Sourdough Focaccia Bread

You need a good sourdough focaccia bread recipe in your collection. This sourdough focaccia recipe is super simple – it really just requires patience – but that’s not new for sourdough, right?

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

Simple Ingredients – Flour, water, salt, olive oil and whatever herbs you have on hand are all you need to create this delicious bread.

No Fancy Equipment – you don’t need a stand mixer for this recipe, a bowl and spatula is just perfect. It’s a wonderful beginners recipe!

Endless Flavors – there’s no limit to the flavor combinations you can create with this simple sourdough focaccia recipe! From sweet to savory, you’re only limited by your imagination.

What is Sourdough Focaccia Bread?

Focaccia is an Italian bread, generally baked with good quality olive oil, fresh rosemary and salt. It is said to be similar to sourdough fougasse. Its magic lies in its simplicity.

Traditionally it’s made with yeast (and more yeast than regular bread). Baking it with lashings of olive oil mean that it has a crusty, golden bottom and top with a light, yet chewy crumb inside. It’s quite springy and spongey.

Similar to pizza dough in many ways, focaccia is sometimes referred to as “pizza bianca” or white pizza because it doesn’t have the toppings that a pizza does.

Sourdough bread made with ripe sourdough starter has a deep sourdough flavor. It’s fermented for a long time to develop the signature bubbles. Using a strong sourdough starter will give you the best chance at developing gorgeous bubbles as the dough ferments.

The time your focaccia bread takes will depend on the strength of your sourdough starter.

Baker’s Schedule

Many people have asked for ball park timing for this recipe, so I’ve added a sample baker’s timeline here. These are just guidelines, as the actual timing will depend on the strength of your sourdough starter and the temperature of your kitchen.

TIME	PROCESS
9.00 PM	Night Before: Feed your sourdough starter 1:3:3 so it peaks in the morning (learn about sourdough starter ratios).
6.00 AM	Next Day: Mix together sticky dough and let it sit for around an hour.
7:00 AM	Bring dough together into a sticky ball (one set of stretch and folds). Cover the dough and leave at room temperature to bulk ferment.
12.00 PM	Once the dough has doubled, use a dough scraper to tip it into the baking pan of your choice, ensuring you use olive oil and/or parchment paper. Cover and leave for second rise.
5.00 PM	Dimple the dough and add the toppings of your choice. Allow the dough to sit while the oven preheats.
5.45 PM	Bake sourdough focaccia bread for around 30 minutes or until golden brown.
6.15 PM	Remove from the oven and allow to cool for around 10 minutes in the pan.
6.25 PM	Transfer focaccia to a wire rack to continue cooling or eat warm for dinnner!

If you want to cold ferment the sourdough focaccia bread in the fridge overnight, the best time to do this is once you’ve shaped the dough in your chosen baking pan. Allow it to rise a little and then place into the fridge. Take the dough out a few hours before you want to bake it to allow it to come to room temperature. You want the dough to be puffy and full of bubbles before it goes in the oven.

What Baking Pan To Use?

You can really bake sourdough focaccia bread in any pan that has a lip – even a baking tray is fine. I have baked this bread many, many times and my favorite way to do it is in a cast iron pan with lashings of olive oil. Olive oil is the secret to ensuring your dough does not stick to the pan!

I first started baking this bread in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. It comes out perfectly fine – I just prefer it in cast iron. I think that the bottom crisps up a bit more.

Cast iron skillet or bread pan (the skillet I’m using is 39cm x 26cm (15 x 10 inches).
Divide into two portions and bake in round cake tins lined with parchment paper (I do this with 20cm (8 inch) cake tins.
Baking tray (either using olive oil or baking paper) – any medium sized tray is fine, the dough can stretch out to fit.

Troubleshooting Sourdough Focaccia Bread

While this recipe is seriously simple, there are still a few issues that can arise. Sometimes it’s the most simple of recipes that can give us the most grief!

I thought I’d put together a few troubleshooting tips that you can use as a reference in case you run into issues while making this bread.

Dough too wet & sticky – this is a high hydration dough. It will start off really sloppy but the dough should gain strength as you perform the stretch and folds. It should then gain strength and volume during bulk fermentation. Don’t stress too much as this is a “free form” type of bread – you don’t need it to hold its shape as it is baked in a pan. You can see in the photo above what my dough looks like after autolyse (before I start stretching and folding) – it’s a wet mess! But looks how smooth and strong it is after bulk fermentation! Have patience.
Type of flour – I recommend using bread flour for this recipe. If you need to use all purpose flour, reduce the amount of water by up to 50g because all purpose flour will not cope with higher hydration.
Not bubbling – ideally you should get some nice big bubbles that form once the dough has been sitting in the pan for proofing. It does need to be placed in a warmer temp (ideally 24C – 28C).
Dough sticky when dimpling – if the dough sticks to your fingers when you are dimpling it – you need more olive oil!! Seriously, there’s no such thing as too much oil! It will give you a crispy outter and so much flavor!
Focaccia Not Browning in the Oven – this is most likely due to under fermentation. If the dough hasn’t had enough time to rest and ferment, it won’t brown in the oven, resulting in a pale, unappealing focaccia. Make sure you give your dough plenty of time at room temperature – you want some serious bubbles to form!