Appetizer | Bread | Side Dish
Sourdough Focaccia Recipe
Love making sourdough at home? Then you'll love this sourdough focaccia recipe! This will be your new favorite way to bake sourdough bread.
INGREDIENTS
Sourdough Focaccia
- 75 g sourdough starter, 100% hydration (about 1/3 c)
- 400 g water (about 2 cups)
- 500 g bread flour* (about 4 cups)
- 10 g salt (about 1 1/2 tsp)
- olive oil (for drizzling)
- 1-2 rosemary sprigs (for sprinkling)
- finishing salt (for sprinkling)
Garlic Butter Topping
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp parsley (minced)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
INSTRUCTIONS
Sourdough Focaccia: Day One
- Pour the sourdough starter into a large bowl. Add the water, and whisk until the starter is fully dissolved in the water.
- Add the flour and the salt to the bowl, and use a spoon to lightly mix everything together until a shaggy dough forms. The dough will be sticky and not very pretty. That's ok. Rest the dough for 30 minutes at room temperature so the flour can fully hydrate, making the next step much easier.
- After 30 minutes, perform a series of stretch-and-folds to build the structure of the dough. This is essential to strengthen the gluten and achieve a good rise. Simply grab a corner of the dough, stretch it up and away from the bowl, and fold it across to the other side. Turn the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat the stretch-and-fold about 15-20 more times, turning the bowl each time. The dough will become stronger and less stretchy the more you fold it.
- Loosely cover the bowl with a towel and rest the dough at room temperature for about 8 hours, or until just about doubled in size. Your dough may need more or less resting time depending on the strength of your starter and temperature of your kitchen, but expect about 8 hours max.
- After the dough has just about doubled in size, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and rest it in the fridge overnight, at least 8 hours. I rested my dough for 14 hours. You could probably push it to 16-24 hours, according to your schedule.
Sourdough Focaccia: Day Two
- The next day, drizzle an 9x13 baking pan with olive oil, and spread the oil to evenly coat the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Remove the dough from the fridge, and loosen it from the sides of bowl (it may be sticky). Transfer the dough, upside down, into the baking pan.
- Pat the dough into a rough rectangle shape inside of the pan, gently stretching the top and bottom if needed. Now, we're going to shape the dough.
- Using both hands, gently pick up the bottom of the dough, pull it away from the pan, and fold it halfway on top of the dough. Next, pull the right side of the dough away from the pan, and fold it halfway on top of the dough again, overlapping the bottom portion. Repeat with the left side of the dough, and then finally the top, so you have a nice little square of dough.
- Place your thumbs just underneath the bottom of the dough, and gently roll the dough over on top of itself, liking rolling a towel, so that it's flipped over. The surface of the dough should now be nice and smooth, with maybe a few air bubbles. Gently turn the dough sideways, if needed, so it's resting neatly in the center of the pan.
- Loosely cover the pan with a towel, and rest at room temperature for about 4 hours, so that the dough naturally spreads to fit the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- Drizzle olive oil in top of the dough, and lightly oil your fingers. Dimple the dough all over with your fingers, poking through to the bottom of the pan, until the surface is covered in holes and there's lots of air bubbles.
- Sprinkle the top of the dough with rosemary and pinches of sea salt.
- Bake the sourdough focaccia for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
- Meanwhile, prepare the Garlic Butter by melting the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the minced parsley and garlic. Cook for about 1-2 minutes. You just want to wilt the parsley and soften the garlic a bit, but be careful not to burn it. Remove the pan from heat and allow it to cool slightly. Transfer the garlic butter to a bowl and set aside.
- Remove the sourdough focaccia from the oven. Brush the hot sourdough focaccia with the garlic butter. Cool for at 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
*You can also use all purpose flour for this recipe, if you don't have bread flour. The sourdough focaccia will still turn out great! Bread flour has a higher protein content, so the bread will have great texture and more "chew", which is why it's preferred.
**The best way to visualize the stretch-and-folds is to watch the video above–check it out!