Italian food is one of our favorite cuisines and it’s my comfort food… not chocolate or even ice cream (imagine that!), but authentic homemade italian food.
Every Saturday night is pizza night, but once in a while I take a break from making pizza and make some sourdough focaccia bread to serve with homemade lasagna, spaghetti or an italian stew of some sort.
This bread is fabulous for soaking up sauces and makes great sandwiches (like my Italian Drip Sandwiches). I always make a double or triple batch for future meals.
I usually use 100% white whole wheat flour, but have had great success using spelt or a combo of whole wheat & unbleached all-purpose flour! I like to make my dough in the morning and let it sour/rise all day. Makes a wonderful sour bread that pairs up beautifully with italian food (my opinion).
I use whatever fresh herbs I have on hand and that is usually rosemary, thyme, chives, oregano and basil.
On this focaccia, I simply used rosemary, thyme & chives.
- Dough
- 1½ cups fed & bubbly sourdough starter
- ¾ cup water
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- 1½ Tbsp olive oil
- 2½ cups freshly ground flour of your choice (plus more)
- Toppings
- sliced tomatoes
- chopped garlic
- chopped fresh herbs
- olive oil
- sea salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- grated cheese (optional)
- In a medium bowl, stir together sourdough starter, water, sea salt and olive oil.
- Pour flour onto the wet mixture and stir to incorporate.
- Continue to add flour little by little until you have a nice, easy kneading consistency. If your dough is too dry, add a little more water.
- Pull the dough out onto your counter top and knead for a few minutes. You are looking for a soft and smooth (not sticky) dough.
- Cover your dough with a cloth and allow it to rest for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
- Generously oil a large rolled cookie sheet or use your pizza stone with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough into your desired shape (rectangle or circle).
- Gently gather up the rolled dough and transfer it into the cookie sheet or pizza stone.
- If needed, rolled it out some more or use your fingers to spread/stretch the dough to fit the cookie sheet or pizza stone.
- Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise/sour in a warm place for at least 8 hours.
- Preheat oven to 450 F.
- Brush the dough with olive oil and top it with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle more olive oil on top.
- Bake for 15 to 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Slice it up and serve it hot. Enjoy!
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