Gluten-Free Focaccia: Big, Bubbly, and Actually Good

A gluten-free focaccia recipe with real sky-high bubbles, no gumminess, and Ligurian- or Puglia-style options — thin and crisp or thick and fluffy.

Let’s talk about focaccia. I’ve been seeing it everywhere: bubbly, golden, crisp, full of structurally impossible sky-high bubbles. Gluten bakers stretch and fold and pour out that beautiful dough, leaving us gluten-free people in the dust. Or worse, there’s a sad sponge that tastes like nothing and passes as a gluten-free substitute — maybe a little bubble, maybe a little flavor, maybe just wet cardboard.

I was recently in Parma, where slabs of golden, fluffy focaccia seemed to adorn every platter of prosciutto and parmesan everyone was tucking into. Digging into plain platters of cured meats, let’s just say it would have been nice to have something to balance the richness. We stopped into a prosciutto factory store at the end of the day, and the woman there gave us a whole bag of gluten-rich, olive-oil-drenched focaccia. I didn’t touch it, but the kids got to eat “the real thing” for days. This bread, they tell me, is that kind of good.

My Focaccia Style

Now, I like my focaccia on the thin side — no mile-high cake for me. I tend to serve it for dinner, but at ¾ to 1 inch thick, it’s still thick enough to slice open for a perfect sandwich. If you want it thicker, make it thicker.

In my focaccia research, I learned there are actually regionally distinct types, from as far apart as Liguria and Puglia. Ligurian focaccia is thinner — the ¾-inch type I was dreaming of — with a bit of oil on the bottom (we aren’t crazy) and pools of salt and olive oil in the dimples on top. Pugliese focaccia is thicker and fluffier, though what I’ve seen at bakeries in Puglia isn’t terribly thick either — more like an inch to an inch and a half — and it’s often baked in cast iron with a heavy pour of olive oil that results in an almost-fried crust.

Mine is a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, I suppose — the dough works thick or thin. But I usually make it thin, with a good glug of olive oil on the bottom. Sometimes I bake it directly in the pan, but I almost always have to scrape off bits even when the dough seemed suspended in olive oil to begin with. So these days I make life easier and start with a parchment sling across the bottom — the oil in this version is just for fun. I typically bake mine in a ¼ sheet pan, but if you like the thicker style, use a 9″x9″ square pan or make 1.5 batches. You don’t have to pour olive oil all over the pan — you can use a lighter hand, skip it altogether, or skip the bottom oil and add that classic Ligurian pour on top instead.

Toppings

For toppings, I love it plain as a base for dips, meats, and cheeses, but rosemary and black olives are probably my favorite. Still, feel free to get creative: figs, goat cheese, and thyme; caramelized onions and brie. There are so many lovely things you can do with this dough — it’s simply one of my all-time favorite recipes.

Why This Gluten-Free Focaccia Recipe Works

Now let’s get into the details — this bread works for a few key reasons.

I’ve chosen a grain-heavy blend, relying on millet with a little help from teff, sorghum, brown rice, or whatever you feed your starter. The grain-heavy blend is what makes it such a delight to eat warm, with no gumminess in sight. Rounding things out, I use psyllium for structure, tapioca starch for stretch, potato starch for softness, and rice flour for volume. (For advice on which brands I use, check my related blog post — especially in gluten-free baking, there’s huge variation across products that can make or break a recipe.) A little sugar feeds the yeast without adding sweetness, yeast provides the rise (though you could probably leaven it with sourdough), and salt adds flavor. Vinegar creates an acidic environment that helps the yeast rise, supports the binding power of the psyllium, and strengthens the egg white structure. Then there are the egg whites — the unusual part of this bread is that I use four of them. It matters: I tried using fewer to be more “reasonable,” and it wasn’t the same — no big, holey structure.

If you like this recipe, check out some of my other bread recipes and pointers here.

Laura