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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Baking Tips
5 min read
Sourdough Focaccia with Spring Onion, Olive & Sea Salt
A pillowy, golden sourdough focaccia topped with spring onions, olives and flaky sea salt. Simple, satisfying, and perfect for spring baking.
a basket filled with loaves of breadSourdough focaccia is one of those bakes that just makes sense this time of year. The days are stretching out a bit, there's a reason to have people round again, and you want something on the table that feels generous without being a project. This one is dimpled, olive-oily, springy in the middle and properly crisp underneath, topped with charred spring onions, briny olives and enough flaky sea salt to make you close your eyes for a second.
Why Focaccia Is the Best Entry Point Into Sourdough Baking
If you have been a bit nervous about sourdough bread baking, focaccia is genuinely the place to start. There is no shaping tension to nail, no scoring, no dutch oven gymnastics. You mix it, you fold it a few times, you leave it in the fridge overnight, and the next day you press it into a tin and bake it. The high hydration dough (around 80%) is what gives you those big, open air pockets, and the olive oil poured into the tin means the bottom gets almost fried as it bakes. It is basically impossible to make a bad focaccia if you follow the process.
Spring is a good time to get into it too. The kitchen is not as cold as it was in January, which means your starter is happier and your bulk ferment is more predictable. March baking has a different energy to it , a bit more optimistic.
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 450g (3½ cups) strong white bread flour
- 360g (1½ cups) lukewarm water
- 100g (scant ½ cup) active sourdough starter, at peak
- 9g (1½ tsp) fine sea salt
- 30g (2 tbsp) good olive oil, plus extra for the tin
For the Topping
- 6 spring onions, trimmed and halved lengthways
- 80g (about ¾ cup) mixed olives, pitted and roughly torn
- 3 tbsp good olive oil
- Flaky sea salt, to finish
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme (optional, but worth it)
Method
- Mix the dough. In a large bowl, combine the flour and water and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes. This is your autolyse, and it matters, because the flour absorbs the water properly before you add anything else.
- Add the starter and salt. Pour the starter over the dough, then sprinkle the salt on top. Add the olive oil. Work everything together by squeezing the dough through your fingers until it feels cohesive. It will look a bit shaggy at first. Give it a minute and it will come together.
- Stretch and fold. Over the next two hours, perform four sets of stretch and folds, roughly every 30 minutes. To do one set: grab the dough on one side, stretch it up, fold it over. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Do this four times per set. Cover between sets.
- Bulk ferment. After your final fold, the dough should feel airy and slightly domed. Cover the bowl tightly and put it in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours (overnight works perfectly).
- Prepare the tin. Pour about 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a 30x20cm baking tin (a 9x13 inch tin works too) and coat the base and sides generously. Do not be shy here, the oil is part of what makes focaccia what it is.
- Transfer and prove. Tip the cold dough into the oiled tin. Gently coax it towards the edges, but do not force it. If it springs back, leave it for 10 minutes and try again. Cover loosely and leave at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, until it looks puffy and relaxed.
- Preheat the oven. Get your oven up to 230°C (450°F / Gas Mark 8) about 30 minutes before you want to bake. A hot oven is non-negotiable.
- Dimple and top. Drizzle another 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the surface. Oil your fingers and press deep dimples all over the dough, right down to the base of the tin. Scatter the spring onions and torn olives across the top. Tuck the thyme sprigs in here and there if using. Finish with a generous pinch of flaky salt.
- Bake. Slide the tin into the oven and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and the spring onions have a bit of char on them. The edges should be pulling slightly away from the tin.
- Rest and serve. Leave it in the tin for 5 minutes, then lift it out onto a wire rack. Eat it warm. It is best on the day it is baked, though leftovers toasted the next morning with butter are not something to feel bad about.
Baker's Tips
Baker's Tips
- Your starter needs to be genuinely active. This is the one thing that will make or break the whole bake. You want it fed, bubbly and at or just past peak before you mix it in. If you are working from a new or sluggish starter, the DoughRise Classic Sourdough Starter is a reliable way to get going , it is already established, so you skip the two-week waiting game and get straight to baking.
- The oil in the tin is not optional. Some people see the amount of olive oil and flinch. Do not. That oil is what creates the crispy, almost-fried base that makes focaccia different from every other sourdough bread. Use it all.
- Cold dough is easier dough. If the dough tears or resists when you are pressing it into the tin, it is too tight. Leave it covered for 10 minutes and come back. Cold fermented dough relaxes quickly once it is out of the fridge. Patience here saves you a frustrating five minutes of fighting the dough.
A Few Serving Ideas
This focaccia works as a side to a bowl of soup, torn up with some hummus and olives before a weekend dinner, or just eaten standing at the kitchen counter still warm from the oven, which honestly might be the best version. Spring onions and olives is a combination that sounds simple and then tastes better than you expected. The brininess of the olives, the gentle sweetness of the charred onion, the hit of salt on top , it all just works.
If you want to take it somewhere else, try thinly sliced fennel and lemon zest instead of the onions, or scatter some cherry tomatoes across the top for a more summery feel as the season moves on.
Go Bake It
This is genuinely one of the most rewarding things you can pull out of the oven, and the effort involved is minimal once you understand the process. Mix it on a Saturday morning, leave it in the fridge, bake it Sunday lunchtime. That rhythm fits around real life in a way that a lot of bread baking does not. Get your starter fed tonight and give this one a go this weekend.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Cecilia Chew on Unsplash