps in. :)
Thanks, Joy!
Yummy!!! The crust turned out perfectly crispy and chewy… sturdy enough to hold up to all our toppings without being tough. And I love that the dough can be made ahead of time! We will definitely be making this one again.
Woah! This focaccia has major rise in the oven! Turned out beautifully. The dough prep is easy and quick. After a quick bake the dough comes out super fluffy and soft. This makes a great appetizer or meal without too much work. The ricotta and Rao’s is a must!
Omg, yum! We’ve started instituting Pizza Monday and we usually make it ourselves (but sometimes order in) with either store bought dough balls or Deb’s quick pizza dough, then cook it in a cast iron with an ATK recipe.
As soon as I’m done with whole30, this recipe is immediately going into rotation as well!
Hmmm. I made this and despite a very generous amount of olive oil in the baking dish it stuck. Any ideas? Also – it wasn’t done at 32 minutes. Still doughy – which was easy to remedy with more time. I used a glass 9×13. Maybe the glass was the problem? Was bummed as it is delicious but we lost a lot of crust
SO DELICIOUS! Thanks very much for this amazing recipe!
What a yummy Friday dinner it was!
The dough came together easily- I opted for a mix of bread & white whole wheat flour + a dash more water. Friday afternoon I let the dough warm up in the oven with the light on, and left it on the stove during the preheat.
Switched out sautéed mushrooms for pepperoni.
A relaxed recipe that will be added to the rotation!
Thanks you!
My husband and I loved this! The dough is definitely thick, but it was so chewy and delicious.
Loved this delicious pizza! Very easy to make following the recipe, it just takes a little planning to make the dough ahead. My family loved it and we will definitely make it again. Topped one end with fresh sliced mushrooms and peppers and the rest was just cheese. Everyone was happy. Thanks for another amazing recipe, Joy!
Made this recipe today February 4, 2024. I made the dough on Friday and let it do it’s thing in the fridge until 3:00 today. The smell coming from our oven is telling me I’ll be making this again, before even tasting!
Wish I had the option of adding a pic!
I cut this recipe in half (I used a scale), and it worked well in a 9-inch round pan. My husband and I only ate half of it in one sitting, so I would say the original recipe feeds 8, not 4. It was good, but too bready for me.
Thanks for sharing the pan size for halving! The edges were the best pieces so I’m almost wondering if I can bake it in 6″ pans (which I bought for Joy’s mini basque cheesecake). If I don’t want to fiddle with 1/4 measurements, when would I split the dough?
This recipe did not work well for me. I’ll blame it on myself since others had success. I measured everything in grams (thanks for that!) I have a few thoughts, my dough rose significantly (I had to switch to a bigger bowl) and it had some sourness from the overnight rise in the fridge. I think 48 hrs would have been too long. The recipe says a sheet pan but the pictures show a baking pan. A sheet pan is not deep enough and will result in a messy oven. Definitely use a metal baking pan.
Hi Lisa! I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you. A 9×13-inch cake pan is important for this recipe to be sure – the pizza will rise a lot. I hope you give it another try! It really is a wonderful pizza!
Sunday is now going to be pizza night at our house! This was SO DELICIOUS and a breeze to bring together. I made a bunch of roasted veggies for our toppings, and just did no cheese for my dairy-free half.
Thank you, Joy, for a new weekly tradition!
I have made a MILLION focaccia recipes and NONE of them have ever turned out so well. The crust was AMAZING.
I left it in the fridge in a plastic bag for 48 hours plus. I did let it rise probably at least an hour longer in the oven off with the light on after the fridge and before I put it in the pan to rise again. I also used a scale for precise measurements.
It would be great for sandwich bread or just with pesto on top and some Parm.
TEN STARS!
Can’t figure out what Im doing wrong – tried it twice but after step #1 my dough is dry and flaky not wet. Thought mu measurements were off but I tried it twice. Help?
That’s so disappointing! Were you able to salvage your dough? Are you using a scale to weigh your ingredients? Measuring cups are more variable so that could be contributing to your difficulty if you’re not using a scale. Also, if it’s dry where you live, that could be a factor as well. I might try adding a few extra tablespoons of water until your dough becomes sticky. Mine was definitely a sticky consistency. Joy may have additional input/suggestions!
That is very unusual Lauren, because the dough really is so wet. Are you measuring with a scale?
Did you mention that you can/should substitute bread flour? I am looking forward to making this. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
You can absolutely sub 1 for 1 bread flour for all-purpose flour with great results! The bread flour will lend a sturdier crumb but the all-purpose flour is just as impressive.
I’ve made this multiple times and it is amazing! I don’t have a metal baking pan the right size so I’ve been halving the recipe (definitely use a scale) and baking it in a cast iron skillet and it’s perfection. I’ve been telling everyone I know about this recipe and have started scoping 9×13 cast iron pans so I can make the full recipe.
Is it possible to prep this all the way through putting all the toppings on and then bake a few hours later? Would it hold ok in the fridge?
We ate this last night for dinner and my family gave it rave reviews!! They all said that it was the best pizza I’ve ever made. Thanks, Joy!
Hmmm. Sitting here an hour and a half after taking my dough out of the fridge to rise and it is still cold and hasn’t risen any further. Every other recipe I’ve looked up states two hours to rise out of the fridge. Guess we’re not eating pizza tonight…
This might be an issue with the temperature of your kitchen. The recipe calls for the dough to rest outside of the fridge for 1 hour and 15 minutes plus the 15-20 minutes it takes for the oven to preheat. I think you just needed to give the dough a bit more time before you threw a one star out there.
This dough is easy to put together. The overnight cold ferment makes it taste extra special. The end result is amazing. The fam all agreed it’s a repeat.
I’m SO SO GLAD!
Made the pizza today and it was excellent!!!! This recipe is a must have! I will be making this more often!
Thank you!!
Made this dough this morning and it is doing its thing in the fridge now! It by far was the easiest dough to make! Will have this for Football Sunday tomorrow!!
Which would work better… a glass or ceramic 9×13 or a baking sheet?
That’s a great question. I prefer a metal baking pan to really crisp this crust. In the absence of a metal pan I would choose ceramic over glass. But really – any pan is going to make for a delicious pizza so don’t stress it too much.
I rarely leave reviews, but I made this and it was wonderful. It is the FIRST time I have ever gotten a yeast-based recipe to come out (and I bake a ton of other stuff), and I am thrilled with the results. Made it exactly as the recipe called for, with the substitution of turkey pepperoni. I will certainly be making it again.
This looks amazing. Do you know if I could double the recipe to make the dough successfully?
You make me want to make EVERYTHING! Football Sunday dinner!
I remember you posting a few years ago that you got a pizza oven (ooni maybe?) Now that I have one too would love to know if this is possible in the pizza oven too?
I’m with you on Pizza Delicious. Best pizza ever! I love a thick and chewy pizza. Can’t wait to make this.