Sourdough focaccia is dimpled and golden on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside! It’s a simple bread where sourdough starter and olive oil shine.
Crisp, soft, and with a wonderful olive oil flavour, sourdough focaccia is the ideal flatbread. With minimal shaping and no special equipment needed, it’s also a great beginner’s sourdough recipe.
Use the tastiest olive oil you have for the best flavour, and see below for some suggestions on toppings for your bread. We love basic salt and rosemary, but there are unlimited options, and focaccia can be so much fun.
Ingredients
Method
Add starter a large bowl. Stir in the water, honey, and ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil, mixing to combine.
Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.
Rest the dough for about 10 minutes before doing a round of stretches and folds. Repeat this twice more, once every 10 minutes, for a total of three rounds.
Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and a large plate. Let it sit out at room temperature overnight, or for about 12 hours. It should be doubled in size after this time.
Add the second ¼ cup (60 ml) of olive oil to the base of a baking sheet and place the dough onto it. Fold the dough into a rough rectangle, lifting and pulling one side toward the centre and repeating with each side until all 4 have been folded in.
Flip the dough seam side down onto the pan, making sure there’s oil under the dough. Use your hands to stretch and press the dough out to the edges of the pan until the pan is almost filled or the dough is about 3 cm (1 inch) thick.
Cover the dough, or place it into the oven with the door closed, and rise a second time for at least 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size again. (This may need up to 4 hours, depending on how active your starter is.)
Preheat oven to 425°F (210°C). Oil your hands and use the tips of your fingers to gently press into the dough to create dimples all over the surface.
Top the dough with anything you’d like (see the topping ideas for inspiration), drizzle with olive oil, and add a sprinkle of salt.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top and sides of the bread are a dark golden colour. Top with finely chopped herbs as soon as it comes out of the oven, and remove from the pan as soon as you can to cool on a rack for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Tips and Notes
The olive oil is definitely not negotiable! You’ll lose the classic focaccia texture if you reduce or omit the oil.
Topping with herbs when the bread is fresh out of the oven has a couple of benefits. First, it prevents the burning that would occur if the herbs were baked. Second, adding them when the bread is still very hot releases the scented oils, bringing out plenty of flavour.
Taking the bread out of the pan almost immediately is to ensure the base of your sourdough focaccia stays crispy. If it cools on the baking sheet, it will soften from condensation and no one wants a soggy bottom.
For a stronger sourdough flavour, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours rather than the shorter bulk ferment at room temperature.
If your home is quite warm, we recommend making the dough in the morning so you can keep an eye on it, and prevent over-proofing. Or refrigerate for the bulk ferment, until doubled in size.
Substitutions
We prefer bread flour when making sourdough bread, but all-purpose flour works just as well here since there’s not as much of a structural requirement as for a boule. Alternative wheat flours like spelt or khorasan would probably work too.
Change up the herbs and other toppings to suit your preferences – see below for some suggestions.
Honey can be switched out for sugar.
Focaccia Topping Ideas
We have a whole list with 40 Focaccia Topping Ideas you can check out. Here are a few of our favourites:
- Bacon
- Blue cheese
- Capers
- Dukkah
- Fresh Herbs
- Grapes
- Prosciutto
- Roasted Garlic
- Za’atar
More Sourdough Recipes
Sourdough Dinner Rolls (No-Knead)
Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread
25% Whole Wheat Sourdough Loaf
Sourdough Crackers
Honey and Oat Spelt Sourdough
If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.
Recipe
Sourdough Focaccia
Sourdough focaccia is dimpled and golden on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside! It's a simple bread where sourdough starter and olive oil shine.
Ingredients
- 100 grams (½ cup) active sourdough starter
- 250 grams (1 cup) water
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 125 ml (½ cup) olive oil, divided
- 375 grams (2 ¼ cups) all-purpose or bread flour
- 10 grams (1 heaped tsp) sea salt
- More olive oil for drizzling, plus any other focaccia toppings
Instructions
- Add the starter a large bowl. Stir in the water, honey, and ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil, mixing to combine.
- Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.
- Rest the dough for about 10 minutes before doing a round of stretches and folds. Repeat this twice more, once every 10 minutes, for a total of three rounds.
- Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and a large plate. Let it sit out at room temperature overnight, or for about 12 hours. It should be doubled in size after this time.
- Add the second ¼ cup (60 ml) of olive oil to the base of a baking sheet and place the dough onto it.
- Fold the dough into a rough rectangle, lifting and pulling one side toward the centre and repeating with each side until all 4 have been folded in.
