I have been looking for a simple focaccia recipe that uses sourdough, so it makes it pretty healthy. Everything I was finding involved kneading or stretch and folds and lots of intervention. I am in this for the outcome, not the process, so something with minimal effort but a pretty good outcome is my aim. We don’t eat any white bread, or in fact barely any bread at all so this is just for those family or friends for dinner nights where I need something pretty spectacular, yet easy, to put on the table. Once the starter is ready it doesn’t take long to get the dough into the pan. I get the dough into a pan and put it in the fridge to rise slowly if cooking after a four hour rest is inconvenient. When it is time to bake take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature and grow a bit more.

NO FUSS SOURDOUGH FOCACCIA

Take your starter, weigh it and find the difference between its weight and 180g. Divide that number in half and add that weight in rye flour and the same in kefir. Stir it all up well, scrape down the sides, cover with a loose-fitting lid and mark the top of the mix with a rubber band. When it has doubled or even tripled it is time to start this process.

Ingredients

• 500g white flour
• 15g Extra Virgin olive oil
• 12g salt
• 380g warm water – aim for 40°C
• 150g starter – you will need to build the starter to this volume in advance.

Method

1. Put the mixer bowl on scale and add the white flour, olive oil salt and warm water using gram measurements.
2. Put the paddle blade in the mixer and mix till the ingredients are incorporated.
3. Scrape down the sides and switch to the dough hook, weigh out the 150g of starter and add to the mixer bowl.
4. Mix on speed 3 for about 3 minutes until the mix is starting to come away from the sides.
5. Scrape down the sides and cover the bowl loosely with a cloth.
6. Rest for 30 minutes
7. It should have risen a bit so it’s time to knock it down and mix on speed 2 for another 5 minutes or until the dough is somewhat coming away from the bowl and sort of hanging around the dough hook.
8. Spray the dish you are going to bake it in with some oil then scrunch up some baking paper and line the pan with it.
9. Spread about 2 tbs of EV olive oil on the baking paper.
10. Scrape the pretty wet dough out on the baking paper, sort of stretching it out to meet the edges.
11. Cover it with plastic wrap and a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise. This takes about 3 to 4 hours depending on your environment. If that will lead to an inconvenient cook time just put it in the fridge to rise slowly. You will need to take it out to come to room temperature and finish rising about an hour and a half before you want to bake it.
12. Ready to bake: Turn the oven to 240°C with steaming (or put a separate baking dish or pan in the bottom shelf of the oven to add water to when the dough goes in). Allow the oven to really come to a steady temperature.
13. Meanwhile prepare toppings, eg, olives sliced, sun dried tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, oregano, rosemary, sliced roasted capsicum, anything or just bagel seasoning, dukkha, nuts and seeds, za’atar or just salt flakes. Choose whatever flavour will complement the meal. It is a good idea to spray a little oil on any herbs, they cook up nice and crunchy rather than burnt.
14. When the dough looks all bubbly and puffy spray (or drizzle) olive oil liberally over the top of the dough then wet your fingers and push them in all over the bread leaving dimples. The oil will puddle into the holes.
15. Spread the toppings all over the surface, pushing down lightly. Definitely finish off with salt flakes.
16. Put the pan into oven and cook for 25 minutes.
17. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.
18. Serve hot and crispy from the oven or slice and toast.

NOTE:

This can be made as thin or thick as you want. I generally use a 22 x 25cm pan and this gives a fairly thick focaccia but for something thinner just use a larger pan.