Looking for Sourdough? 
Looking for the best, most foolproof sourdough focaccia recipe? This is it!
With a soft chewy interior and crispy edges, this sourdough focaccia bread is topped with fresh rosemary and roasted garlic for an explosion of flavor in every bite!
Are you ready for another ridiculously easy sourdough recipe? You are going to love this recipe!
The inside is soft and chewy and the bottom and edges are nice and crispy. Perfect for dipping in your favorite sauce or flavored oil!
Not only is focaccia great to serve alongside breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can actually make it a meal by changing up the toppings. Think, "focaccia pizza".
We've gone old school Italian with this basic focaccia recipe by using roasted garlic and rosemary, but feel free to use any topping your heart desires!
Step by step instructions
Let's go over the basic steps needed to make the best sourdough focaccia bread ever!
- Mix the ingredients in a batter bowl. Cover and let rest 30-60 minutes.
- Use your hands or a bowl scraper to stretch and fold the dough for one minute, while in the bowl. (The dough will be very wet.)
- Use your hands to coat an 8" x 8" baking dish with olive oil.
- Dump the dough into the baking dish and use your oiled hands to gently press it in the pan. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12-14 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add roasted garlic and rosemary on top of dough and bake for 40 minutes.
HOW TO ROAST GARLIC
- Preheat your oven to 425°. Cut off the top of the head of garlic. Place the head of garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Wrap the garlic in the foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool until ready to bake focaccia.
Don't forget to roast your garlic while the dough is fermenting. It can be roasted ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you are ready to bake!
Tips for success
Make sure your sourdough starter is active when mixing the dough. It's best to feed your starter up to 12 hours prior to mixing depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
Don't skimp on the olive oil when greasing the pan. The dough needs the oil to get that crispy crust you're looking for!
Use regular olive oil if you can find it. It has a higher smoke point at 468 degrees, then extra virgin olive oil, which is 410 degrees. I find it better for baking because it can handle the higher heat.
This is a very wet dough. Because of this, you will not be able to make the traditional "indentations" in the top of the dough before baking. However, the dough will still bake up perfectly!
The focaccia is ready to bake when the dough has risen halfway up the side of the pan and there are bubbles on the surface and edges of the dough.
Don't have a kitchen scale to measure flour?
Use the scoop and level technique to measure your flour if you do not have a kitchen scale. To do this, use a spoon to fluff up the flour in the bag. Use a spoon to scoop the flour into a measuring cup until it is heaped on top. Take a butterknife and level off the top. This should give you the most accurate measurement for flour.
Because flour is measured by weight in these recipes, if the flour is scooped straight out of the bag with the measuring cup, there will be more flour than is called for in the recipe.
Tips for baking in warm and/or high humidity areas - When baking in high humidity and/or warmer areas, it's often a good practice to use less water and bake a little longer than the recipe calls for. Reduce the water by 50 grams in the initial mix and then slowly add the remaining water until you achieve the correct hydration level. You may need to bake the focaccia a few minutes longer than called. This will take some trial and error!
How to store and freeze for later
You can keep leftover focaccia bread stored at room temperature for up to 2 days before it will start to get stale. Just keep it in a plastic bag or a container with a lid.
Focaccia is best served the day it’s made, however, you can easily freeze leftover focaccia.
After the focaccia has completely cooled, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then in a layer of foil. It can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Allow to thaw at room temperature, then reheat in a 325°F oven until warmed through and crispy, about 10-15 minutes.
Sample baking schedule
- Friday 6 PM: Feed sourdough starter.
- Saturday 6 AM: Mix dough. Cover and let rest at room temperature.
- Saturday 7AM: Stretch and fold dough for 1 minute. Dump into oiled pan. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12-14 hours. (Roast garlic in the meantime.)
- Saturday 7PM: Add toppings and bake.
Other recipes you may like:
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Olive and Walnut Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Country Loaf
- Sourdough Discard Crackers
We hope you love the ease and versatility of this recipe as much as we do! Leave us a message in the comment section below!
Sourdough Focaccia Bread Recipe
INGREDIENTS
Ingredients to make ¼ cup (50 g) of Active Sourdough Starter
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) sourdough starter
- 3 tablespoons (25 g) all-purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons (25 g) water
Focaccia Dough Ingredients
- 1 â…“ cups + 1 teaspoon (325 g) water
- ¼ cup (50 g) active sourdough starter
- 1 ½ teaspoons (8 g) fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) olive oil
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
Other ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil (for coating baking pan and roasting garlic)
- 1 head roasted garlic
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
INSTRUCTIONS
Feed Your Sourdough Starter
- 12 hours before you plan to mix the dough, add the ingredients to make ¼ cup (50 g) of active sourdough starter to a clean jar. Stir until combined, loosely cover the jar and let the starter rise at room temperature. (This will create a total of 60 g active starter but some of it will stick to the sides of the jar during the transfer, so we are making a little more than needed.) The sourdough starter is ready to use when it has doubled in size and there are plenty of bubbles on the surface and sides of the jar.
