This Shio Pan Focaccia takes everything you love about Japanese shio pan—the buttery layers, the golden crisp edges, the salty finish—and turns it into an easy, homemade Butter Focaccia recipe. All the flavor and comfort of shio pan salt bread, but with a fraction of the effort!
Table of Contents
Shio Pan Inspired Focaccia
Shio pan (literally “salt bread”) is a popular Japanese bakery bread roll that’s soft, chewy, and layered with butter. It’s baked until golden and finished with a sprinkle of salt—simple, yet incredibly satisfying.
It’s a favorite in our household, but making really good shio pan at home takes quite a bit of skill and patience. Between rolling, shaping, and proofing, it’s definitely more of a weekend project. Over the years I’ve made many shio pan-inspired breads—like shio pan bagels, shio pan rolls, and simple shio pan buns—and one thing I’ve learned is that you can never go wrong with adding butter to bread in any shape or form… including focaccia.
Why This Recipe Works
This recipe is basically a easy, no fail version of shio pan—or even laminated croissants. You might’ve seen the viral croissant bread or croissant focaccia trend where people grate butter into the dough, and I’ve tried that method too. While it’s delicious, I found it didn’t really create the same laminated layers as a croissant—more like bread that’s infused with butter throughout.
For this Shio Pan Focaccia, I use the same method I use for my shio pan bagels which is reminiscent of adding blocks of butter in shio pan: folding in cubed butter instead of grated. This creates little pockets of butter that melt into the dough as it bakes. You can actually see some of those buttery pockets and light layers once it’s baked—giving you that soft, rich texture with golden, crispy edges and a deeply buttery flavor that’s so reminiscent of classic shio pan.
Ingredients and Substitutions
You only need a few pantry staples and some butter love to make this.
- Focaccia dough – I used my favourite no knead focaccia recipe. You can use the same day method or the overnight method. Just 4 ingredients for the dough, too: flour, water, salt and yeast.
- Salted butter – Use your favourite high quality butter here!
- Flaky or rock salt – Essential for finishing; it enhances the buttery flavor and gives that signature salted butter crust.
How to Make Butter Focaccia
Making salted butter focaccia is surprisingly simple. Here’s an overview before you dive into the recipe card:
- Prepare the dough: Make one batch of no-knead focaccia and let it cold-proof in the fridge for 24–72 hours (or use the same-day method).
- Layer in the butter: Cube chilled butter and fold it into the dough. Update: For even distribution, add the cubed butter to only two-thirds of the dough. Then, fold the plain (no-butter) third over the middle first, followed by the buttered side on top.
- Proof again: Let the dough rest until puffy and doubled.
- Dimple and salt: Use melted butter to dimple the top. Preheat the oven and when ready, dimple again and then sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Bake: Bake until golden and crisp on the bottom. The butter will sizzle and caramelize, creating the most flavorful crust.
- Cool and enjoy: Let it rest slightly, then slice and serve warm.
VIDEO: Watch How to Make It
Lisa’s Recipe Tips
- Use good-quality butter: Since butter is the main flavor here, a higher quality one will make all the difference.
- Keep the butter cold: Cold butter helps create those distinct buttery pockets instead of melting into the dough too early.
- Don’t skip the salt: That final sprinkle on top enhances all the flavors and gives it that signature shio pan touch.
Serving Suggestions
This butter focaccia is insanely delicious on its own but because its also a neutral flavour, it pairs well with so many other foods. Here are some suggestions:
- My favourite is with chili or stews like my Japanese curry chili, Japanese cream stew and a classic beef stew!
- Serve with soup like my Panera style black bean soup, miso roasted broccoli cheese soup or corn potage.
- Alongside some gool ol’ pasta and use the focaccia to sweep up the leftover sauce.
- Pair it with dips like whipped tofu or whipped hummus.
- Use it for sandwiches—the buttery crumb means you can add the simplest fillings and it will still be incredible. I love tomatoes, prosciutto or Japanese egg sandwich filling.
- Tear it up and dip into olive oil, garlic butter, honey butter or miso butter.
- Pair it with a fresh salad to get in some veggies.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
I’ve never had to deal with leftovers for this butter focaccia, but you can double batch it and make some ahead of time so you’ll always have some on hand for a quick snack or side. To store:
- Room Temperature: Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days. I don’t recommend refrigerating it — the crumb tends to dry out and harden overnight.
- Freezer: Slice into portions, wrap tightly, and freeze for up to 2 months.
- To Reheat:
- Oven: Warm in a 325°F (160°C) oven for 3–5 minutes, or 7–9 minutes from frozen, until the edges are crisp again.
- Toaster oven: Toast for 2–3 minutes or until heated through. Lightly mist or brush the surface with water before reheating to help revive the texture.
- Microwave (in a pinch): Wrap in a damp paper towel and heat on medium for 20–30 seconds until just warmed.
