Is your focaccia going stale in hours instead of days?
In this article, I share my tried and tested methods for keeping focaccia fresh for as long as possible (spongy, crispy focaccia two days after baking, anyone?).
I also share the results from my reheating tests to allow you to breathe life back into your two-day-old focaccia in just a couple of quick steps.
Here’s the quick answer:
The best way to store focaccia is to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature where it’ll last up to 2 days. For longer-term storage you’ll need to freeze the focaccia. Slice the bread up before freezing so you can defrost it a slice at a time.
Related: How To Store Naan Bread
How to store homemade focaccia and keep it fresh
Before you store your focaccia you need to make sure it’s completely cool. When it’s cool, you can store it in one of four ways.
- In plastic wrap or foil: wrap the cooled focaccia tightly in plastic wrap or foil and store it at room temperature for up to two days. The bread will stay nice and soft but may lose some crispness. You can get the crisp back by reheating the focaccia in the oven.
- In an airtight container: line your airtight container with a paper towel and place the cooled focaccia slices on top. Close the container and keep it at room temperature for up to two days. The paper towel will absorb any excess moisture to stop the bread from going soggy.
- In a paper bag: place your focaccia in a paper bag and close the end. The focaccia will last for up to a day using this method, but will be quite hard after a few hours. To soften it you can use the microwave.
- In the freezer: for long term storage freezing is best. Slice your focaccia up into portions and flash freeze them on a baking tray for 1 hour before transferring them to a freezer vag for up to a month. More on this later.
Wrapping the focaccia in plastic wrap yields the best storage results. Although an airtight container is a good idea if you want to reduce your plastic usage.
The focaccia didn’t last as long in a paper bag and was stale after just a few hours.
In general, it’s best to keep as much as the focaccia in tact as possible, so avoid cutting it into pieces before storage. Too many exposed edges will speed up the staling process.
Top tip: when you cut the focaccia, start from the middle and cut a slice from either side. When you’re done, the loaf should fit perfectly back together. Doing this means you’ll never have an exposed end.
Related: How To Store Soft Pretzels (they’re more delicate than focaccia!)
Can I refrigerate focaccia?
Storing focaccia in the refrigerator isn’t advised if you don’t have to. However, if your focaccia has perishable toppings like fresh cheese, then you should keep it in the refrigerator for safety reasons. At room temperature, toppings like cheese can attract harmful bacteria.
To store focaccia in the refrigerator, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap or put it in a freezer bag with as much of the air squeezed out as possible. The focaccia will keep for 4 days.
You may notice the focaccia has become hard after sitting in the fridge. Don’t worry, this is normal when you keep bread in the fridge and can be fixed by reheating the focaccia in the microwave.
How to freeze focaccia
If you plan on keeping the focaccia for more than 2 days I suggest freezing it. Follow these instructions:
- Wait until the focaccia is completely cooled and then cut it into pre-portioned slices.
- Spread the focaccia portions out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Place the baking tray in the freezer for 30-60 minutes to flash freeze the focaccia.
- Wrap the semi-frozen focaccia in a double layer of plastic wrap or put the slices in a freezer bag (with the air removed*) and freeze for up to a month.
To remove the air from your freezer bag you can squeeze it out with your hands, suck it out with a straw, or dunk the open bag in water to push the air out.
Flash freezing is useful because it means the focaccia won’t stick together once it’s frozen, so you can defrost a slice at a time instead of having to do the whole loaf.
If you don’t have time to flash freeze, you can use baking paper to separate all the slices before wrapping them in plastic.
The reason for the double wrapping is to help prevent freezer burn. The more protection the focaccia has against air, the less likely it is to develop freezer burn.
A tight wrapping also helps prevent ice-crystals from forming which could render the focaccia soggy once it thaws.
Another (better) way to prevent freezer burn is to vacuum seal the focaccia after the flash freezing. This removes ALL the air and makes freezer burn impossible. More on this later.
How to thaw focaccia
To thaw the focaccia, leave it wrapped for an hour at room temperature. Keeping the focaccia in the wrapping helps it to retain its moisture.
You can also use the defrost setting on your microwave, but you need to go very slowly (a few seconds at a time) to avoid drying the focaccia out.
Freezing par-baked focaccia
If you know in advance that you’re going to freeze your focaccia the best thing to do is only par-bake it before freezing instead of freezing
Take the focaccia out halfway through baking, cool it down, then freeze as above. When you’re ready to eat it, you can defrost it, drizzle it with a little oil and finish off the bake.
The ‘re-heating’ time will be longer, but you’ll have freshly baked bread instead of reheated bread.
