Sourdough Focaccia, more successful
I’ve been frustrated with my sourdough breads. I just can’t achieve an open crumb that is satisfactory to me. So I took a break today and made more sourdough foccacia.
This time, I tried a different instagram recipe, just because I thought the pictures looked better online. I did a couple of things differently from the recipe, and from my first time, but I’m happier with the results this time.
Sourdough Focaccia v2
I wish I wrote down where I found this recipe. I scrolled through a lot, and wrote a bunch down, before deciding on this one. It has a higher % of levain, which made all the difference in the world. Start to finish, this bread took 6 hours.
For a quarter sheet:
350g bread flour
100g starter [I actually only used 80g starter]
262g + 18g water
9g salt
In baker’s percentages:
100% bread flour
30% starter
80% hydration
2.5% salt
Method:
Autolyse 30minutes: Mix flour, starter, and 262g water until shaggy.
Add salt and remaining water.
Give it a set of stretch & folds every 30minutes, repeat for a total of 4 times.
I actually forgot and just gave it 4 turns over the course of 3 hours, at 25-45 min intervals. Ooops?
Retard overnight in the fridge, or keep proofing on the counter.
To bake next day: remove from fridge, and dump onto a generously olive-oil’d quarter sheet tray. Allow dough to come to room temperature.
To bake same day, dump dough onto a generously olive-oiled quarter sheet tray, and allow to proof until very very fluffy. For me this took about 3 more hours.
Dock with well-oiled fingers, and add desired toppings.
This time, I made a franken loaf. Half comprised of cheddar cubes, red onion, shaved cheddar on top, and black pepper. The other half was similar to last time’s - goat cheese, oven dried tomato, red onion, pecorino, black pepper, maldon. Drizzled more EVOO over everything.
Bake at 450F convection. Once the top reaches the desired brownness, loosely cover the top with foil.
Since the cheese on mine browned very quickly, I added foil about 10-15 minutes into baking.
Like last time, at 30 minutes, scrape the bottom up with a metal spatula, and pour a little more olive oil to help the bottom fry.
Allow to cool for a few minutes on the tray, and cool the rest of the way on a rack so the bottom doesn’t get too greasy and soggy.
Notes:
If you don’t want that deep fried crispy bottom (but why????) you can layer the tray with parchment paper and only add a thin layer of oil. But I think the crispy bottom makes all the difference.
Overnight retardation will develop more sour flavors, but I prefer a milder flavor for foccacia. The crumb is very custardy.
If you want, you can push the dough out as you dock, and neatly fill all the corners. I didn’t worry much about the shape, because I didn’t want to deflate the dough too much.