This recipe is inspired by my deep love for Chicago and my adoration for sourdough, to create a bubbly, chewy, and divine sourdough focaccia. This focaccia is smothered in olive oil and sprinkled with chunky sea salt. It can be served in endless ways with endless variations. It comes together with a few simple and nourishing ingredients and is baked in a cast iron skillet to create the perfect farmhouse focaccia.

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Below is the printable recipe. If you are interested in the deep-dive version, scroll down. I also answer commonly asked questions and other note-worthy ideas to make this your go-to sourdough focaccia recipe.

Sourdough Focaccia
Ingredients
- 340 g/1-½Cups Fed Sourdough starter
- 340 g Filtered Water
- 45 g/2 tbsp. Raw Honey- 2 tbsp.
- 40 g Olive Oil plus extra for drizzling
- 700 g All-Purpose, unbleached Flour
- 15 g Salt
- Fresh minced- Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary & Garlic Optional
Instructions
- Make sure your starter has been fed within the last 4-12 hours. Sometimes more and sometimes less depending on the temperature in your kitchen and how old your starter is. It needs to be active and bubbly.
- Weigh room-temperature filtered water into a bowl. Then add the active starter. Add honey and olive oil. Whisk to mix.
- Weigh your flour and salt and add it to the sourdough starter and water mixture. Use your hands to mix, until fully incorporated. You are not kneading, you are simply mixing. It should be a doughy mess at this point. Place a tea towel or lid over your bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes on the counter.
- After 30 minutes, begin performing a series of stretch and folds. After the first series, cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest again for another 30 minutes. Then perform a second set of stretch and folds. Then, after 15 minutes do a third set. Then every 15 minutes until you have performed a total of 6 stretch and folds
- Cover the bowl and let it sit on the counter for 4-12 hours.
- When the dough has about doubled in size, drizzle olive oil into either a cast iron skillet or a 9 by 13 baking dish. Drizzling olive oil on top of your dough and with your hands pull the dough from the sides of the bowl until it drops into your pan. Dimple and push the dough to each corner making sure it fills the pan. Then, cover the whole pan with a plastic grocery bag and transfer to the fridge overnight for a long-ferment.
- The next day, preheat your oven to 425℉. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter to rise for 1 hour while the oven is preheating. Drizzle with more olive oil, and the optional herbs and chunky salt. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown all around. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- If you would rather not stretch and fold, you can throw all your ingredients into a stand mixer with a dough hook and knead for approximately 10 minutes on medium speed, until your dough passes the window pane test.
Why should I bake with sourdough?
The aroma and flavors of this bread are directly reflected in the spirit of your sourdough starter. Do you know what this means? That bread created in your kitchen cannot be recreated; it’s one of a kind when it’s made with your sourdough starter. And, no matter where the sourdough starter originated, in the flora of your home, it takes on a new life. This concept will forever fascinate me.
When you bake with sourdough starter or naturally leaved yeast, your product will have a tang and sourness. It’s a complexity of flavor that you will not get with a dry active yeast.
What is sourdough?
Sourdough is a “wild yeast.” It’s created using a simple mixture of flour and water. When enough wild yeast is active in a flour and water mixture, it begins to ferment. Every fermentation process is the same, whether you’re talking about sourdough, kombucha, or yogurt. Fermentation is the breakdown of anti-nutrients and sugars found in all foods. In this case, with the flour and water, the wild yeasts are fermenting and breaking down the antinutrients and sugars present in the flour and releasing gas, causing bubbles and a rise.
So let’s replay this:
The benefits of baking with sourdough:
- The yeast microbes eat the sugars in the flour. Through that digestive process yeast microbes are breaking down the phytic acid or antinutrients. When the antinutrients of phytic acid are broken down, other nutrients within the grain are now available for your body to process and use! It also weakens the gluten proteins, making it much easier for most people to digest. So basically the yeast is digesting the flour first, making it easier for you to digest it later.
- The wild yeasts that are breaking down, or eating the sugars present in the flour, are now releasing carbon dioxide gas. This carbon dioxide is what causes the bubbles to form and your dough to rise.

What does Focaccia mean?
A pizza-style bread without sauce. It can be roughly translated as “throwing everything that is left over back in the oven.” It’s dimpled with fingers while working in the olive oil. Generally means an Italian-style bread that has lots of variations. Focaccia is a great bread for beginner breadbakers. You don’t need any fancy kitchen tools or any scoring patterns.