Make the Dough
- Add the water, active sourdough starter, salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil and all-purpose flour to a large mixing bowl and use a stiff spatula or your hands to mix thoroughly. (Dough will be very wet.) Cover and let rest 30-60 minutes.
- Leave the dough in the bowl and use your hands or a bowl scraper to stretch and fold the dough for one minute.
- Use your hands to coat an 8" x 8" baking dish with olive oil. Dump the dough into the baking dish and use your oiled hands to gently press it in the pan. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12-14 hours. (It's ready to bake when it's risen halfway up the side of the pan and there are bubbles on the surface and edges of the dough.)
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Add garlic and rosemary on top of dough and bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and serve warm.
Roasted Garlic
- Preheat your oven to 425°. Cut off the top of the head of garlic. Place the head of garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap the garlic in the foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool until ready to bake focaccia.
NOTES
- Use the scoop and level technique to measure your flour if you do not have a kitchen scale. To do this, use a spoon to fluff up the flour in the bag. Use a spoon to scoop the flour into a measuring cup until it is heaped on top. Take a butterknife and level off the top. This should give you the most accurate measurement for flour.
- Tips for baking in warm and/or high humidity areas - When baking in high humidity and/or warmer areas, it's often a good practice to use less water and bake a little longer than the recipe calls for. Reduce the water by 50 grams in the initial mix and then slowly add the remaining water until you achieve the correct hydration level. You may need to bake the focaccia a few minutes longer than called. This will take some trial and error!
- Make sure you roast the garlic while you're waiting for the dough to ferment. The garlic can be roasted ahead of time and stored in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Sourdough focaccia bread is best served warm on the same day it's baked.
- Store leftovers at room temperature in a plastic bag or container.
- Freeze leftovers for up to 3 months wrapped in plastic wrap and foil.
PREVIOUS
Michelle says
Sounds so simple and fantastic! Can't wait to try it!
do you have any timing recommendations if i want to add an overnight fridge ferment? I see a couple of bakers have tried different ways of cold overnight resting.
Thanks!
Amy Allen says
Bread was easy to make and had good flavor but I checked it in oven at 40 mins (recipe says 45) and it was DARK- basically burnt crust and black burnt garlic. Is my oven insanely hot? Idk. Might try it again with significant less time.
Laura says
I generally don't buy all purpose wheat flour. I use whole grain spelt and rye or Einkorn for sourdough, and sprouted spelt for other baking. Would any of these options produce a similar end result? I have had a hard time finding a recipe that makes the nice bubbly focaccia that doesn't use AP flour. Thoughts? Thanks!
Joanne says
Do you think this will work in a cast iron skillet pan or do you think it will be too hot and burn the bottom?
Amy Duska says
I think it will be fine in a cast iron skillet. I would check it about at about 35 minutes just to be sure.
YM says
I have been trying out your recipes with my gluten-free sourdough starter as well as gluten free flour. If I could post a picture, I would do so! The focaccia is AMAZING (as well as several of your other recipes). Thank you!!
Josh E-R says
Tried it out today and it turned out great! I was generous with the olive oil and it made it a really nice golden crisp throughout and on top. I also let mine rise for about 9 hours yesterday before leaving it in the fridge overnight to continue to slow cold ferment to add complexity to the flavor. I think the extra time (and a hotter than usual oven) also made it cook in about 20 minutes! Thanks for the great recipe!
Jim Cokas says
I've enjoyed several of your recipes Amy (crackers, banana bread, pizza dough) and this one was pretty simple up to the point where I pulled it out of the over. At that point I wasn't sure whether to let it cool in the pan for an hour or get it to release right away? At the end of your otherwise great video you don't really specify anything. So I'm sitting here pondering how to proceed. You see I just pulled it out of the oven. It's not wanting to come our of the pan easily though. I'll let you know what I do but it would be great if you'd let us know what you do?
Sam B. says
I've made the recipe twice now with some variations... olives instead of garlic and rosemary, missing my baking window and letting the dough rise in the fridge overnight and baking the next morning, and adding a bit more starter since mine is not really bubbly. It really didn't matter. It came out great no matter what.I also sprinkled the top with Kosher salt before baking...yummy for salt lovers.
Caitlin D says
This turned out really well. I think I underdid it on the olive oil in the pan and ended up with some sticking, but that's my fault for not measuring the oil exactly. Also, this was my 7-year-old son's first time trying roasted garlic, and he loved it so much that he picked all of the garlic cloves off the top of the focaccia when nobody was looking. Clearly I'll have to make more for him in the future. Thank you!
Jennifer says
Another amazing post Amy. Thank you so much and keep them coming