The Best Sourdough Focaccia Recipe

So... What is it?

Sourdough focaccia is by far my favorite style of bread! it can be used for sandwich's, pizza or just with some fresh olive oil as a dip! It's light, airy, and flavorful Italian flatbread made with a naturally leavened sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast. It combines the tangy, slightly sour notes from the sourdough with the traditional softness and olive oil richness of focaccia. The dough is typically hydrated and soft, resulting in a pillowy texture with a crisp, golden crust. The bread is often topped with olive oil, salt, herbs like rosemary, and sometimes vegetables or olives, enhancing its flavor. To make it, a sourdough starter is mixed with flour, water, and salt, left to rise slowly to develop flavor, and then shaped, dimpled, and baked after being generously drizzled with olive oil. The taste is a delicious combination of savory, tangy, and fragrant, with a chewy interior and crisp exterior.

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Batch Size & Cook Time

• 1 Large Focaccia (use a large tray)
• a couple of hours of prep (dough mixing & stretch & folds)
• 23 min total cook time

What ingredients?

Sourdough Starter

• 1.75 to 2.1 cups of flour
• 1.75 to 2.1 cups of water

Focaccia Ingredients

• 3 cups of bakers flour (plain flour will also work)
• 2 to 2.25 cups of water
• drizzle of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 cup of sourdough starter
• flaked salt (to sprinkle on before baking)
• chilli oil or flakes (optional garnish on top of bread)

What Equipment?

Sourdough Starter

• 1 large glass jar (1 to 2L)
• mixing spoon or knife
• 1/4 or 1/3 measuring cup

Focaccia equipment

• large baking tray (I prefer non-stick)
• mixing spoon
• large bowl
• large container (at least twice the size of your dough before it rises)
• measuring cups (1 cup size)

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Step by step process

Making the Starter

• Thoroughly clean a large glass jar (1-2L in size)
• measure out 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of flour (depending on your jar size) and tip into the jar, then add an equal amount of water
• mix the water and flour thoroughly then loosely close the lid of the jar and set aside in a relatively warm area of the kitchen out of direct sunlight
• each day repeat this process, adding the same quantity of flour and water as day 1, and mixing
• by day 5-7 you should start to see yeast activity in your new mother yeast, it will start to look bubbly and frothy, bam! you have created a mother yeast!
• you can keep this in the fridge when you are not planning on baking for a while to keep the yeast dormant, then remove from the fridge and feed again in increments with flour and water 12 hours to 24 hours prior to baking until you see it frothing and bubbling again.

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Making the Focaccia

Step 1 - Mixing the dough

• Measure out 3 cups of flour, 2 to 2.25 cups of water and 1 cup of yeast starter and add to a large mixing bowl
• proceed to thoroughly mix together with a spoon or sourdough whisk until all the flour is dissolved with the water into a shaggy sticky dough
• leave this to rest for 15 to 30 minutes (this is the autolyse period where the yeast starts to grow and munch away on the sugars of the dough and begin to build gluten networks)
• after the initial rest add in 2 teaspoons of salt and mix into the dough, you will notice the dough will start to tighten up and become less runny, now leave to rest for a further 15 to 30 minutes

Step 2 - Stretch and folds (4 sets)

• After the salt rest, wet your hands with water and grab under one side of the dough in the bowl and pull it up and stretch it over the dough itself (useful to watch our video for this step!) then rotate the bowl by 90 degrees and repeat this process until you have stretched and folded all 4 sides
• allow the dough to rest covered by a cloth or cling wrap for 15 minutes then repeat this process
• after completing 4 sets of stretch and folds with 15 minute breaks between each set you will notice the dough has built up far more strength, and is less sticky and holds more tightness than it did in the beginning.
  If you can stretch out the dough without it ripping and breaking then you have healthy strong gluten networks, and its time to move onto coil folds!

Step 3 - Coil Folds (2-4 sets)

• Drizzle oil into the container (it should be at least twice as big as your current dough size) and oil all the sides of the container
• now transfer your dough from your bowl to the container and begin your coil folds
• to coil fold you can reach both hands underneath the middle of the dough and lift it up so that it stretches under its own weight, then rest the dough back down on itself so the both sides fold underneath the dough like a big coil (watch our video to see how to do this)
• If your dough is not tight or strong enough to coil fold in this way you can simply lift one side of the dough at a time and tuck it under itself
• coil fold the dough 2 to 4 times with 30 minute rests in between each fold
• by the end of your coil folds you will notice the surface of the dough is no longer sticky to the touch and its starting to fill with gas as fermentation progresses

Step 4 - Bulk Fermentation

• if you are planning on cooking this dough the next day (or same day) Close the container and allow the dough to rest for a couple of hours until the size of the dough has doubled.
• if you'd like to sour this dough for a day to a couple of days put the container into the fridge after finishing coil folds and allow it to develop complexity and flavour.
  The cold of the fridge will slow down fermentation and allow wild yeasts in the dough from the mother yeast to grow and develop acidity and complexity in the flavours of the dough (hence sourdough!).
• The longer you let your dough slowly ferment in the fridge the more sour it will become

Step 5 - Baking

• Begin pre-heating your oven to 230 degrees Celsius on fan forced
• whilst your oven heats oil your baking tray with a drizzle of oil and cover all the surfaces of the tray with your hand or oil brush
• Take your dough out of the fridge and gently tip it out onto the baking tray, if you want your focaccia to rise extra high you can fold the dough over itself so that it traps more gas as it rises
• Slip your fingers underneath the dough and gently stretch the dough out to fill the tray (optional not necessary)
• Just before you bake the bread its time to oil the dough, if you want to use less oil you can mix oil and a smaller amount of water together in a glass (and mixx in chili oil of flakes if you want) then pour the mixture over the top of the dough and gently spread it with your hands or a oil brush
• after coating the dough wet your fingers and poke them into the dough to dimple the bread so that it rises without splitting, this will also help create big gas bubbles and airiness in the bread
• finally just before placing in the oven sprinkle salt evenly across the surface of the dough then place in the oven
• Cook at 225°C (437°F) for 15 minutes, then spin the baking tray 180 degrees to evenly cook the bread, after spinning the tray dop the temperature to 215 to 220°C (depending on how brown you want your bread) and cook for a further 8-10 minutes for a total of 23-25 minutes
• after cook time is complete, remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 15 to 120 minutes before slicing open and eating!

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Enjoy!!

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