How can I use my sourdough focaccia?
My favorite way to use sourdough focaccia is to eat it straight out of the pan. It’s oiled and herbed and ready to go. There are endless ways to use it, and that’s why I think it’s an easy bread to throw into the rotation. Other ways to use sourdough focaccia are:
- Pizza with many variations of toppings just like a pizza- pizza sauce, olives, fresh tomatoes, cheeses, minced garlic
- Slice the whole pan of focaccia in half length-wise and make Cuban sandwiches
- A pocket bread for sandwiches
- As a side for soups, stews and chilis
- Serve with Eggs and Bacon in the morning
- Swap out herbs with raisins or stone fruits and cinnamon sugar to serve it sweet
- Focaccia “Pissalidiere”- a savory pastry originating in the South of France made with onion, black olives, anchovy fillets, and red chili peppers.
- We like to throw everything into our focaccia that we’ve harvested from the garden!
Equipment you will need:
- Bowl with a lid or tea towel
- 9″ Cast Iron Pan or Baking Sheet Pan with parchment paper
- Kitchen Scale
- Sharp Knife
- Cutting Board
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
Ingredients you will need for Sourdough Focaccia:
- 340 g of Sourdough starter– 1 1/2 cups
- 340 g of Filtered Water– we use a Berkey Water Filter
- 45g of Raw Honey– 2 tbsp.
- 40 g of Olive Oil– plus extra for drizzling
- 700 g of Flour– All-Purpose & Unbleached
- 15 g of Salt – plus extra for sprinkling over focaccia before it goes into the oven. Good quality like this Himalayan pink salt or Celtic sea salt
- Optional Herbs- Minced- Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary and Garlic

How to make Sourdough Focaccia:
Step One: Feed your starter
Make sure your starter has been fed within the last 4-12 hours. Sometimes more and sometimes less depending on the temperature in your kitchen and how old your starter is. It needs to be active and bubbly. I like to feed my starter before bed, so I can mix up my ingredients in the morning. But the other option is to feed the starter first thing in the morning to mix up your ingredients in the afternoon.
Step Two: Weighing your water and starter & honey
Weigh room-temperature filtered water into a bowl. Then add the active starter. This is another good checkpoint to ensuring the readiness of your starter. An active starter will float in the water. Add honey and olive oil. I use a whisk to mix it all.

Step Three: Weigh and add flour and salt
Weigh your flour and salt and add to the sourdough starter and water mixture. At this point, I use my hands. I mix it all together until it seems fully incorporated. You are not kneading, you are simply mixing it together. It should be kind of a doughy mess at this point. Have no fear. Place a tea towel or lid over your bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes on the counter. This 30 minutes is considered an autolyse. A technical word that means letting the flour soak up the water.
Step Four: A Series of Stretch and Folds
After your flour has soaked up the water, it will be a little easier to work with. Now you will perform a series of stretch and folds. Stretch and folds, in my opinion, are wonderful because they replace the stand mixer in the bread-baking process. Which means fewer dishes. Fewer dishes equals one happy Mama. It also equals a Mama who is more likely to mix up some dough. After the first series, cover it with a tea towel and let it rest again for another 30 minutes. Then perform a second series of stretch and folds, and cover with a tea towel. Then, after 15 minutes do a third set. Every 15 minutes, until you have done a total of 6 stretch and folds.
Stretch and Fold Schedule for a Sourdough Focaccia:
1. After a 30-minute Autolyse Stage- Stretch and Fold,
2. 30 min. – Stretch and Fold
3. 15 min. – Stretch and Fold
4. 15 min.- Stretch and Fold
5. 15 min.- Stretch and Fold
6. 15 min.- Stretch and Fold
How do I perform Stretch and Folds?
You are starting with a semi-wet dough, the way to combat sticky hands is to run your hands under luke-warm water. Starting with wet hands makes it less of a mess. I keep my bowl near the sink, during the stretch and fold process. Grab the dough from its underside and pull it up and over into the center of itself. Turn the bowl and do it again. You will continue turning the bowl while stretching and folding until you have performed stretch and folds in a full circle around the dough. This is one series of stretch and folds.
Step Five: Allow to ferment on the counter for 4-12 hours
Next, place a damp tea towel beeswax wrap, or plastic wrap over your bowl and let sit on the counter. You are now free from your dough until the evening.

Step Six: Transfer dough to a Cast Iron Pan or Sheet Pan
When the dough has about doubled in size, transfer it to the vessel of your choice. This can either be a cast iron pan or a 9 by 13 baking dish. You can do this by drizzling olive oil on top of your dough and with your hands pulling the dough from the sides of the bowl until it drops into your pan. Dimple and push the dough to each corner making sure it fills the pan. Then, cover the whole pan with a plastic grocery bag and put it in the fridge overnight.

Step Seven: Bake Sourdough Focaccia
The next day, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and take your dough out of the fridge letting it sit on the counter to rise for 1 hour while the oven is preheating. Drizzle with more olive oil, the optional herbs, and chunky salt. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown all around. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Can’t wait try try out this recipe!