Sourdough Focaccia

Sourdough Focaccia

125 grams sourdough starter

375 grams water

10 grams sugar

500 grams bread flour (I used all purpose flour instead) 

15 grams olive oil 

10 grams salt 

Mixing the Dough: 

1. Mix the sourdough starter, sugar, water and flour into a shaggy mass of dough and set aside, covered, in a warm spot for 1 hour. 
2. After 1 hour, add salt and olive oil to the dough 
3. Mix the dough well after the salt and oil have been incorporated. 

First Rise of the Dough

1. Place dough in a covered container and let rise for a total of 1.5 hours in a warm spot. Every 30 minutes, stretch and fold the dough. 

Final Rise of the Dough

1. Place the dough in your baking sheet (which must be well oiled) and allow to rest at room temperature in a warm location for 3-4 hours until it’s nice and bubbly. It should spread out on its own, if not, gently stretch it out. 
2. Alternative, instead of the 3-4 hour warm rise, place in the fridge overnight and bake the next day. The focaccia can be baked directly from the refrigerated state. 

Baking the Focaccia 

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and insert a baking stone or baking steel if you have one, the center of the oven. 
2. Before baking,  dimple the top of the focaccia heavily by pressing your fingers in the dough and pushing all the way down to the bottom. Do this repeatedly all over the top of the focaccia. 
3. Top your focaccia with olive oil, salt and herbs of choice. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. 

With this recipe, we topped ours with some fresh basil and nasturtium flowers. But the next time we make this, I am hoping to make it in a baking dish to get a bit of a bigger dough to use it for sandwich bread. I also want to try a round with sun-dried tomatoes and dried basil. There are tons of different flavor combos that you can try out, these are just a few of the ones we have thought of and want to try. 

Another thing we love to use focaccia for would be to top with avocado, cottage cheese and scrambled eggs. A great breakfast route for our family. I will say my kids only enjoy this a few times a month but for myself, I could eat this every day. It is such a nice quick grab snack too if we need something while running around on the homestead but don’t want the dessert side of my baking. There are only so many muffins a girl can handle!