Olives, fresh herbs and cherry tomatoes – focaccia tastes like summer! Today I have a simple basic recipe for Italian focaccia with sourdough for you. You can top the flatbread with anything you like and serve it as a side dish for a barbecue, make a sandwich for your next road trip or enjoy it with a fresh salad. The dough is quick and easy to prepare and rests overnight in the fridge. The recipe does not require yeast and only works with sourdough. The sourdough focaccia is particularly aromatic and easy to digest thanks to the long leavening process.
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
Three tips for perfect Italian focaccia
- The dough is very soft and difficult to stretch and fold. You can make it easier for yourself and reduce the amount of water. However, this will make the facaccia more dense and less fluffy. My recommendation: wet your hands and fold as well as you can. After a night in the fridge, the dough is much easier to handle – I promise!
- Give your focaccia time! Italian focaccia is known for its strong aroma. All times given in the recipe are minimum times. You can also allow the focaccia dough to rest in the fridge for 48 hours and the focaccia to rest in the pan for three to four hours. Of course, focaccia can also be overfermented, but in my experience underfermentation is more common.
- If the focaccia cannot be removed from the pan, you can cover it with a cotton cloth for about 30 minutes while it is still hot. The condensation will help to release the focaccia from the tin. Afterwards I would place the focaccia on a cooling rack* so that the moisture can evaporate again.
How to store sourdough focaccia
Of course, focaccia tastes best fresh out of the oven. Then the crust is particularly crispy and the crumb is soft and fluffy. I can also easily store your focaccia for a few days. To do this, either wrap the flatbread in a cotton cloth or put it in a paper bag. It can then be stored at room temperature. Bread quickly becomes dry and hard in the fridge. Before serving, I would bake the focaccia again briefly in the oven.
Can you freeze sourdough focaccia?
Yes, focaccia is great for freezing and defrosting. To do this, cut the focaccia into pieces and freeze them well wrapped. To defrost, I would unpack the focaccia and leave it at room temperature. Before serving, you can briefly refresh the focaccia in the oven to make it nice and crispy and warm again.
In three steps: How to make Italian focaccia
Mix 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.
Drizzle the dough with olive oil and dimple the dough with your fingers. Top the focaccia with more olive oil, olives, herbs and coarse salt.
Bake the focaccia until crispy
Preheat the oven with a baking stone* and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones* to 250 degrees Reduce the heat to 230 degrees and bake the focaccia for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam until crispy.
Similar recipes with sourdough
- Fluffy potato focaccia with sourdough
- Easy Sourdough Focaccia Recipe with Spelt
- Easy Sourdough Fougasse Overnight
Helpful tools – My recommendations
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
- 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 sharp bread knife*.
- A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.
You can find more product recommendations here.
More focaccia and flatbreads with sourdough
Easy Sourdough Focaccia Recipe with Spelt
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…
Pinsa Romana – Crispy Sourdough Flatbread with Toppings
Pinsa has experienced a real hype in recent years. For a long time, it was considered the original form of pizza, but this later turned out to be a clever marketing coup. In its current form, the Pinsa Romana was only invented in Rome in 2001. However, the basic…
Easy Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipe – Overnight
With this recipe you will make sourdough pizza that is so good, it could be from your favorite Italian Pizzeria: with a thin base and a crispy crust that is full of aroma. The dough doesn’t need any yeast and develops its taste through a long rest over night in the…
Recipe: How to Make Sourdough Focaccia
Ingredients
- 500 g bread flour or wheat flour 550
- 375 g cold water in summer lukewarm in winter
- 50 g sourdough starter
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. olive oil for the dough
- coarse salt, olives and herbs 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. The dough is very soft and difficult to fold. It is a little easier with damp hands.
- 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 at least another hour (or even longer).
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees using a baking stone* and a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
- Drizzle the dough with olive oil and dimple the dough with your fingers.
- Top the focaccia with more olive oil, olives, herbs and coarse salt.
- Reduce the heat to 230 degrees and bake the focaccia for 20 minutes with steam and 20 minutes without steam until crispy.
Have you tried one of my recipes?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You would help me a lot if you would rate this recipe and write your feedback in a comment. Thank you! 🧡
Feel free to show me how it turned out! Link @kruemelig on your Instagram or Facebook post or use #kruemelig. If you want to remember the recipe for later, feel free to save it on Pinterest!
0 Comments