After recipe testing sourdough focaccia this past week, I’m once again friends with it. When I first tried making focaccia with my sourdough starter years ago, I followed a precise recipe and wasn’t satisfied with the results. Mentally, I scratched focaccia off my sourdough list and when I wanted it, I used my yeasted recipe. But last week, a friend asked me to bake for her Radiant & Rooted 40 person dinner. I said yes before I knew what she wanted…sourdough focaccia!
So, I set to work. I consolidated notes from Maurizio Leo’s recipe from his blog, The Perfect Loaf, the modified one that appears in his book of the same name, and I browsed the web for something hopefully easier—Emilie Raffa’s “Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Focaccia Bread” caught my eye. Emilie’s is definitely easier because a bowl of dough sits on the counter overnight; to my surprise, it produced an appealing free-form focaccia with good flavor. I prefer a less sour outcome and think that Maurizio’s delivers that and is worth the extra tending for the crisp and bubbly outside, soft and fluffy inside. Photo from my kitchen yesterday, Maurizio’s in the background, Emilie’s foreground:
Sourdough Focaccia bake-off: Maurizio Leo’s in back, Emilie Raffa’s in foreground
Focaccia is meant to be an easy, beginner-friendly bread. Focaccia is best the day it is made, so if you don’t have time to tend the dough for hours, make the dough the day before you want to bake. If you want the most white-bread experience, make a levain the night before, which introduces more all-purpose flour into the mix and mellows out your starter (helpful if, like me, you keep a whole wheat-rye starter).
Overnight Proof Option: Once the dough is fermented and proofed in the pan for a couple hours, it can hold overnight in the refrigerator. The following morning, transfer it out of the refrigerator to a warm spot and allow it to proof until puffy and bubbly, mine took 4 hours.
Overnight Bulk Option: I’m fairly certain it’s possible to refrigerate the fermented dough in its bowl, deferring the complete pan and proofing for the baking day. But I haven’t tested it yet.
Maurizio’s focaccia dough, once panned and proofed a couple hours. From here, refrigerate overnight for next-day bake.
recipe and photo update 10/26/26 from original posted 3/4/24
Sourdough Focaccia
makes one sheet pan focaccia (standard rimmed cookie sheet, 18- by 12-inches) or a deeper rectangular (9- by 13-inches) or two 8 or 9-inch rounds; adapted from Maurizio Leo, The Perfect Loaf
Ingredients
- 125 grams sourdough starter active and ready to bake; alternatively use an overnight levain to yield this amount (60g AP + 60g water + 6g ripe starter, see notes)
- 425 grams all-purpose flour Wheat Montana blue bag
- 200 grams high protein flour, white or whole wheat or a blend Montana Flour & Grains or Conservation Grains' Snowgoose
- 12 grams Kosher salt or sea salt
- 450-475 grams water hold back the extra 25 grams to see if your flours need it
- 12 grams olive oil
Pan preparation and baking
- ¼–½ cup olive oil for the pan(s) and for topping
- olives, herbs, sliced sun-dried tomatoes or figs, cherry tomatoes, or other toppings optional
- pretzel salt or other coarse salt optional
Instructions
Optional levain (makes for a more white bread focaccia if you keep a whole wheat or rye starter)
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Night before focaccia mixing: stir together the 60 grams each all-purpose flour and water and 6 grams active 100%-hyrdration starter in a half-pint jar. Cover loosely and allow to develop at room temperature for at least 8 hours—jar will become filled.
Focaccia dough
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Mix together the starter (or levain), flours, salt, and 450 grams water in a stand mixer using a dough hook. Mix with dough hook until dough stretches from the side of the bowl and gathers around the hook, 5 minutes. Let dough rest for 10 minutes, bowl covered.
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Turn the mixer back on a low speed and add additional 25 grams water (perhaps more) to make a well-hydrated dough. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Once incorporated, increase speed and mix for a couple minutes. Focaccia dough is meant to be slack but will come together more during fermentation.
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Begin 2 hours fermentation with stretch-and-folds every 30 minutes.
Pan and proof 4 hours
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Liberally coat pan(s) with olive oil, about ¼ cup for the sheet pan or rectangular cake pan, 2 tablespoons each for rounds. Scoop dough into pans and with wet fingers, press out a bit; dough will relax and fill the pan better over time. Cover and allow to proof in a warm spot.
During the first 2 hours, uncover every 30 minutes and using wet fingers, gently poke and push the dough towards the pan edge. For the remainder of the proofing, allow the focaccia to sit undisturbed so it can become puffed and bubbly.
To delay the bake until next day, place covered pan in refrigerator after first 2 hours of proofing. Next day, remove from refrigerator, and allow to proof at room temperature until bubbly.
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Preheat oven to 425°F. At the end of proofing, use wet fingers to press to the bottom of the pan. Drizzle surface with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with pretzel salt or coarse salt, and optionally decorate top with toppings of your choice—slivered dried tomatoes, olives, sprigs of rosemary, etc.
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Bake focaccia for 30 minutes, until top is golden brown.(Round pans will take less time, check at 25 minutes.)
