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This buttery, herby focaccia gets its slight tang from an incredibly easy no-knead sourdough batter.

Sourdough Focaccia

Things I learned this weekend:

If you make banana bread and watch too much Parks and Rec right before bed, you will have bizarre dreams about befriending Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and feeding them banana bread.

Things I learned on Instagram this weekend:

Y’all have as many feelings about The Book Thief as I do. I finished reading it this weekend and it tore my soul apart. Expect a more thorough review when I can finally form real sentences about it.

Speaking of feelings, everyone else seems as incensed by this nonsense as I am. All I want is to be able to measure my butter quickly and with as little brain power as possible; is that too much to ask?

Clearly, this was an educational weekend for me.

Sourdough prep

Confession: I made this bread quite some time ago, was ecstatic about it, and then promptly forgot to share it with you. 

Oops.

Benefit to this: Discovering an extra recipe during a week when I am lacking in daylight and/or time to cook.

This variation on Sourdough Peasant Bread is, I promise, just as easy as the original recipe, but with the added bonus of dried herbs and those yeasty dimples that make focaccia so appealing to me. No-knead, no fuss, but completely delicious. Isn’t that what your bread should be about on a busy weekday?

Buttery Sourdough Focaccia

Adapted from Alexandra’s Kitchen.

Sourdough starter recipe.

Sourdough Focaccia

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Servings: 8

Ingredients 

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water about 110 degrees
  • 1 packet active dry yeast 2 1/4 teaspoons
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • 2 tablespoons butter room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt

Instructions

  • In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, or until yeast is foamy/bubbly.
  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and dried herbs. Add the sourdough starter and the yeast mixture, then add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. Dough will be very sticky!
  • Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set in a warm place to rise for an hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish with the butter.
  • Gently stir down the risen dough. Pour the dough into the prepared baking dish. Drizzle the top of the dough with the olive oil, then use your hands to gently spread the dough to cover the bottom of the pan. Press your fingertips into the dough to the bottom of the pan, creating dimples all over the surface of the dough. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with sea salt.
  • Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise for 20-30 minutes, or until puffy.
  • Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and continue baking for an additional 15-17 minutes or until golden brown.
  • Remove bread from oven and turn out onto a cooling rack. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Notes

Makes 1 13x9x2-inch loaf

23 Comments

    1. Just wondering why you need to add yeast to this recipe when you are using sourdough starter. Do you think it would still work if I left out the yeast and increased the rise time?

      1. It really is to just cut down the rising time to less than a million years. 🙂 You could definitely try it with just the sourdough starter and no conventional yeast.

  1. Well, crap I feel like I need to do all the things you were just talking about…ALL THE THINGS! I’ve never seen Parks & Rec..really want to have a dream about it involving banana bread, and girl’s seriously in need of some reading over here…even if it’s heavy reading. This bread is blowing my mind.

  2. You know I’m going to have to make this the next time we have spaghetti. Maybe sooner. So, I was eating a chicken sandwich on a focaccia bun at One World yesterday. They had topped it with sun-dried tomatoes. It was yummy.This will be even better, because we were smacking our lips over the peasant bread Friday night. That’s all.

    1. You know what baffles me? How I always seem to forget about focaccia. And then one day, that’ll be the only thing in the world that I’m craving.

  3. Focaccia is my fave bread to make, it is soooo easy. That butter picture still makes me mad for you. I started reading Book Thief and seriously got five pages in and then Andy had a few bad days and I haven’t had time to just enjoy reading. I do love him though. But I do miss reading.

  4. Oh, how I love focaccia bread! I could eat it everyday and never get tired! The only problem is that, quite often, the one I buy from the bakery’s is definitely too oily and greasy, sooo…in order to get it the way I like, I’m going to try out this recipe 🙂
    Thanks for the inspiration!

    xo, Elisa

    1. Always such a disappointment when things you buy at the bakery just aren’t as good as you were hoping. It really makes baking that much more of an awesome pay-off. 🙂

  5. This foccacia looks incredible Stephie. So gorgeously fluffy, golden and delicious. Sourdough is one of my favourite things (well, I mean, bread is, but particularly sourdough, you get me right?) so the idea of sourdough foccacia is ridiculously exciting! Oh, and I read the Book Thief ages ago and saw the movie on Monday. Cried my little eyes out. I’m pretty sure I looked like a puffy drowned rat when I walked out of the cinema. It’s an amazing book and the movie really did it justice. Anyway, back to the happiness of BREAD. Making this asap!! xxx

    1. I haven’t seen the movie yet – I think it’s just leaving theatres here, if I’m correct – but you can be sure that as soon as it is available to rent I will be holing up in bed with my kleenex and a bottle of wine.

  6. This looks like a great way to use my sourdough starter when I don’t plan ahead 😉 Question about the starter…should it be fed or can it be discard? Thanks so much 🙂

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