Recipe FAQ
Yes, simply swap the butter out for plant based butter. Be sure to use a dairy free butter you like the flavour of!
This Shio Pan Focaccia recipe is your gateway to making any focaccia buttery and irresistible. Try swapping in compound butters for fun variations — think miso butter, garlic butter, brown butter, herb butter, or even truffle butter. As long as you can cube and fold it into the dough, it’ll work beautifully. Simple is best. Bread + butter = love.
More Focaccia Recipes
- Cinnamon Roll Focaccia
- Strawberry Jam Focaccia
- Bloomin’ Cheese And Garlic Butter Focaccia
- Okonomiyaki Focaccia
Enjoy! If you make this Butter Focaccia recipe, I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment and rating below, and if you share it on social media, tag me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen. I can’t wait to see your creations!
Print
Butter Focaccia (Shio Pan Focaccia)
- Total Time: 24 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 1 focaccia
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This Shio Pan Focaccia takes everything you love about Japanese shio pan—the buttery layers, the golden crisp edges, the salty finish—and turns it into an easy, homemade Butter Focaccia recipe. All the flavor and comfort of shio pan salt bread, but with a fraction of the effort!
Ingredients
- 1 batch of no knead focaccia (700 g dough)
- 1/2 stick (57 g) + 2 tbsp (22 g) salted butter, divided
- flaky or rock salt, for topping
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Make one batch of focaccia dough and proof it in the fridge for 24–72 hours, as per instructions. You can also use the same-day method if preferred.
- Prep the butter: Cube 1/2 stick of butter into roughly 1 cm pieces. Keep them refrigerated until ready to use.
- Prepare the pan: Coat a 7×11-inch or 8×8-inch baking pan with 1 tbsp of butter.
- Shape and layer: Oil your hands and transfer the dough to the prepared pan and gently spread it so it covers the base. Evenly scatter the cubed butter over about two-thirds of the dough. Fold the section without butter over the middle, then fold the buttered side over the top again. Turn the dough vertically, then flip it over so the seams are underneath.
- Final proof: Cover and proof for 2–4 hours, or until the dough is puffy and nearly doubled in size.
- Dimple and butter: Melt the remaining 1 tbsp of butter. Coat your fingers with some of the melted butter and gently dimple the surface of the dough.
- Preheat: the oven to 450°F (230°C).
- Bake: Once the oven is ready, dimple the focaccia again and sprinkle with flaky or rock salt.
Bake for 22–25 minutes, or until deeply golden brown on both the top and bottom. - Cool and serve: Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before slicing.
Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
- If your oven runs hot and prone to burning, reduce oven temperature to 425°F (230°C) and bake for 24-30 minutes or until deeply golden brown on both sides.
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Appetizer, Side Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian, Japanese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Focaccia
- Calories: 2700
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 4000 mg
- Fat: 130 g
- Saturated Fat: 50 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 79 g
- Trans Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 330 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Protein: 47 g
- Cholesterol: 300 mg
love this recipe! it was sooooooooooo good. no notes, everything was clear and detailed.
I came across this recipe via Instagram and knew I had to try it. This was my first focaccia recipe I ever made and it was insanely good! Fluffy interior, crispy exterior, and incredibly hard to stop eating. No notes. It is perfection. Make this, you will not regret it!
This was my first time making focaccia and after trying this recipe, it definitely won’t be my last! The notes and instructions were super helpful and my friends devoured the half loaf I gave them immediately. The bottom was so golden and crispy, and the bread was so light and fluffy but still delightfully chewy, I can’t wait to eat the rest!
I love salt bread so this was right up my alley. So easy to make and so buttery! The bottom was beautifully golden and crispy
Made the same-day version of this and it was so Focc-ing good! So much easier than making shiopan and it definitely hits the spot.
And it is dangerously addictive 🫣 I could have easily eaten the whole loaf by myself in one sitting 😂
Made this over the weekend and everyone went crazy for it! I love salt bread and this was so much easier to make the bottom was buttery and crispy.
After having shio butter bread in Korea, I knew I had to make this. This recipe came out great! Might adjust the butter to a little less. Definitely recommend her cold ferment method in fridge!
Hi this recipe looks amazing! One question though, do you include olive oil in the basement focaccia dough? Because your write-up says use only four ingredients (flour, water, yeast, salt) but the link to your no-knead focaccia recipe includes olive oil. Or is the butter cubes sufficient such that you can skip olive oil in the basement dough altogether?
Sorry that was a typo in the recipe description, i’ve updated it now! In the blogpost headline it says 5 ingredients 🙂 You can go either way, use all butter or olive oil. I tend to use olive oil if im proofing the dough overnight because melted butter might harden from the cold dough, making it a bit hard to fold and turn. But either works for this recipe!