We wanted to experiment with our sourdough starter. We looked for some recipes to make with it and found out we can use it to make Focaccia Bread. I read and watched many recipes and decided to make my own.
Ingredients
- 425 g Water
- 500 g Flour
- 100 g Starter
- 13 g olive oil
- 10 g Salt
- Garlic Powder
- Sliced Black Olives
- Sun Dried tomatoes
- Rosemary
- Zaatar
Making the Focaccia
I started feeding the sourdough starter the previous day and leaving it at room temperature (See the Sourdough Bread recipe to learn how to make your own sourdough starter). In a large bowl I mixed the flour and the water. Once all the bread is hydrated, let the mixture rest for 30 minutes. This will allow your dough to go through the process of autolyse. This process will help you develop more gluten further into the process.
After the 30 minutes had passed, I added my starter, salt, and Olive oil and kneaded until everything came together. I then let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, I grabbed the side of the dough and lifted it up. I made sure that I grab enough of the dough so that the whole dough got pulled and stretched. Then I folded the excess of the stretched dough back on to the middle of the bowl. I then rotated the bowl a 1/4 of a turn and stretched and folded again. I repeated the same process until I went all the way around the bowl. I let the dough rest for another 20 min and repeated the process of stretching and folding and resting 20 minutes 2 more times. By the end of this process my dough became smooth.
After stretching 3 times, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge overnight. The next day, I removed it from the fridge let it rest for 2 hours to come back to room temperature. I placed 3 tablespoons olive oil into a medium size baking pan, then I placed the dough in the pan and stretched it lightly into a square. I covered the dough and let it rest for 1 hour. After 1 hour, I covered the top of the dough with 3 tbsp of olive oil, then I pressed my fingers in it to make holes in the dough. I sprinkled some garlic powder, and zaatar, then placed my Sliced black olives, sun dried tomatoes, rosemary on top. I placed the baking sheet on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 450 degree Fahrenheit or 230 degree Celsius for 30 minutes, rotating the pan at the 15 minute mark. I removed the Focaccia from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before cutting into it.
We really loved the bread. It did not need anything to complement it. If you have some time to spare and want to make something delicious, make this and taste how delicious it is.
Enjoy! 🙂