How to reheat focaccia
You can reheat focaccia in four different ways:
- Oven: 357 degrees for 6-8 minutes, misting the focaccia with water first
- Microwave: cover the focaccia in a damp paper towel and heat for 30 seconds
- Toaster: place a slice of focaccia in the toaster for 1-2 minutes
- In a toastie maker: turn the focaccia into a sandwich!
The oven is the best way to reheat focaccia. It revives the bread and brings back all the qualities that make freshly-baked focaccia so good. The inside will be soft and pillowy, while the outside will be crispy.
Reheating focaccia in the oven
The best way to reheat focaccia is to preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the focaccia on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the bread to help rehydrate it and bake it for 6-8 minutes or until warmed through and crispy.
If the focaccia is frozen, it’s best to thaw it before reheating.
If you don’t have time to defrost the focaccia, wrap it in foil before putting it in the oven and then remove the foil for 2-3 minutes at the end of the bake. This allows the crust to crisp up.
A frozen loaf will take 10-12 minutes to fully reheat.
If you’re reheating a slice of focaccia with exposed edges, cover the edges with foil before reheating. This will stop them from getting dry.
Try to avoid covering the crust of the focaccia or you will stop this from crisping up too.
Reheating focaccia in the microwave
The microwave is the quickest way to reheat focaccia. Cover the focaccia in a damp paper towel and heat it for 30 seconds. Check on the bread and heat it again for another 20 seconds if you need to. Serve immediately.
The microwave is great for softening stale bread, but it won’t crisp up the outside. In fact, the focaccia will turn out pretty soggy with a chewy texture!
If you’d prefer a bit of crisp, pop the heated focaccia under the broiler for 1-2 minutes after microwaving.
Pro tip: you need to eat the focaccia as soon as possible once it comes out of the microwave. After a few minutes, it will have completely dried out and turned to cardboard.
(that’s not an exaggeration)
Reheating focaccia in the toaster
If you have slices of focaccia, a really convenient way to warm them up is in the toaster. You can do this straight from frozen too so you don’t need to wait for the focaccia to defrost. Simple pop the slice in the toaster and wait for around a minute.
Reheating focaccia in a toastie maker
This is my favorite way to heat up focaccia. You can make your sandwich and toast it all together, or simply toast the bread by itself. It crisps up the outside really well and takes almost no effort.
Psst… my go-to fillings would be tomato and mozzarella.
And here are some other cool ideas of things to eat with focaccia.
How to store focaccia dough
You can store focaccia dough in the fridge or the freezer.
Lots of focaccia recipes call for you to store the dough in the refrigerator overnight. It allows the yeast time to really develop and gives the bread its distinctive nutty flavor.
It’s called cold proofing.
Related: What To Cover Dough With While Rising
To store focaccia dough:
- Prep it to the point where you’ve mixed all your ingredients and have a nice ball of dough. You want to put the dough in the refrigerator immediately after forming the initial dough, before it’s had a chance to rise (this is to reduce the risk of over-proofing)
- Find a bowl big enough to hold the dough once it doubles in size
- Coat the bowl with olive oil then put the dough in
- Coat the surface of the with olive oil
- Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap
Once covered, you can put the dough in the fridge where it can sit for up to 48 hours.
Covering the dough will stop it from drying out, which can impede rising. The olive oil will stop the dough from sticking to your covering (if it gets that far).
Cold temperatures don’t kill yeast, but they slow it down.
Your dough will rise in the fridge but much slower than normal. That’s why it’s okay to leave it for so long.
When you’re ready to use the dough, take it out of the fridge and let it rest until it returns to room temperature. You can then shape it before leaving it to rise for a final time (at least 30 minutes, but I normally leave it for 1-2 hours).
48 hours is the longest I’d generally recommend leaving the dough in the fridge for, but it is possible to leave it for longer. Some people leave their dough in the fridge for up to a week.
The yeast will keep working the whole time you have the dough in the fridge. So the longer you leave it, the higher the risk of over fermenting the dough. Overfermented dough will taste like alcohol.
This reduce the chances of the focaccia dough over fermenting, you can do two things.
- Reduce the amount of yeast you’re using so it ‘eats’ the sugar more slowly
- Cool the dough down fast enough to slow down the fermentation before it has a chance to get going
Place your dough in a Ziploc bag and squeeze as much of the air out as you can. Seal it and dunk it in a bowl full of ice water for a few minutes. You can then transfer the dough to the fridge. The cold water will cool the dough very quickly and halt any fermentation before it starts.
When you move the dough straight from room temperature to the fridge, it takes a while to cool down enough to slow the fermentation down. So you effectively get a fast rise until the dough cools down.
How to freeze focaccia dough
Yeast is killed off at higher temperatures but isn’t that affected by low temperature. So it’s fine to freeze focaccia dough.