- Flip the dough seam side down onto the pan, making sure there’s oil under the dough.
- Use your hands to stretch and press the dough out to the edges of the pan until the pan is almost filled or the dough is about 3 cm (1 inch) thick.
- Cover the dough, or place it into the oven with the door closed, and rise a second time for at least 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size again. (This may need up to 4 hours, depending on how active your starter is.)
- Preheat oven to 425°F (210°C). Oil your hands and use the tips of your fingers to gently press into the dough to create dimples all over the surface.
- Top the dough with anything you’d like (see the topping ideas for inspiration), drizzle with olive oil, and add a sprinkle of salt.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top and sides of the bread are a dark golden colour. Top with finely chopped herbs as soon as it comes out of the oven, and remove from the pan as soon as you can to cool on a rack for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
- Focaccia is best fresh, but can be stored for a few days in an airtight container, or frozen up to a month.
Notes
• If you leave the bread in the pan to cool, the bottom will become soggy and lose it's golden crispness.
• Topping with herbs when it comes out as opposed to baking the herbs on the bread prevents them from burning, but the heat from the bread coming out of the oven releases the fragrant oils and cooks them just enough.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 356Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 527mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 2gSugar: 2gProtein: 7g
This is an approximation of the nutrition offered in this recipe, and is created using a nutrition calculator.
This post was first published in March 2020. It has been updated as of April 2021, with no changes to the recipe.
DEB ARMSTRONG says
What size pan did you use?
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Deb! I use a 27x31cm pan, but anything around that size or a standard cookie sheet size will be fine. Just make sure the dough is about the thickness specified.
DEB says
Thanks!
Kate Burns says
Just made this and it’s worked really well…need to stop myself eating it in one go. I added chopped rosemary and salt as flavouring. Will be more adventurous next time!
Sophie Mackenzie says
So happy you enjoyed it, Kate! Seriously can’t go wrong with the classic rosemary and salt combo <3
Rine says
Hi
Why is the base of my bread abit “moist”?
Is it cos i leave it to cool in pan or i should have bake it longer than 25 mins?
Thx!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Rine, as the recipe says a couple of times, it’s very important to remove the bread from the pan as soon as possible after baking and not to let it cool in the pan as the bottom becomes soggy. You might need to bake slightly longer depending on your oven but my bet is that the moistness is due to not removing from the pan.
Jen says
My dough was very dry. I felt like I needed to add more water. Should I start with the starter right from the fridge or do I need to activate it before using?
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Jen, that’s really strange, as it’s quite a wet dough. Did you use metric or cups? Your starter should be active.
Laura says
This was my first try at sourdough focaccia, and it was so good! Chewy, tangy, flavorful–much better than focaccia that I’ve made with store-bought yeast. This is also the first time that I have weighed ingredients rather than using cup measurements, which helped make sure that I truly had the right proportions of ingredients. I used fresh rosemary, garlic, and salt to top this. I think I’m going to have to bookmark this as my “go to” focaccia recipe. Thank you!
Rick Kram says
My first try turned out very oily, seems like a 1/4 cup in the pan was too much. Flavor was good, going to try again tomorrow. Toppings are always a struggle for me.
Kris Osborne says
You can definitely try cutting the oil back a bit. The oil is what gives focaccia that crispy exterior, but it’s a matter of personal preference. Check out this post for topping ideas. You’ll never run out! https://www.baked-theblog.com/easy-focaccia-bread-recipe-plus-40-topping-ideas/
C says
Hi! For step 3 it says “ Repeat this a couple more times if you have time, once every 10 minutes”. How long would you recommend doing this for? 30 min? How many stretch and folds would be ideal?
Alexandra Daum says
Hi there – so I’d recommend twice more, ten minute break in between, so a total of 30 minutes. One round of stretches and folds every ten minutes, three times. Once is a fine amount (or we would have stated that three or more were necessary) but you can do more if you’d like.
C says
Thank you!
K says
I started out well, but after letting the dough rest over night it seemed that it was overly done and totally runny. So it was an all liquidy mass when poured onto the tray. It’s ok to eat, but far from an Italian focaccia. I do have a very active starter. Maybe will let it rest for only 12 hours when trying again.
Alexandra Daum says
Sounds like it was definitely overproved, I’m afraid. This can happen in warmer than usual temperatures – though overnight typically means 8-12 hours, so I recommend a shorter proving time than it sounds like you did. Hope that helps!
Joy says
Used pickled jalapeños and shredded buffalo cheddar cheese for toppings and everyone loved it!