Recipe Collection
Focaccia & Flatbread Recipes
Some of the most forgiving bread you can bake, and some of the most fun. Dimpled focaccia, blistered pizza, pillowy naan, and pocket pita, with the high-hydration handling broken down step by step. A great place to start, and a great thing to serve a crowd.
23 recipes
Easy Rosemary Sea Salt Focaccia
A soft, aromatic flatbread that's perfect for beginners
Soft, aromatic focaccia that makes you look like a seasoned baker on a busy weeknight. Simple steps, no special tools, huge payoff.
Foolproof Pita Bread
Soft, Puffy Pockets Every Single Time
Most pita recipes fail because they don't explain why pitas puff. The pocket forms when moisture in the dough turns to steam in a blazing hot oven. That steam rapidly expands, pushing the top and bottom layers apart. For this to work, you need three things: enough moisture in the dough, intense heat, and even thickness.
Gluten-Free Focaccia
Crispy Outside, Fluffy Inside
This focaccia defies everything you thought you knew about gluten-free bread. It's crispy on the outside, soft and airy on the inside, and loaded with…
Kids Can Bake: Personal Pan Pizza
A Real Pizza Made by Real Kids, from Scratch
A kid-friendly personal pan pizza recipe designed for classrooms, scouts, and families. No mixer, no scale. Just cups, spoons, and hands.
Ligurian-Style Focaccia
The Ultimate Guide: Yeasted & Sourdough Versions
Authentic Ligurian-style focaccia features a signature brine technique that creates an impossibly crispy crust while keeping the interior light and airy. This recipe offers both yeasted (same-day) and sourdough (24-hour) versions, so you can choose your adventure.
Naan Bread
Soft, Puffy, and Blistered Indian Flatbread
Soft, chewy naan with gorgeous charred bubbles, made on a cast iron skillet. Available in yeasted and sourdough versions with garlic butter finish.
New York Style Pizza Dough
Thin, Crispy, Foldable Perfection
This is the pizza dough that New York built. Thin enough to fold, sturdy enough to hold, with a crispy bottom and just enough chew to know it's handmade. The cold-ferment is optional but recommended because it develops incredible flavor while making the dough easier to stretch. You can make same-day pizza in about 3 hours, or plan ahead for 24-72 hour fermented dough that rivals your favorite pizzeria. Either way, you're never ordering delivery again.
Pocket Pita
The bread that puffs into its own pocket, right on your stovetop
Soft homemade pita that puffs into a full pocket on a hot skillet or grill. Yeasted and sourdough paths, no oven needed. A summer bread that teaches rise.
Self-Rising Naan Bread
No yeast, no starter, no waiting — just great flatbread in 30 minutes
Soft, blistered naan made with self-rising flour and Greek yogurt. No yeast, no starter. Ready in 30 minutes with ingredients you already have.
Sourdough Discard Naan
Soft, Pillowy Stovetop Flatbread
Stovetop naan using sourdough discard and Greek yogurt for soft, pillowy flatbread with just a hint of tang. No oven needed.
Spider Web Focaccia
Focaccia Art Goes to the Dark Side
Golden, dimpled focaccia with a spider web spun from black olives and roasted red pepper, and one fat olive spider in the corner. Community focaccia artist Donna May's Halloween take on the decorated focaccia we bake all summer.
Summer Garden Focaccia
Your edible canvas for peak summer produce
A pillowy overnight focaccia you decorate like a garden. Beginner-friendly, endlessly creative, and the best way to show off summer produce.
"I Don't Have Time For All of That" Ciabatta
Bakery-Quality Bread in Under 2 Hours
When you don't have time for overnight ferments, this fast ciabatta delivers. Wet dough, paddle attachment, and aggressive yeast get you bakery-quality bread in under 2 hours. The secret? Trust the wet dough, use the paddle (not the dough hook), and let steam do the heavy lifting for that incredible crust.
Apple Fritter Focaccia | Baking Great Bread
Crisp-edged apple-cinnamon focaccia with a brown-butter maple finish.
Apple fritter focaccia with cinnamon apples, crisp olive-oil edges, pecans, and a brown-butter maple cider glaze.
Classic Neapolitan Pizza Dough
48-Hour Cold Fermented Crust
True Neapolitan pizza is beautifully simple: flour, water, salt, yeast. This 48-hour cold ferment develops deep flavor and signature leopard-spotted char.
