Sourdough Focaccia, Take Two

The focaccia I made last time did not ferment quite right, and parts of it failed to rise in the oven. To correct that, this time I adjusted the fermentation time and used bread flour alone.

Sourdough Focaccia

Step 1 — Making the dough

Learning from last time, this focaccia has a slightly longer ferment and is made with bread flour only. The water is 74% of the flour; an ordinary sourdough loaf for me is around 63%. For toppings this time, tomato and olives, plus some herbs.

Ingredients (dough):

• Starter50g
• Bread flour (Kitanokaori)250g
• Water (around 20°C)185cc
• Olive oil5g
• Salt4g

Ingredients (topping):

• Cherry tomatoes4
• Olives20g
• Dried basil, oreganoto taste

Mixing the dough

1. Put the measured water, the starter and the salt in a bowl and stir until fully dissolved.

2. Once mixed, sift the flour into the bowl from step 1 and mix — the olive oil does not go in yet. Start with the scraper, turning the flour up from the bottom of the bowl. Once it is roughly combined, use your hands to bring it together into a single mass.

3. Add the measured olive oil to the dough from step 2 and mix. Ordinary sourdough involves very little working, but here you mix thoroughly for about ten minutes. At first the hydration is so high that it is sticky, close to a batter. Keep mixing and the gluten gradually brings it together. Once it has, rest it at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold

4. The first stretch and fold, exactly as with an ordinary sourdough loaf. Working around the dough, stretch from the edge and fold across to the opposite side, four to six times.

5. Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for 40 minutes.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, for four stretch-and-fold sessions in total.

Over the ferment, the stickiness settles down a great deal and the surface turns smooth.

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Step 2 — Shaping

7. Take the dough out of the bowl, stretch it into a rectangle, and place it in an oiled cake tin or other heatproof tray.

8. Cover and ferment at room temperature for about two hours.

9. Wet your fingertips and press dimples into the surface of the dough. This makes it rise evenly.

10. Slice the toppings and arrange them.

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Step 3 — Baking the focaccia

11. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Once it is up to temperature, finish the dough with olive oil and salt.

12. Put the tray in the oven and bake at 230°C for 40 minutes.

The fermentation went better this time than last. Even so, looking at the cut surface, the bubbles still seem small. I fermented at room temperature for two hours after the stretch and folds; a longer ferment might have been better. And 40 minutes at 230°C may be a little long. Thirty minutes was too short last time, so around 35 is probably right.