How To Reheat Focaccia
Focaccia is one of our favorite Italian loaves of bread. It is incredibly delicious on its own and can be served in an endless amount of ways.
So, it goes without saying that sometimes there are bound to be leftovers. Now, if you’ve ever reheated this bread at home, you may have been left with some less than appealing results. It either comes out soggy or rock-solid.
So, how do you reheat focaccia? The best method you can use to reheat focaccia is using the oven — it heats evenly and relatively quickly, which leaves the crust crisp and the top soft, ensuring the best and freshest texture and flavor. You can also reheat focaccia in the air-fryer, pan, and microwave.
Well cover each of these methods in more depth throughout this article, and we’ll even cover some proper storage techniques for this flatbread just to ensure your leftovers are extra good the next day!
What Is Focaccia?
Focaccia is one of the most famous Italian flatbreads that exists to date! They are made with leavened dough and baked in a hot oven.
However, what makes this type of flatbread truly unique is that they are topped with a ton of olive oil, salt, herbs, and other vegetables.
More often than not, rosemary and pitted olives are the toppings of choice. But today, as with most things, there are hundreds of thousands of variations on the classic focaccia concept!
How Is Focaccia Made?
Focaccia dough is pretty basic — it is made with a combination of flour, oil, water, yeast, and salt (pretty much like all other bread dough).
After mixing the ingredients together, the dough is left to rise, which helps give it a fluffier texture. Then, after it has been knocked down and shaped into a flatbread, it is punctured (another key feature of this bread).
These puncture marks help retain moisture in the dough while the bread is baking. And again, any dressings, seasonings, herbs, or toppings are baked with the bread to add flavor.
How To Reheat Focaccia — 3 Easy Methods
Now, there are few things in life we enjoy more than freshly baked bread. However, more often than not, focaccia is considered to be an accompaniment!
It is served with pasta, soups, charcuterie platters, and cheese boards — any classic Italian meal you can think of!
This means that sometimes you will have leftovers. Luckily, focaccia does keep pretty well if you store it correctly. However, reheating this flatbread in the correct way is also crucial if you want to make it taste as good as new.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at the best ways to reheat focaccia bread with the various appliances you may have at home.
Method 1: In The Oven (Best Method)
First up, we’ll start with the best method you can use. If possible, it should be the only method you consider.
You can use any oven for this technique. Many people say “you cannot do this without a convection oven,” but we think that’s nonsense.
It is entirely possible to use any oven that you have — it may just take longer with some (like a gas oven for example).
Now, to reheat focaccia in an oven, all you need is a cookie sheet or baking pan, non-stick baking paper, and the oven. Here’s how you do it!
Step 1: Preheat The Oven
To start, preheat your oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
This is a key step — you should not try to heat the focaccia without preheating the oven first. It could cause the bread to become soggy, heat unevenly, and lose its crisp texture entirely.
Step 2: Set Up The Focaccia
While the oven is heating, place the focaccia on the lined cookie or baking tray. You might not even need non-stick baking paper, but we like to add it to ensure the bread doesn’t stick.
Step 3: Reheat The Focaccia
Once your oven is preheated, place the focaccia inside. Sprinkle a few drops of water over the top of the focaccia — this will help keep the top of the flatbread moist!
Allow it to bake for 10-15 minutes or until it has sufficiently heated. The bottom should be crisp, the loaf should be completely heated through, and the top should be pleasantly oily and moist.
Step 4: Rest The Reheated Focaccia
Now, we know it’s tempting to dive right in. However, once you remove it from the oven, allow your focaccia to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
This will allow the heat to further distribute evenly — not to mention it will be easier to handle the hot bread.
What Will Make This Method Work Better?
Pizza stones! Yes, you know we love a good pizza stone. But it works! By using either a pizza pan or a pizza stone, you can make the bottom of the focaccia nice and crisp while the top stays soft.
A pizza stone also helps distribute the heat of the oven more evenly onto the bread. That, in turn, will help heat it more evenly and create an overall better flavor. And yes, we are still talking about the leftovers!
Method 2: Air Fryer
The second method is very much like reheating focaccia in an oven. However, air fryers just work much faster, plus their preheating time isn’t nearly as long as that of an oven.
Another bonus of using these appliances is that they already come with a pizza stone — kind of. Their baskets are perforated, meaning the heat can more evenly heat the base of the focaccia and make it crispy.
The biggest downside to using an air fryer is that not all models can fit an entire focaccia. However, a simple solution is to cut the focaccia into large pieces that will fit. Just don’t cut them up too small, or they will dry out!
Step 1: Preheat The Air Fryer
For the air fryer, we would recommend heating it to 350ºF (180ºC). If you have an option, put it on the bake setting.
Step 2: Heat The Focaccia
Once the air fryer is preheated, add your focaccia or pieces into the basket. Sprinkle it with a little bit of water again. Put it back and leave it for about 8 minutes.
Check the progress of the focaccia before removing it. If it needs to heat for longer, leave it in longer — but only for a couple of minutes. These machines work very quickly and very effectively!
Method 3: Stove Top
Now, this isn’t a method we love, but we also can’t say that we hate it. It works very well if you don’t have any of the appliances we talk about today!
All you need for this reheating method is a large pan with a (preferably glass) lid, a spatula, and a little bit of olive oil and water.
The olive oil will help make the bottom crispy and distribute the heat evenly. The water, much like within the oven and air fryer, will help keep the top soft and fluffy — but it will also generate steam, which will help heat the focaccia better.
Step 1: Preheat The Pan
Add a little bit of olive oil to a non-stick frying pan. A regular pan will do, but non-stick works better. Then, heat it over a medium-high setting.
Step 2: Add The Focaccia And Heat
Add your piece(s) of focaccia to the warm pan and sprinkle them with water. Then, place the lid on the pan and heat the bread for a couple of minutes.
Step 3: Check The Progress
Once you see the entire lid is all steamed up, check the progress of the bread. If it isn’t hot enough yet, leave it a couple more minutes. If your bottom starts becoming too dark, lower the heat.
Once it is almost hot enough for you, you can remove the lid and move on to the next step.
Step 4: Crisp The Bottom A Little
If your focaccia is close to being completely heated, remove the lid. Then, increase the heat to high and allow the base to crisp for a couple of minutes.
Method 4: Microwave (The Worst Option)
If it’s the worst, why is it on the list? Well, because it works. But that doesn’t mean it works as well as we personally would like it to!
A microwave will very quickly heat the focaccia. And it will be very hot at that! However, that means it either makes the entire bread soft or dries it out completely.
Is there no in-between? Unfortunately not — we have tried everything, but there is no way to get the top soft while the bottom stays crisp. That’s just not what a microwave does.
But if you have no other options, again, it will get the job done quickly. And all you have to do is place the focaccia on a microwave-safe plate, then heat it on high for 30-60 seconds. And that’s all that there is to it!
How To Store Focaccia
Now, even though storage has nothing to do with reheating your focaccia, it does affect the quality of the focaccia you are heating back up again.
So, if you stored it incorrectly and the focaccia is now dry, the reheating process is going to be a lot different — and a lot more difficult! The same goes for focaccia which becomes soggy during storage.
That’s why we are just quickly going to cover the basics of effectively storing focaccia. Place the focaccia in plastic wrap or an air-tight container. You can also use a brown paper bag, but it doesn’t work as well.
Then, store it at room temperature in a cool, dry, and dark place. Do not store it inside the fridge. And if you freeze it, you’ll obviously need to thaw the focaccia before reheating it.
