Sourdough Focaccia
What’s a focaccia recipe doing in a salad book, you ask? While it may seem odd at first, hear me out – there is no better way to tie a table of delicious food together than with a loaf of some kind. While sourdough is my jam, not everyone has the right tools at home to shape and bake a perfectly rotund loaf. Focaccia though – anyone can make focaccia. All you need is some simple ingredients and some time. And if time is not on your side, half a teaspoon of yeast is your best friend.
This recipe assumes a little bit of sourdough knowledge and starts with a recently fed sourdough starter.
Ingredients 18
For The Focaccia
100 g sourdough starter, recently fed
350 g water
25 g olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
500 g white bakers' flour
10 g salt
toppings, assorted (see suggestions below)
1⁄2 tsp instant yeast, optional
For The Toppings
1 red onion, thinly sliced
baby roma tomatoes, halved
olives, pitted, halved
Capers
Rosemary
Garlic
Pesto
feta, crumbled
roasted red capsicum (bell pepper)
boiled potato, thinly sliced, crumbled or cut into wedges
mushrooms, cooked
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Method 13
Night before: Feed your starter by mixing 30 g (1 oz) starter with 25 g (1 oz) bakers flour, 25 g (1 oz) wholewheat flour and 50 g (1¾ oz) water. Stir, cover and set aside overnight.
9 am: Weigh 100 g of the fed starter and combine with the (if using), the and the and whisk to combine. Add the and and scrunch/mix until well combined. Scrape any excess dough off your hands, then leave the dough to sit for 40–60 minutes.
10.00 am: First stretch and fold.
10.30 am: Second stretch and fold.
11.00 am: Third stretch and fold.
11.30 am: Fourth stretch and fold.
12.00 pm: Transfer the dough to a well-oiled focaccia tin or baking tray, approximately 20 × 30 cm (8 × 12 in) in size. Drizzle with a little . Cover, and allow to sit.
12.30 pm: Using oiled hands, gently coax the dough towards the edges of the pan. It will naturally spread as it proofs, so don’t use so much force that you tear the dough.
3:30pm: If you haven’t used the ½ teaspoon of , cover the dough and place in the fridge overnight. If you have used yeast, proceed to the next step.
4.00 pm: At this point, the dough should be bubbly. Using wet fingers, create dimples in the dough. Ideally, you want them evenly spaced and all the way to the bottom of the dough, but don’t be too fussy – it’s just focaccia, after all! Have some fun with this – it’s a great way to involve the kids.
Drizzle the top of the dough with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Lightly rub your chosen toppings in then arrange on top of the dough – I like to start with the biggest ones and finish with the smallest ones. Press them into the dough so they are nestled in the focaccia. Finish with a generous sprinkling of and then reduce the oven temperature to 240˚C (465˚F). Bake the focaccia in the hot oven for approximately 30–40 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees about halfway through the cooking time.
Once cooked, allow to rest in the tin for 10 minutes, then tip onto a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for another 20 minutes.
Slice, and serve with any array of dips, cheese and salad.
