A sourdough starter will raise focaccia on its own if you give it time. Mix 500 g flour, 375 g water, 50–75 g bubbly starter and 9 g salt, let the dough rise overnight, stretch it into an oiled pan, proof it until puffy, then dimple it, top it and give it 25–30 minutes at 425°F.
That formula comes from Emilie Raffa's sourdough focaccia at The Clever Carrot, and it is one of two starter-only methods this recipe is built on. The other is Maurizio Leo's simple focaccia at The Perfect Loaf, which finishes in a single day. Not every sourdough focaccia works this way. King Arthur's version mixes 340 g of ripe starter with a tablespoon of instant yeast, so commercial yeast shares the work of raising it.
What the starter changes
Where a yeasted focaccia such as Nicole Gaffney's Meyer lemon focaccia at Coley Cooks uses a teaspoon of active dry yeast, this one uses 50–75 g of active starter. The rise slows down to about 12 hours at 68–70°F (20–21°C), and the crumb picks up a mild tang. Kitchens vary, so judge the bulk rise by the dough, which should double or more, rather than by the hour.
Focaccia is one of the breads we list for our Orange Blossom Sourdough Starter, whose line traces back to a 1930s starter passed along from a kitchen in Whittier. The package carries a QR code with rehydration and baking instructions. Bring it back to life with those first, and only mix dough once it's bubbly and rising. For the history behind wild-yeast baking in citrus country, see how Californians baked before packet yeast.
Sourdough focaccia recipe
Adapted from Emilie Raffa's overnight method, with a Meyer lemon and rosemary topping after Gaffney's.
Yield: One 9x13-inch (23x33 cm) focaccia, about 12 pieces · Hands-on: 30 minutes · Rise: about 14 hours · Bake: 25–30 minutes
Ingredients
Dough - 50–75 g (about ¼ cup) active, bubbly sourdough starter, for example our Orange Blossom culture (shop the starter) - 375 g (about 1½ cups) water - 20 g (1 tbsp) honey, optional - 500 g (about 4 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour - 9 g (1½ tsp) fine sea salt
Pan and topping - 3 tbsp (45 ml) olive oil, divided - 1 Meyer lemon, sliced as thinly as you can, seeds removed - 2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves - Flaky sea salt
Steps
- In the evening, stir the starter, water and honey in a big mixing bowl.
- Add the flour and salt and stir into a shaggy dough with every bit of flour wet.
- Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30–60 minutes.
- With wet hands, work the dough into a rough ball in the bowl.
- Cover and leave it at room temperature overnight, about 12 hours at 68–70°F, until it has doubled or more.
- In the morning, pour 2 tbsp of the olive oil into a 9x13-inch pan (1 tbsp is enough if the pan is nonstick).
- Turn the dough into the pan, flip it once to coat it in oil, and gently stretch it toward the corners.
- Cover and let it rise for 1½–2 hours, until it looks very puffy.
- For the last 30 minutes of the rise, preheat to 425°F (220°C).
- Oil your fingertips and press dimples all over the dough, gently, so you don't knock out the air.
- Lay the lemon slices over the top and press them in firmly, then scatter over the rosemary.
- Drizzle with the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Bake for 25–30 minutes, until deep golden, with the lemon browned at the edges.
- Cool the focaccia on a wire rack for 10–15 minutes before cutting.
Notes
- Which olive oil. Use regular olive oil rather than extra-virgin in the pan so it doesn't burn under a long bake, as Raffa advises.
- Pressing the topping in. Anchor the lemon slices deep in the dimples or they pop out as the dough rises in the oven.
- Charred spots are fine. For caramelized lemon, add 1 tbsp coarse sugar with the rosemary; Gaffney does this and expects some slices to char while others stay pale.
- Leftovers. Focaccia is best the day it's baked. Freeze leftover pieces and warm them through at 350°F (175°C), per King Arthur.
Can you make it in one day?
The same-day route comes from Leo's recipe. It uses a ripe starter at about 19% of the flour weight (roughly 115 g for 600 g of flour), gives the dough four sets of stretch-and-folds 30 minutes apart over a 2-hour bulk, then lets it proof in the oiled pan for 4 hours at 76–78°F before a roughly 30-minute bake on a low rack at 450°F, or 232°C. Mix at 9 in the morning and it comes out of the oven around 4. It needs a warm kitchen. In a cool house, the pan proof runs long; the fallback is to refrigerate the panned dough after 2 hours of proofing and bake it the next day once it has come back to room temperature.
Why won't my sourdough focaccia rise?
Look first at the room, then at the starter. Watch the dough, not the clock: a warm kitchen speeds the rise and a cold one drags it past 12 hours. If the dough hasn't doubled by morning, leave it where it is and check every hour.
If it has barely moved at all, suspect the starter. Every recipe here calls for it active and bubbly, or ripe, at the moment it goes into the bowl; a starter mixed in before it has risen after a feeding has little to give. For the Orange Blossom starter, follow the revival steps on the package until it rises reliably between feeds before you bake with it.
If the loaf baked flat, the pan proof was probably short. Before you dimple, the dough should look very puffy, not just relaxed into the corners; on the same-day schedule that takes about 4 warm hours.
Photo by Quin Engle on Unsplash.
