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Sourdough Focaccia (Yeast Version too)
I recently watched the Netflix documentary Salt Fat Acid Heat and was intrigued by the Ligurian focaccia in the Fat episode, which had a sub-focus on olive oil. It looked so delicious and I loved the idea that it’s sometimes dipped in milky coffee for breakfast in that region.
The Ligurian recipe is yeast leavened, though, and of course I wanted to make it sourdough, and also add fresh-milled whole grain wheat flavor while keeping the bread’s airy-but-oily character. My other goal was to develop a yeast recipe that would be faster than sourdough (no starter prep), but slow enough that good flavors and gluten are developed…for when I decide to bake at the last minute and for people who haven’t dived into the world of wild yeast and bacteria.
In addition to the Ligurian focaccia recipe, I also pulled elements from the focaccia in Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice, The Perfect Loaf’s Simple Focaccia Recipe, and King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Focaccia. Reinhart gives helpful information about developing flavor and gluten in yeast-leavened dough, and baking and topping strategies. The Perfect Loaf’s recipe simplifies the ingredient list, which encouraged me to reduce the honey and oil in my final recipe, and KAF’s recipe was a helpful third data point for hydration, honey and oil ratios.
Here are some different toppings and test bakes:
Equipment
Preheated baking sheet under the focaccia pan
The printable recipe below makes a 1 1/2 inch thick focaccia that fills a standard 9″x13″ baking pan with 1000g of dough.
In the Baker’s Percentage table below, I also give you the 1650g dough weight and volume measurements needed for a thinner focaccia in a larger 13″x18″ pan.
I have uncoated aluminum pans (not non-stick), so I used parchment paper after my first focaccia stuck to the pan, but you can eliminate the paper if you have a non-stick pan.
I tested baking the focaccia with and without a preheated baking sheet under the pan, and I believe I got better results with the consistent and immediate thermal mass of the heated sheet underneath. If you have a pizza stone, that will also work great, but I went with an aluminum sheet for a shorter preheat.
Formulas
You can see in the table below that the formulas (for yeast vs. sourdough versions) are designed to result in similar total dough weight and hydration once the flour and water in the starter are accounted for. The baker’s percentages are different because of the flour and water in the sourdough starter.
To create the yeast recipe, I divided the starter weight by two (flour and water) and added those grams to the flour and water of the yeast recipe. This way the total dough weight, honey, olive oil, and salt are the same.
The ingredient weights in the table below have been added for your reference if you want to use a 13×18 inch pan, while the printable recipe is for a 9×13 inch pan.
Wheat Types and Amount
For this recipe, I went with 20% whole grain wheat flour, milled in my Mockmill. I think 20% allows the flavors of even subtle wheat varieties to come through, but keeps the light characteristic of focaccia. I wanted to use either Kamut or White Sonora as the whole grain wheat because of their color (gold and white, respectively) and because of their bitter-free flavors.
In my various test bakes, I loved both. My first focaccia (yeast), and fourth and fifth focaccias (sourdough) were with Kamut, and my middle two bakes (sourdough) were with White Sonora. The White Sonora and Kamut were both delicious and airy, with the Kamut maybe having more of a buttery-nutty flavor. I can happily recommend both. My starter build varied throughout the testing, becoming mostly all purpose flour by the final bake.
Gluten Development Strategy
In my first two bakes, I went with a hands-off approach after the initial mixing. I stopped the bulk fermentation when the dough doubled. This worked fine for the first, yeast bake, and was inconclusive for the second, sourdough bake, because I accidentally overproofed it.
For my next three bakes, I decided to play it safe and do four rounds of stretching and folding/coil folding. The photos in the gallery below show the target dough expansion and bubbling at various stages of the process. I recommend active gluten development for both the sourdough and yeast versions, but as I mentioned above, you can get away with ignoring the dough after the initial mixing with the yeast recipe.
Sourdough Focaccia (Yeast Version too)
Focaccia with a touch of whole grain wheat is a delicious treat but also a contender to be an everyday bread. The olive oil goodness and variety of topping options make it infinitely interesting. This recipe allows you to choose sourdough leavening or yeast leavening with a similar time frame of fermentation for good flavor development.
Ingredients
Sourdough Focaccia
Yeast Focaccia
Additional salt for the top of the dough, olive oil for the baking pan and top of dough, other toppings such as tomatoes, olives, onions, garlic, cheese, sliced potatoes and more!
Instructions
Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
Final Proof and Topping
Baking
Shopping List
Sourdough Process Gallery (13×18 inch White Sonora & 9×13 inch Kamut)
Yeast Process Gallery
Sourdough Focaccia (Yeast Version too)