sourdough Archives - Page 12 of 12

The good thing with sourdough Focaccia is that you can put almost anything on top of it. Olives, tomatoes, salami, you name it. It’s almost like a pizza. Some say that focaccia is the precursor to pizza. I won’t argue with that.
This bread is dating all the way back to ancient Rome. So, please approach it with some respect. Something we should do with all the great food by the way.
I decided not to use a dough mixer for this recipe. Remember that in ancient Rome, they had no dough mixer, but they still managed to bake Foccacia. You can use the stretch and fold technique described here instead.

The dough for sourdough Focaccia reminds much of pizza dough, with high-protein wheat flour and olive oil. Most recipes out there are based on yeast, and I won’t lie to you. It’s easier with yeast. But I don’t think they had yeast in ancient Rome, so therefore I want to bake with a sourdough starter. Feel free to call me a geek if you want to. I won’t disagree. But I do think that sourdough starter beats yeast most of the time. Not always, but most of the time.

Day 1. Mixing the dough

I mixed a levain and let it ferment overnight, approx. 8 hours. I also mixed the rest of the flour and the water and let it autolyze. 8 hours is quite a long autolyze, but with the high amount of strong flour, it works.

Day 2. Mixing the dough

As you can see in the picture above, the dough had developed a lot of gluten in the morning. I added the levain, oil, and salt and incorporated them into the dough by pinching it with my hand.

I placed the dough in a well-oiled kitchen bowl and wrapped cling film over it.

Bulk Fermentation

The required time for bulk fermentation depends entirely on the surrounding temperature. I let the dough ferment at room temperature for five hours at room temperature, about 72 ºF/22 ºC. It should increase noticeably in size, and if you can see bubbles on top of the dough, it’s a good sign.

Shaping

On the pictures, you can see how I pressed out the gasses from the dough and folded it. After that, I started to form it into a rectangle fitting into the stainless steel tray. I oiled the tray thoroughly with olive oil and placed the dough into it. I pressed the fingertips through the dough in some places and brushed more olive oil on the surface. Don’t skimp on the oil. Real focaccia should feel a bit greasy when holding it.

All that remained was to sprinkle some flake salt and fresh rosemary over the dough, strap it with cling film and leave it for the final rise.
It will take at least 1,5 hours for the dough to double in size, but I recommend that you leave it some extra time if possible. 2-3 hours will give the crumb a fair chance to develop properly.

Baking

30 minutes in the oven should be enough. Remember that it’s not desirable to get a hard and very crispy crust. Just let it get a nice golden brown color.
As said earlier you can use all sorts of topping for Focaccia. I only used salt and rosemary because I intended to use them in another dish. Chicken burger with sourdough Focaccia and Mojo Rojo. I will soon publish the recipe. Because of that, I wanted it a bit neutral.
But don’t let that stop you. Unleash your creativity and tell us about the result.

About flour.

The hydration of this dough is about 80%. The flour I used has 11.5 % and 13% protein. You may have to increase the water amount to get the same result if you are using a higher amount of strong flour.

Sourdough Focaccia

A traditional Focaccia baked with a sourdough starter with just salt and rosemary on top.

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Servings bread

Ingredients

Levain

75 gram water
100 gram Wheat flour 11% protein content
40 gram sourdough starter

Focaccia dough

465 gram water
250 gram Wheat flour 11% protein content
250 gram Wheat flour 13% protein content
65 gram durum flour
14 gram olive oil
14 gram sea salt
215 gram levain

Topping

Flake salt
rosemary
olives, tomatoes, herbs, Whatever you prefer.

Instructions

Levain

Mix all ingredients. Be sure that all flour is hydrated. Wrap it with cling film or place it in any suitable container. Let it ferment for 8 hours at room temperature.

