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.
Photography by Sophie MacKenzie.
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.
💖Why You’ll Love This Recipe
✔️ It’s a bit easier than making sourdough loaves, with more forgiving shaping.
✔️ Focaccia is very best fresh, and worlds away from store bought – it’s crisp, golden, and amazing.
✔️ You can top it with anything you like!
📋Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Flour: use either white or bread flour. 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.
- Starter: active, fed starter that’s just peaked. This is not a sourdough discard recipe.
- Water: use room temp water for the best rise. Cold water will slow it down.
- Olive Oil: don’t sub another oil – olive oil is a key flavour of focaccia.
- Salt: sea salt. If using kosher, increase the amount slightly.
- Toppings: see below for topping ideas.
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
👩🍳Method
STEP 1: Mix the water, oil, starter, salt, and flour into a shaggy dough.
STEP 2: Do three rounds of stretches and folds.
STEP 3: Cover well and rise until doubled in size.
STEP 4: Fold and shape the bread into a rough rectangle on an oiled pan.
STEP 5: Rise again, then make the signature dimples and top as desired.
STEP 6: Bake until golden and crisp.
💡Top Tips
1. Remove from the pan. Take the bread out of the pan as soon as possible and place it on a wire rack. If it cools on the baking sheet, it will soften.
2. Chill before shaping. This isn’t mandatory, but it will make the dough easier to work with if you’re not so confident. Rise until doubled and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours before shaping.
3. Keep oil under the bread. There must be olive oil under the dough before you set it aside to rise. Make sure to spread the oil out again on the pan before pressing the bread out.
📝Recipe 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.
- If you’re not 100% confident with your shaping, use a baking dish that will prevent the dough from spreading out too much. This should be smaller than a cookie sheet – think more like a casserole dish. It’ll prevent the focaccia from becoming too thin, even if the dough hasn’t had the best shaping!
📦 How to Store
- To Store – keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. It will soften as it sits but still tastes good!
- To Freeze – place in an airtight container and freeze up to a month, or wrap well beforehand and freeze up to six months.
🌿 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
❓Recipe FAQ
If you sourdough is gummy (this applies to all sourdough, not just focaccia) it’s probably underproved. Head over to this post on troubleshooting for sourdough for more information.
This isn’t sourdough pizza crust – your focaccia should be at least 3cm thick! Any thinner and it’s too crisp, without the distinctive soft, fluffy interior crumb.
This is a common method used in sourdough baking, and it replaces the kneading process. It encourages the formation of gluten in the dough. You can see how to do it and more info in this post on how to stretch and fold sourdough.
More Sourdough Recipes
Sourdough Dinner Rolls (No-Knead)
Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread
25% Whole Wheat Sourdough Loaf
Sourdough Crackers
Spelt Sourdough Bread
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
Description
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- Mixing bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Tea towel
- Plate
- baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- ½ cup active sourdough starter
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons honey
- ½ cup olive oil, divided
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose or bread flour
- 1 heaping teaspoon sea salt
Additional ingredient
- 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 wire 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
Nutrition
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!
Kay says
Hi! I want to make this this weekend but I don’t have a baking tray like yours pictured, will it still work if I line what I do have with baking paper or does it really need to be dough on metal? Can’t wait to give it a go!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Kay! It might work with parchment as long as there’s still plenty of oil in the bottom of the pan for the dough. I guess my concern would be that the paper would kind of soak up the oil and might stick? If you try, please let us know!
Jacqueline Tang says
Hi is it possible to do in a smaller batch?
For example if i only would like to do 1/4 of your size, how should i cut down for the ingredient list?
Would the proofing time and oven time be different as well?
Im in Singapore, the temperature at night would be around 26 degree. Should i cut down on the proofing time?
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Jacqueline, it is possible to do a smaller batch, just be sure to reduce everything equally. Proofing time won’t change but you’ll probably bake for a shorter time, so watch it to see when it’s a good golden brown. I would suggest making it in the morning and proofing for a few hours during the day rather than overnight in very warm weather. It will over-prove at 26 degrees overnight. Hope that helps – if you have any more questions please let us know!