Focaccia is not only the perfect side dish for barbecues, but also an ideal base for delicious sandwiches. That’s why I often bake fresh sourdough focaccia the day before a long trip. This works particularly well because the dough rises for a long time and hardly needs any attention. This focaccia with sourdough and potatoes is particularly good because, strictly speaking, it wouldn’t need any additional filling. After all, it already comes with a super spicy and hearty topping.
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Why you’ll love the sourdough focaccia with potato topping
Focaccia is a particularly airy bread with an open crumb. The dough has a high water content and gets its stability through regular stretching and folding. This version is only made with sourdough and contains no yeast. The sourdough focaccia gets its flavor from a particularly long fermentation. I actually associate focaccia with summer because it is the perfect accompaniment to a barbecue or fresh salad. This version with potatoes and onions goes particularly well in the fall. The crispy potatoes and roasted onions make the focaccia extra hearty and perfect for dipping into warm soups and stews. If you would prefer to try a spelt focaccia with wholegrain flour, I also have a recipe for you here.
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 has already collapsed, it will no longer be 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?
You’ll need these ingredients
- Wheat flour: I used bread flour or wheat flour 550. However, the recipe also works with all-purpose flour.
- 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.
- Salt for the flavour.
- Toppings: Thinly sliced potatoes, red onions, rosemary and optional grated cheese.
In three steps: How to make sourdough focaccia
Preparing the dough
Mix* a pre-dough from 200 g flour, 200 g water and 50 g sourdough starter, cover and leave to rest for three to four hours.
Mix* the remaining flour and water with the olive oil and salt into the pre-dough. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature for four to six hours, stretching and folding it three to four times.
Place the dough in the fridge overnight.
Shape and top the focaccia
Place the dough in a shallow oven dish* and leave to rest at room temperature for a further hour.
Thinly slice the potatoes and onions.
Drizzle the dough with olive oil and dimple the dough with your fingers. Spread the potato and onion slices over the dough, top with more olive oil, rosemary, coarse salt and grated cheese if desired.
Bake the focaccia until crispy
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees using a baking stone* and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
Reduce the heat to 230 degrees and bake the focaccia for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam until crispy.
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 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.
- Baking steel* to make your bread, rolls and pizza nice and crispy.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A pizza cutter* for sweet knots, croissants etc.
- A stainless steel kettle* with different temperature settings for soaking ingredients.
- 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: Fluffy Caramelized Onion and Potato Focaccia with Sourdough
Ingredients
- 500 g cake flour bread flour or wheat flour 550
- 375 g water cold in summer, lukewarm in winter
- 50 g sourdough starter
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. olive oil for the dough
- 3 medium sized potatos salad potatoes
- 1 red onion
- rosemary or other herbs to taste
- coarse salt and grated cheese optional
- more olive oil for the oven dish and the topping
Instructions
Day 1
- Mix* a pre-dough from 200 g flour, 200 g water and 50 g sourdough starter, cover and leave to rest for three to four hours.
- Mix* the remaining flour and water with the olive oil and salt into the pre-dough. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature for four to six hours, stretching and folding it three to four times.
- Place the dough in the fridge overnight.
Day 2
- Place the dough in a shallow oven dish* and leave to rest at room temperature for a further hour.
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees using a baking stone* and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
- Finely slice the potatoes and onions.
- Drizzle the dough with olive oil and dimple the dough with your fingers.
- Spread the potato and onion slices on the dough, top with more olive oil, rosemary (or other herbs), coarse salt and grated cheese if desired.
- Reduce the heat to 230 degrees and bake the focaccia for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam until crispy.
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This recipe combines two of my favourite comfort foods: potatoes and sourdough bread. The weather for this weekend is supposed to be cool and rainy – so exactly perfect for turning on the oven. Can’t wait to make this, and will report back!
Thank you for sharing your passion for baking
Oh, I am eager to hear what you think of it, thanks for trying it out! Hard to believe it, but I envy you a little for the bad weather.