The best time to freeze focaccia dough is after it’s had its first rise and has been knocked back.
Put the dough on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and freeze it uncovered for an hour or two.
After this, the dough should be solid enough to wrap tightly in plastic wrap, followed by a layer of aluminum foil. The double layer provides extra protection against freezer burn (vacuum packing would be even better).
When you want to use it, take the dough out and let it thaw slowly in the refrigerator. Don’t worry if you need to leave the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours (or even a day) after it’s defrosted. This will give the yeast time to fully develop and flavour the bread.
Once the dough has completely thawed, you can shape it and leave it for its second rise.
The second rise may be more unpredictable than you’re used to, but as long as you’re patient and observant there should be no issues. The rise is likely to take a lot longer than normal, but still make sure to check it regularly. You want to avoid over-proofing.
Can I make focaccia in advance?
Yes, you can make focaccia in advance. You can make the dough up to 2 days in advance and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake it. Or you can cook the focaccia and then freeze it where it will keep for up to a month.
How to keep focaccia warm
The best way to keep focaccia warm is to leave it in a warm oven. You can either use the residual heat from having just baked the bread, or turn the oven onto its lowest setting. This will work for as long as you have the oven turned on, although after an hour or two the focaccia may start to dry out.
To keep focaccia warm on the table, it’s best to use a bread warmer. It’s a basket with a special stone in the bottom which can be warmed in the oven and hold the heat for up to 30-45 minutes. You can put the focaccia on the stone and it’ll keep it warm.
Another option is to wrap the focaccia in a couple of dish towels. This is a good short-term solution, it’ll keep the focaccia warm for a good 15-20 minutes.
How to vacuum pack focaccia
Vacuum sealing your food can extend its life by up to 5 times. You can use it for all types of food (including focaccia and other types of bread).
Focaccia is very delicate, so it’s best to freeze it before you vacuum seal it. Cut the focaccia into portions and then flash freeze them on a cookie tray. Once the focaccia is frozen, you can safely vacuum pack it.
Freezing the focaccia first reduces the risk of it being crushed in the vacuum sealing process.
If your machine has an instant seal button, you can press this if it looks like the focaccia is getting squashed.
Frozen, vacuum sealed focaccia will stay fresh for 5-6 months.
If you have a pulse button on your vacuum sealer you can use that to store fresh focaccia.
The pulse button removes the need to freeze the focaccia first because you control how much air gets sucked out. You can stop the machine just before it starts to squash your focaccia. Once it’s vacuum packed you can freeze it, or leave it at room temperature.
At room temperature, the vacuum packed focaccia will stay fresh for 5-6 days instead of two.
It might take a few tries to get the hang of vacuum packing focaccia, especially if you’re sealing it fresh. But once you’ve got the technique down, it’s a quick and easy way to enjoy your focaccia for longer.
Note that since there is moisture within the bread, the bread can still mold even if it’s vacuum-packed. The vacuum just stops the bread from going stale.
You can also vacuum seal focaccia dough to increase its shelf life. Again, it’s best to do this once it’s frozen to prevent squishing it.
If you store a lot of food, a vacuum sealer is a life-saver. I use a Food Saver and it comes in handy multiple times per week.
Everything lasts for so much longer. No more worrying about things expiring. Less food and money wasted.
Read Next: How To Store Ciabatta Bread
How To Store And Reheat Focaccia
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 portion focaccia bread leftovers
Instructions
Storing focaccia
- In plastic wrap or foil: wrap the cooled focaccia tightly in plastic wrap or foil and store it at room temperature for up to two days. The bread will stay nice and soft but may lose some crispness. You can get the crisp back by reheating the focaccia in the oven.
- In an airtight container: line your airtight container with a paper towel and place the cooled focaccia slices on top. Close the container and keep it at room temperature for up to two days. The paper towel will absorb any excess moisture to stop the bread from going soggy.
- In a paper bag: place your focaccia in a paper bag and close the end. The focaccia will last for up to a day using this method, but will be quite hard after a few hours. To soften it you can use the microwave.
Reheating focaccia
- Oven: preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the focaccia on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the bread to help rehydrate it and bake it for 6-8 minutes or until warmed through and crispy.
- Microwave: the microwave is the quickest way to reheat focaccia. Cover the focaccia in a damp paper towel and heat it for 30 seconds. Check on the bread and heat it again for another 20 seconds if you need to. Serve immediately.
- Toaster: if you have slices of focaccia, a really convenient way to warm them up is in the toaster. You can do this straight from frozen too so you don’t need to wait for the focaccia to defrost. Simple pop the slice in the toaster and wait for around a minute.
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