Fresh-Milled Khorasan Pizza Dough
Golden, sweet, and the best-looking crust in the collection
A cold-fermented pizza dough at 70% fresh-milled khorasan. Khorasan, sold elsewhere as Kamut, mills to a deep golden flour with a buttery sweetness and develops beautiful gluten when handled right. This is the recipe that shows people ancient grains are not only for rustic loaves.
Mixed Berry Focaccia Art
A Stunning Garden-Style Focaccia Painted with Fresh Berries and Herbs
Golden olive oil focaccia topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and herbs arranged into a garden scene. Stunning to look at, even better to eat.
Rustic Italian Ciabatta
High-hydration yeasted bread with a crackly crust and open, irregular crumb
A classic Italian ciabatta built on a poolish. High hydration, minimal handling, and an open honeycomb crumb that'll make you fall in love with bread all over again.
Sourdough Italian Ciabatta
High-hydration sourdough slipper with crackly crust and honeycomb crumb
A classic Italian ciabatta built on an active sourdough levain. High hydration, minimal handling, and an open honeycomb crumb that's worth every extra hour of fermentation.
Sourdough Neapolitan Pizza Dough
72-Hour Naturally Leavened Crust
Everything you love about Neapolitan pizza, powered by your sourdough starter. The 72-hour cold ferment develops incredible flavor and makes the dough easier to digest.
Sourdough Pita Bread
Naturally leavened pocket bread that puffs into a perfect dome
Sourdough pita bread leavened entirely with a ripe levain. The long ferment builds flavor and pocket-popping strength. Eight soft, puffy pitas from one dough.
Sourdough Pizza Dough
Crispy, Chewy, and Worth Every Bubble
Once you taste sourdough pizza, there's no going back. The slow overnight fermentation develops flavors that commercial yeast can't touch, while the natural…
Sourdough Summer Garden Focaccia
The tangy, bubbly canvas for peak summer produce
A tangy overnight sourdough focaccia you decorate like a garden. Real starter, big bubbles, and the prettiest way to show off summer produce.
Better with company
Bake your way through this collection. Together.
Bring your next loaf and your questions to Crust & Crumb Academy.
Explore the AcademyWho these recipes are for
Flatbreads are the most forgiving and most social bread you can bake. Focaccia forgives clumsy handling, pizza dough waits patiently in the fridge for days, and naan and pita cook in minutes on a skillet. If you're nervous about bread, start here; if you're feeding a crowd, definitely start here.
The Rosemary Focaccia is the single easiest yeasted bread on the site. The Ligurian-style version and the garden focaccia build on it, and the pizza doughs run from a same-day New York round to a slow-fermented Neapolitan base.
What you need
A metal 9x13 pan or sheet pan for focaccia, a cast iron skillet for naan and pita, and good olive oil, which is an ingredient here, not a lubricant. For pizza, a stone or steel makes a real difference, but a preheated upside-down sheet pan is a fine start.
The two mistakes people make with flatbreads
First: fighting the hydration. Focaccia dough is meant to be slack and sticky. Oil your hands instead of flouring them, use the stretch-and-fold moves shown in the recipes, and stop trying to make it behave like sandwich dough.
Second: cooking pita and naan at timid heat. Pocket pita needs a screaming hot surface to steam-puff, and naan chars in spots by design. Preheat the skillet until it just starts to smoke and work fast. Pale, slow-cooked flatbread turns into crackers.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did my pita not puff?
- Almost always heat or rolling. The surface must be fully preheated, and the round must be rolled even, about an eighth of an inch, with no tears. A torn or lopsided round vents steam instead of ballooning.
- How far ahead can I make pizza dough?
- Two to four days in the fridge, and it improves for most of that window. Ball it, oil it lightly, cover it, and pull it an hour before shaping so it relaxes.
- Can I use dried herbs on focaccia?
- Fresh rosemary survives the oven better; dried herbs scorch on the surface. If dried is what you have, work it into the dough instead of scattering it on top.
- What makes the top of focaccia crisp instead of oily?
- A generous but even layer of oil in a metal pan, and a fully preheated oven. Glass pans insulate and give a pale, greasy bottom. The oil should sizzle at the edges as it bakes.