My family is pretty big into movies. My husband and I watch movies at home every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then every Tuesday (which is “cheap Tuesday” at the theatres here) we check out a new release with my mom. While we sometimes skip a day here and there, it works out to about 200 movies a year.
So when the Oscars comes around, it’s a big event for us. We all invite ourselves over to my sister’s place (because she’s the only one with cable to watch the telecast), and my husband makes a big dinner for Caesar salad, fettuccini Alfredo, and apple crumble, all made from scratch (even the Alfredo sauce and Caesar dressing).
Normally we buy a loaf of garlic bread from the grocery store to go with it—but I’ve been in a real baking mood lately and offered to make sourdough focaccia bread.
Sourdough focaccia bread is easy to make if you have a healthy sourdough starter bubbling away, and the toppings are completely optional and customizable to your tastes and what you have on hand.
I ended up topping mine with herb salt (also known as butcher salt), roasted garlic, dehydrated rosemary, and (dehydrated and then rehydrated) cherry tomatoes.
It was soft and airy like you expect of focaccia, with the chewiness and tang of sourdough, and immensely tasty with the toppings I added. It immediately became a crowd pleaser.
How to make sourdough focaccia bread
The first thing you’ll need before even starting this recipe is a healthy, active sourdough starter.
If you’re brand new to sourdough and don’t have a starter, I have a post here to help guide you through the steps of creating one. It takes about a week to get one going and your success will vary based on local climate conditions and a number of other factors. Your sourdough starter will likely get stronger as time goes on, provided you take good care of it, so your results with this recipe may be partly influenced by how old your starter is.
Step one: Make the dough
Start by adding 50-100 grams of sourdough starter to a bowl. I went with the full 100 grams because my starter can be a little slow to rise sometimes, especially in the winter (and I was making this in early March), so I figured extra starter would be better.
To the starter, add 10 grams of salt and 440 grams of water.
Stir to combine as best you can. A spatula will work well, but I sometimes opt for a fork.
Then add 512 grams of flour. As I outline in my post about sourdough starters, I’ve started doing a mix of whole wheat flour and white flour, as it works better in my local climate, so feel free to experiment with flour if you’re curious. If you’re not in Canada, you’ll likely want to use bread flour as it will likely give you better results. All-purpose flour in Canada is similar to bread flour, so I just use the standard all-purpose.
Mix in the flour with your spatula or fork until you get a rough and wet dough ball.
Step 2: Rest and fold (and rest again)
Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the dough ball rest for about a half hour.
Then do a “pinch and fold”. Grab a pinch of dough from the edge of the ball, pull it upward and toward the centre of the ball, folding it over. Go around the dough ball, doing this about 8-10 times. Try not to tear the dough as that’s not the goal.
Gently rub a splash of olive oil over the top of the dough. I have to confess that I used canola oil because it’s what I had on hand (and olive oil has become very expensive lately).
Cover again with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest for 4 to 18 hours. Since it’s winter here, things are cool and dry, I went with the full 18 hours. What you’re ultimately looking for is for the dough to have doubled in size, so how long this takes will vary based on where you are and where you leave the dough. it might be tempting to put the dough in a warmer place like in an oven with the oven light on, but this might become too warm. Your best strategy is to do this at room temperature and just let it take how long it’s going to take. As a chef once told me, the key to making anything with sourdough really good is a “long, slow rise”.
Step three: Transfer dough to baking dish
Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil in a 9×13 baking dish. To make sure nothing would stick, I also gave the sides of the dish a spritz with some cooking spray.
Gently scoop the dough out of the bowl and into the dish. It will likely form an oval shape. Gently grab each side and fold toward the centre so you roughly have a rectangle. Flip the dough over to the seam side is down.
Rub the top of the dough with more oil, then cover again and let it rest for 4-6 hours.
Step four (optional): Prepare toppings
Focaccia can be made with just a generous sprinkle of salt over the top, but I wanted to make mine a little extra special, so I roasted a head of garlic in the air fryer until the cloves were soft and cooked, and I threw some dehydrated cherry tomatoes into water to plump them up a little bit.
Step five: Bake the sourdough focaccia bread
Heat oven to 425 F.
Rub some oil onto your hands and then press down on the dough to create dimples. Do this across the whole surface.
Add toppings of your choice. At a minimum, you should add a generous sprinkle of sea salt / chunky / flaky salt. I used:
- The garlic I roasted in the air fryer
- Drained rehydrated cherry tomatoes
- Dried rosemary
- Butcher’s salt (a flaky/chunky salt with dried herbs mixed in)
Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
When ready, remove dish from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing. If you cut into it while it’s hot, moisture could evaporate, so it’s best to let it cool even longer.
You should have an absolutely delicious sourdough focaccia bread that will impress anyone.
Sourdough Focaccia Bread
Ingredients
- 50-100 g Bubbly and Active Sourdough Starter
- 10 g Salt
- 440 g Water
- 512 g Flour (see note)
- 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
- Flaky salt and/or other toppings of your choice (cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, rosemary, etc.)
Instructions
- Add sourdough starter, water, and salt to a bowl. Mix with a spatula or fork until well blended.
- Add flour and mix until a dough forms.
- Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest 30 minutes.
- Do a "pinch and fold"—pinch the outer edge of the dough ball and fold it to the centre. Do this 8-10 times around the dough ball.
- Gently rub the top of the dough ball with a splash of oil.
- Cover and let rest 4-18 hours, until doubled in size.
- Once doubled in size, drizzle about 2 Tbsp oil into a 9×13 baking dish. Optionally, you can spray or grease the sides of the dish to help prevent sticking.
- Scoop dough into baking dish. It should form an oval. Fold the dough so it roughly looks like a rectangle and flip the dough so the seam side is down.
- Cover and let rest 4-6 hours. During this time you could prep any optional toppings that need prepping, such as roasting garlic.
- Heat oven to 425℉.
- Rub oil on your hands and press down on the dough, creating dimples across the top. Sprinkle with flaky salt and add any toppings you wish.
- Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
- Let rest at least 20 minutes before slicing. If it's hot while slicing, moisture may evaporate, leaving a dryer, denser bread.
