Focaccia is the ideal summer bread! A good focaccia is fluffy and soft and is perfect for soaking up barbecue sauces, dips and dressings. You can also top it with whatever you have in the fridge or garden: Tomatoes, zucchinis, olives, feta, herbs – go wild! And if you’re just dreaming of summer, try an autumnal sourdough focaccia with figs, grapes, pears, goat’s cheese and nuts or a sweet version with apricots and honey. The recipe for this spelt focaccia is a great project for sourdough beginners: the poolish supports the sourdough, gives the dough additional leavening power and flavor and shortens the waiting time.
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Quick and easy focaccia bread with poolish for spontaneous barbecues
I know, I know… a recipe that has to be prepared the night before is not a quick recipe! BUT: Thanks to the yeast starter, the dough matures much faster than with pure sourdough. And the summer temperatures also play into your hands! When the poolish is ripe, you can put the focaccia in the oven after just a few hours (depending on the temperature) and enjoy it just in time for the barbecue.
Can you turn overproofed sourdough bread dough into focaccia?
The short answer: Yes. The long answer: It depends on how overproofed the bread dough is. If it is just a little too soft and unstable to be shaped into a loaf, then it is ideal for turning into focaccia. However, if the dough collapses, it will no longer make a fluffy focaccia. If the dough is too sour, the focaccia will also taste unpleasantly sour.
More Italian recipes
If you want to indulge in even more vacation memories, you should also try this fluffy sourdough ciabatta (also available with spelt). Or how about crispy cantuccini or Roman wine cookies?
What you need for the spelt focaccia with poolish and sourdough
- Poolish: Poolish is a yeast starter. It consists of equal parts water and flour with a small amount of yeast. If you use yeast as rarely as I do, I would recommend dried yeast. It keeps fresh for a long time and works just as well as fresh yeast.
- Wheat flour: I used bread flour or wheat flour 550. However, the recipe also works with all-purpose flour.
- Wholegrain spelt flour: I prefer to use freshly ground wholegrain flour. It contains more nutrients and tastes more aromatic than store-bought flour. However, it does not keep as long and should be used immediately after grinding.
- Sourdough starter: I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and whole grain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
- Olive oil: Probably the most important ingredient for a really good focaccia: good olive oil, and not too little! You need about two tablespoons for the dough and as much as you want for the topping.
- Toppings: Olives, tomatoes, herbs or even apricots, pears and nuts – there are no limits to your creativity here. Depending on your mood and the season, you can go wild with the toppings.
In three steps: How to make spelt focaccia
Preparing the starter dough
To make the poolish, mix* the flour, water and yeast together, cover and leave to rest for 12 hours at room temperature or 24 hours in the fridge.
Mix the dough
For the dough, mix* the remaining flour, water, oil, salt and sourdough starter with the poolish. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature for two hours, stretching and folding it regularly.
Then leave the dough to rest for another 4 to 6 hours or put it in the fridge overnight. Grease a shallow oven dish* with olive oil, place the dough in the dish and leave to rest for another hour.
Bake the sourdough focaccia until crispy
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan with a baking stone and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
Spread the olive oil and toppings over the dough and dimple the dough with your fingertips. Bake the focaccia for about 30 minutes until golden brown and leave to cool* in the tin for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Helpful tools – My recommendations
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- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- A stainless steel loaf tin*.
- A wooden rolling pin*.
- A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A sharp bread knife*.
- A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.
You can find more product recommendations here.
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Recipe: Easy Sourdough Focaccia with Spelt
Ingredients
Poolish
- 150 g water
- 150 g wheat flour
- 1 pinch instant yeast
Dough
- 150 g water
- 50 g wheat flour
- 200 g wholegrain spelt flour
- 40 g sourdough starter
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- Toppings of choice herbs, tomatoes, garlic, olives, etc.
Instructions
Day 1
- To make the poolish, mix* the flour, water and yeast together, cover and leave to rest for 12 hours at room temperature or 24 hours in the fridge.
Day 2
- Mix the remaining flour, water, oil, salt and sourdough starter with the poolish.
- Leave to rest at room temperature for two hours, stretching and folding regularly.
- Leave the dough to rest for 4 to 6 hours or refrigerate overnight.
- Grease a shallow oven dish* with olive oil, place the dough in the dish and leave to rest for another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan with a baking stone and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
- Spread the olive oil and toppings over the dough and dimple the dough with your fingertips.
- Bake the focaccia for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
- Leave to cool* in the dish for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
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