This easy sourdough focaccia is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Since it requires no difficult shaping method, it’s a great sourdough bread for beginners. You also get to use olive oil three different ways in this recipe and you can top the bread with whatever you want.

Why This Recipe Works

This focaccia dough is easy to mix together in one bowl. After minimal stretch and folds to develop the gluten, you’ll let the dough rise all night long at room temperature, giving it a puffy texture and a delicious fermented flavor. Shaping the focaccia inside the pan couldn’t be easier, and dimpling the focaccia after the long proof is really satisfying.

The easy shaping process and the no-fuss nature of this bread makes it a great recipe for beginning sourdough bakers. Once you’ve tried baking a standard loaf of sourdough bread, you’ll find this sourdough focaccia to be a breeze!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Bread Flour: I use King Arthur brand bread flour. Any white bread flour that is close to 13% hydration will produce a similar result.
Water: Unchlorinated tap water or bottled spring water works best.
Sourdough Starter: Use whatever sourdough starter you have. Check out the Grant Bakes sourdough starter guide if you want to make your own sourdough starter from scratch.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Focaccia is truly all about how good olive oil tastes when it’s featured in a bread dough, so use the best-tasting extra virgin olive oil you can find. Avoid oils labeled just as “olive oil” or “olive oil for cooking.” The flavor in these oils will be lacking.
Salt: Use kosher salt, sea salt, or table salt for the dough, then use kosher salt or some kind of flaky salt for topping the focaccia. I wouldn’t recommend using table salt to top the focaccia since the texture is usually too fine and the texture won’t feel right on the mouth. You want small crunchy bites of salt, which kosher salt or flaky salt will provide.

Substitutions and Additions

You can use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour: The higher protein content in bread flour produces a chewy and well-developed focaccia dough. To use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, replace the flour as a 1:1 replacement, and reduce the amount of water by 20 grams.
Using yeast instead of sourdough starter: If you want to use yeast instead of sourdough starter, increase the amount of flour in the recipe to 500 grams, increase the amount of water to 375 grams, and replace the 50 grams of sourdough starter with 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast or active dry yeast.

Tools and Equipment

Non-stick 9×13″ cake pan: This is my preferred type of pan for baking focaccia. The non-stick coating on the pan allows the focaccia to slide right out after baking. (Here’s an affiliate link to get this pan on Amazon.)

Ingredient Amounts

Starter Feeding

Sourdough Starter – 25 grams
Bread Flour – 25 grams
Water – 25 grams

Main Dough

Bread Flour – 475 grams
Water – 350 grams
Sourdough Starter (Active) – 50 grams
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 25 grams, plus more for the pan
Salt – 10 grams

Toppings

I like to top my sourdough focaccia with 25 grams of olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt. Use this as a base topping, and then add whatever else you want on top of that! A few ideas are:

Kalamata Olives
Fresh or Dried Rosemary
Oregano and Sun-dried Tomatoes
Red Onions and Capers
Halved Cherry Tomatoes

Step-by-Step Instructions: Sourdough Focaccia

Feeding Your Starter

Take 25 grams of leftover sourdough starter from the fridge and feed it 25 grams of water and 25 grams of bread flour. Mix these ingredients thoroughly to combine. Mark the top of the starter with a rubber band or a marker. In four to eight hours it should be doubled in size and ready to use. I like to feed my starter in the afternoon, so that I can mix my dough in the evening before I go to bed.

Mixing Your Dough

When your starter is ready to use, measure 350 grams of water and 10 grams of salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the salt a little bit to dissolve. Then add in the 50 grams of sourdough starter and stir that in as well.
Now add the 475 grams of bread flour to the liquid ingredients and stir it completely to combine. Keep stirring until there are no dry bits of flour left. This will be a 75% hydration dough, which is a little bit wetter than my usual sourdough bread recipe. That extra water will create a light and fluffy focaccia!
Once you have mixed together all of the ingredients except for the olive oil, cover up the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes. This will create a little bit of strength in the dough before adding in the oil, which I think gives a better result.
After the 30 minute rest, add in 25 grams of olive oil right on top of the dough. Squeeze the oil into the dough with your hands. After about 30 seconds of squeezing in the oil, start stretching and folding the dough to create a smooth ball of dough with slick surface.

Bulk Fermentation

Once your dough comes together as a smooth ball, place the dough smooth side up and seam side down in the mixing bowl.
Cover up the dough and let it bulk ferment for about 8-10 hours. This is why I usually mix my dough in the evening before bed, so that it’s ready to be shaped in the morning.
The next morning your dough should be light and puffy and will have roughly doubled in size. Now it’s time to prepare your baking pan. Get out a 9″x13″ metal cake pan, or any similar that you can bake your focaccia in. I love this non-stick pan from USA Pan. It’s actually non-stick and it works amazingly, but use any pan that you like.
Pour 25 grams of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) into the pan and spread it around with your fingers. Make sure you get the oil all over the bottom and sides of the pan. This oil is essentially going to “fry” the bread in the oven while it’s baking, making a super light and crispy crust!
Now, transfer the dough, smooth side up and seam side down, into the pan. Gently pull at the corners of the dough a little bit to stretch it into a rectangular shape. Try to get it to roughly fit the shape of your pan, but when the dough starts resisting and springing back, stop pulling. There will still be a few inches on each side where the dough doesn’t meet the pan, which is fine. The dough will fill up the pan during the long proofing process.
Cover up your dough tightly with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it proof at room temperature for 6-12 hours. Sourdough focaccia is very forgiving, so there is a wide range as to how long you can proof your focaccia. After the proofing time, your focaccia should have filled the pan, there will be visible bubbles, and the focaccia will jiggle when you shake it.
At this point the focaccia is ready to bake, but if you need to bake it later, move the focaccia to the fridge to “pause” the fermentation process until you’re ready to bake.

Baking

Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C) with a metal pan or tray in the bottom rack. This pan will be used to add steam later.
When the oven is preheated, uncover your focaccia and top it with your favorite ingredients.
Start by pouring 25 grams of olive oil on top of the dough. Then gently wet your fingertips in the olive oil, and dimple the dough all over with your fingertips. Press down firmly with the flat part of your fingertips until your reach the bottom of the pan. Don’t press through the dough, just dimple it down.
Now sprinkle the top of the focaccia with a few pinches of sea salt and add any toppings of your choice. My favorites are Kalamata olives or dried rosemary.
Move the prepared focaccia pan into the middle rack of your oven and pour some hot or boiling water into the steam tray.
Close the oven and let the bread bake for 30-35 minutes. Half way through the baking time, carefully remove the steam tray. If your oven bakes a little bit unevenly, you might also want to rotate the focaccia pan at this time.
After about a half hour, your focaccia should be nicely brown and beautifully baked! Remove it from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool for about one hour. Slice in and enjoy!

If you like this type of sourdough bread recipe, you’ll love my ebook “No-Nonsense Sourdough” where I show you how to make 26 of my all-time-favorite sourdough bread recipes. Check it out here!

Yield: 1 Pan of Focaccia

Sourdough Focaccia

This easy sourdough focaccia is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Since it requires no difficult shaping method, it's a great sourdough bread for beginners. You also get to use olive oil three different ways in this recipe and you can top the bread with whatever you want.