Focaccia

Mix the rest of the flour and water and let autolyze for 8 hours.
Add salt, oil, and levain and incorporate thoroughly into the dough.
Place the dough in a well oiled container an let it ferment until it has doubled in size.
Lightly flour your work surface and dump out the dough. Press out the gasses. Fold the dough from each side into the middle.
Form the doug to a size fitting to your baking tray. oil the tray and place the dough in it. Press your finger tips through the dough in some places and brush the surface with olive oil.
Add preferd topping.
Bak the Focaccia in 480ºF / 250ºC for 30 minutes or until it has a nice golden brown color.
Let the Focacia cool on a wire rack.

Notes

The hydration of this dough is about 80%. The flour I used has 11 and 13 % protein. You may have to increase the water amount to get the same result if you are using a higher amount of stronger flour.

Keyword sourdough bread, starter

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

ciabatta

Ciabatta. Old Italien baking tradition. Did you think so?
Well, I did. But to my surprise, I could read a few days ago, that it was invented as late as 1982 by two gentleman called Arnaldo Cavallari and Francesco Favaron.

It was a response to the French baguette that was very popular in Italy at that time, and the two bakers were determined to produce something equivalent.
One of them, I don’t know who thought that the shape reminded him of his wife’s slippers. Therefore, they named the bread Ciabatta, slipper in Italian.

Despite the low age, the bread has been very successful. You can find it almost all around the world.
And that is not so strange. It is a real crowd-pleaser with its thin crispy crust and soft crumb filled with oversized air pockets.
It’s the number one choice for all sorts of grilled sandwiches.

After reading this, I realized that It was quite some time since I baked Ciabatta. I couldn’t understand why.

ABOUT FLOUR AND STARTER

Below you will find the amount of flour and starter used for this recipe.

The total hydration of the dough is 77%

MIXING THE LEVAIN

A “real” ciabatta always begins with a Biga. A Biga is a starter based on flour, water, and yeast that is left to ferment for at least 12 hours. I prefer to use a mature and lively sourdough starter instead. But then it’s not allowed to be called a Biga anymore (according to real baking aficionados), so let’s call it levain instead. Making a levain is easy. You just mix water with flour and starter in a kitchen bowl. Be sure that all flour is hydrated. Cover it with clingfilm and let it ferment for 12 hours at room temperature. When it’s ready, it should look something like this.

Biga

MIXING THE DOUGH

Now it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients, except salt.
Mix everything thoroughly and let the dough rest for an hour.

There is one thing you should know before you start baking this Ciabatta. The dough is wet. Very wet. If you hate dealing with wet sticky doughs, you should probably try something else. The easiest way to deal with it is probably with a dough mixer, but not everybody has a mixer. Therefore I decided to use the stretch and fold technique. It worked pretty well. Just dip your hands in some water now and then. It will prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers.
After a while, you will feel how the dough changes and becomes easier to handle.

I repeated the stretching and folding once every half an hour during the bulk fermentation process. I added the salt during the first stretch and folding session.
After the last session, I let the dough ferment for an additional hour.

SHAPING THE LOAF

Now it’s time to stretch out the dough. Spread flour on your working surface. Don’t make the same mistake as I did. Don’t skimp with the flour. You will regret that later. I thought I had spread out tons of flour. But it was still not enough. I’ll come back to that later.

Ciabatta dough ready

Stretch out the dough to a flat rectangular shape. Be careful not to pressure out too much gas out of the dough.
Let it rise for an hour.

Ciabatta dough stretched

Now it’s time to cut the dough into pieces. Cut the dough in half lengthways and divide each half into strips.

Dough cut

It was at this point I started to face some problems. The dough was sticking to the surface despite all the flour I had spread on it. It also stuck to the bench knife I was using. The first Ciabattas looked like something made by an ape. And suddenly I remembered why it was so long ago since I baked Ciabatta.
But I didn’t give up. I cut the rest of the Ciabattas with a knife dipped in the water while I scraped them loose with the bench knife. The last ones looked pretty decent.

ciabatta

Lessons learned.

Next time I will use a bread mixer. The stretch and folding worked pretty well, but I think the structure of the dough will improve if you run it in a mixer.

Use more flour on the working surface.