Where are my sourdough friends at? My hand is raised high! Since beginning to bake naturally leavened sourdough bread earlier this year, the process has captivated me. Fascinated by the fact that just flour, water, and salt can produce the most delicious loaves of bread, you’ll find me working on new recipes and techniques nearly every week.
Sourdough doesn’t just stop at bread. I love making bagels, english muffins, and now focaccia via wild yeast and fermentation. Puffy and fluffy. Bubbly holes throughout. And a golden brown exterior that rise through the dimples left behind by pressing fingers into the dough, just before baking.
I’ll take you through the full recipe for sourdough focaccia on Heartbeet Kitchen(Opens in a new window), step-by-step with photos, so that you can visualize exactly how your dough should look on its way to focaccia heaven. The technique is relatively simple, but there are a few OXO tools that are necessities for success. They make certain steps much easier, and ultimately reproducible and accurate.
Certainly you don’t need all of them right away if you’re just getting started with sourdough baking, but the one you MUST have is a digital scale. Since sourdough baking is a game of ratios and percentages dictated by grams, you won’t be able to work without it. The OXO digital scale features a pull out display for easy reading so it won’t get covered up by the bowl.
Here are some general sourdough tips about making the focaccia, along with insight into why I use some of the tools I do.
Tips for Making Sourdough Focaccia
1. I keep my starter in a glass mason jar and find the OXO jar spatula to be perfect for getting around all the edges of the jar, scooping, and handling wet dough as you mix. It’s made of silicone, which is great because it doesn’t carry bacteria, which metal can (so don’t use regular spoons).
2. Tracking dough rise is important in tracking the dough through its fermentation. Choose a mixing bowl large enough to avoid flour getting everywhere when mixing, and high sides give the dough plenty of room to rise without overflowing. If you use a glass bowl you can see through it to track progress.
3. The 13x8 inch non-stick baking sheet is great for sourdough baking because it holds high heat extremely well (no warping!), and the grooves help air circulate underneath the dough to achieve great oven spring. They’re also very easy to clean.
4. I can’t stress how helpful it is to use an oven thermometer at this point instead of the built-in reading your oven gives you. Mine runs 40 degrees high! Having an accurate thermometer ensures the same results every time, and with something like baking where temperature is so crucial, you want to be able to trust it.
Are you ready to get started? Let’s go make this garlic butter focaccia! You can find the full recipe here, on Heartbeet Kitchen(Opens in a new window).
