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Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Pissaladière: A Southern French Flatbread Worth Making This Spring
A slow-fermented sourdough pissaladière with caramelised onions, anchovies and olives. A French classic on a proper sourdough base. Recipe + tips.
baked pizzaThe smell of onions going slowly in butter and olive oil is one of those things that turns a flat into a home. Add a sourdough base blistering in a hot oven, and you've got something that feels genuinely special for a Tuesday night, let alone a spring weekend when you're in the mood to cook properly.
A pissaladière is a Provençal flatbread that doesn't get nearly enough attention outside of France. Think of it like a pizza's more restrained, deeply savoury cousin: no tomato sauce, no mountains of cheese, just slow-cooked onions, good anchovies, and a handful of black olives doing exactly what they're supposed to. On a sourdough base with a bit of chew and those characteristic bubbles from a long ferment, it becomes something else entirely. It's the kind of bake that makes you look like you really know what you're doing, but the method is straightforward once you understand a few key things about the dough.
Sourdough Dough
- 400g strong white bread flour
- 80g active sourdough starter (at peak, bubbly)
- 270g lukewarm water (approx. 67% hydration)
- 8g (1.5 tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) olive oil
Caramelised Onion Base
- 1kg white or yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 30g unsalted butter
- 20g olive oil
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 5g (1 tsp) fine sea salt
- A pinch of sugar (optional, helps the caramelisation)
Toppings
- 50g good-quality anchovies in oil (about 20 fillets)
- 80g pitted black olives (Niçoise if you can find them)
- A drizzle of olive oil to finish
- Fresh thyme leaves, to garnish
Baker's Tips
- Start the onions first, always. They need at least 45 minutes on a low heat to properly caramelise. Rushing them gives you stewed onions, not the sweet, jammy base you're after. Do this the day before if it's easier.
- This dough works brilliantly with an overnight cold proof in the fridge after bulk fermentation. Mix in the morning, bulk ferment through the day, shape in the evening, then cold proof overnight and bake the next morning. The bulk fermentation time will vary with your kitchen temperature , cooler spring kitchens mean longer bulk, which is fine.
- If you're new to sourdough flatbreads or you're adapting this to your own starter's strength, the DoughRise Coach is genuinely useful here , it can give you a personalised bake plan and talk you through troubleshooting if your dough isn't behaving as expected.
METHOD
- Caramelise the onions. Melt the butter and olive oil together in your widest, heaviest pan over a low-medium heat. Add the sliced onions, thyme sprigs, bay leaves and salt. Stir to coat, then leave them to cook low and slow for 45–60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until they're deeply golden, sweet and completely collapsed. Remove the thyme and bay leaves. Set aside to cool completely. If you're doing this in spring and have the windows open, your neighbours will probably knock.
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour and water in a large bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 30–45 minutes (this is your autolyse). After resting, add the active sourdough starter and olive oil, and work them in by squeezing the dough through your fingers. Once incorporated, sprinkle over the salt and mix again for another minute until the dough feels cohesive and slightly tacky.
- Bulk ferment with folds. Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature (ideally 22–24°C). Over the first two hours, perform four sets of stretch and folds, roughly 30 minutes apart. After each set, you should notice the dough becoming more elastic and holding its shape better. Then leave it undisturbed for the remainder of the bulk ferment , usually 4–6 hours total in a warm kitchen, longer if it's cooler. You're looking for roughly 50–75% volume increase and a dough that feels airy and slightly domed.
- Divide and pre-shape. Once bulk is done, turn the dough out gently onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into two equal pieces (around 380g each). Shape each one loosely into a ball, cover with a damp cloth, and rest for 20 minutes.
Why this works
The stretch and fold technique during bulk fermentation builds gluten structure without overworking the dough. Each fold aligns the gluten strands and adds tension, so the dough can trap the gas produced by your starter. By the time bulk is complete, that network is strong enough to hold the toppings in the oven without the base becoming dense or soggy , which is exactly what you want with a heavy, moisture-rich onion topping.
INTO THE OVEN
- Shape and top. Line two large baking trays with parchment and drizzle with olive oil. Take each dough ball and press it out with your fingertips into a rough oval or rectangle, about 28–32 centimetres long. It doesn't need to be perfect , rustic is the whole point. Let the shaped dough rest uncovered for 20 minutes while your oven heats up.
- Heat the oven. Set it to 230°C (210°C fan) and put a shelf near the top. If you have a baking stone, use it. If not, a preheated heavy tray works well.
- Add the toppings. Spread the cooled caramelised onions generously over each base, leaving a small border around the edge. Arrange the anchovies in a diagonal lattice pattern across the top. Tuck the olives into the gaps. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
- Bake. Slide the trays into the oven and bake for 20–25 minutes until the edges are properly golden and blistered in places, and the underside is cooked through. You want some colour on the crust , don't pull them early. Scatter fresh thyme leaves over the top as soon as they come out.
- Rest and serve. Give them five minutes before slicing. Serve warm with a cold glass of something light. This is spring eating at its best.
Want to dial in this recipe for your own starter strength and batch size? Use the free DoughRise Baker's Percentages Calculator to scale the dough and check your ratios before you mix.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Luke Johnson on Unsplash