This sourdough Focaccia recipe bakes up crisp on the outside, tender in the middle, and full of that lovely old-fashioned bread basket charm.
If you want a sourdough Focaccia recipe that gives you crackly golden edges, a soft chewy middle, glossy olive oil dimples, and the kind of smell that makes people hover around the kitchen pretending they “just came to check something,” this is the one you make.
This focaccia is airy, salty, rich, slightly tangy from the sourdough starter, and dramatic in the best way.
It looks bakery-level, but you are not doing anything fussy or precious here.
You are mixing, folding, resting, dimpling, baking, and then acting very casual when everyone loses their mind over bread!
This recipe is made around a high-hydration dough, which means the dough will feel wet and loose at first. Good. That is not a mistake. That is exactly what gives you those beautiful bubbles and that soft, open crumb.
The olive oil does serious work too. It fries the bottom and edges while the inside stays tender, so every bite has that crisp-soft contrast that makes focaccia dangerous to keep on the counter.
A slow sourdough fermentation also brings more than flavor. Research shows sourdough fermentation can reduce phytic acid in bread, which may help improve mineral availability, especially magnesium, compared with regular yeast fermentation.
Ingredients
For The Dough
- 500 grams bread flour, about 4 cups spooned and leveled
- 400 grams water, room temperature, about 1 ⅔ cups
The water amount is high on purpose. This is an 80 percent hydration dough, which means it has 400 grams water for 500 grams flour. That wetness creates the open crumb and big bubbles.
Do not keep adding flour just because the dough feels sticky. Sticky dough is the price of fluffy focaccia, and honestly, it is a fair deal.
- 100 grams active sourdough starter, bubbly and at peak, about ½ cup
- 10 grams fine sea salt, about 2 teaspoons
- 20 grams extra virgin olive oil for the dough, about 1 ½ tablespoons
For The Pan And Topping
- 35 to 45 grams extra virgin olive oil for the pan, about 3 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil for drizzling before baking
- 1 tablespoon water for dimpling
- ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped or pulled into tiny sprigs
- Optional: 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- Optional: ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Optional: ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- Optional: ¼ cup sliced olives
Servings: 12 square pieces, or 8 generous pieces if your people “just want a little” and then come back twice
Prep Time: 25 minutes active time
Bulk Fermentation: 4 to 6 hours
Cold Proof: 8 to 18 hours
Final Proof: 2 to 4 hours
Bake Time: 22 to 28 minutes
Oven Temperature: 425°F
Best Pan: 9 x 13 inch metal baking pan
How to Make Sourdough Focaccia
Add bread flour, water, and active sourdough starter to a large mixing bowl, then stir everything together with a sturdy spoon or your hand until no dry flour is hiding at the bottom of the bowl.
The dough will look shaggy, sticky, and slightly rebellious, which is exactly where you want it.
Let it rest for 30 minutes so the flour can hydrate properly.
This short rest makes the dough easier to handle later, and it gives the gluten a head start without you kneading like you are trying to win a county fair arm-wrestling contest.
After the rest, sprinkle the salt over the dough and drizzle in the 20 grams of olive oil. Pinch and fold the dough with your fingers until the salt and oil are worked in.
At first, the dough may slide around and look like it wants nothing to do with your plan, but keep going gently.
Within a minute or two, it will start coming back together. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Now you will build strength with folds instead of kneading. Wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward without tearing it, and fold it over itself.
Turn the bowl and repeat this 4 times, until you have folded all sides toward the center.
Cover the bowl again. Do this same stretch-and-fold routine 3 more times, every 30 minutes. By the final fold, the dough should feel smoother, stretchier, and more elastic.
It will still be loose because focaccia dough is supposed to be loose, but it should no longer look like pancake batter having a crisis.
After the folds are done, cover the bowl and let the dough bulk ferment at room temperature until it becomes puffier, softer, and roughly 50 to 75 percent larger.
This usually takes 4 to 6 hours if your kitchen is around 74°F to 78°F. If your kitchen is cooler, it may take longer.
Look at the dough more than the clock. You want bubbles along the sides, a slight dome on top, and a dough that jiggles when you gently shake the bowl.
If it looks flat and tight, it needs more time. If it looks huge, fragile, and overly bubbly, it has gone too far, but don’t panic.
Bread is forgiving if you treat it with respect and enough olive oil!
Pour 35 to 45 grams olive oil into a 9 x 13 inch metal baking pan and spread it across the bottom and up the sides.
Be generous here. This oil is what gives the focaccia that crisp, golden, almost fried bottom.
Gently release the dough from the bowl into the oiled pan. Try not to deflate it too much.
Fold the dough once or twice in the pan, flip it so both sides get coated in oil, then cover the pan.
Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes, then gently stretch it toward the corners. If it resists, stop. Cover it, wait another 15 minutes, then stretch again.
Dough is like a tired person at a party. Push too hard and it shuts down. Give it a minute and it becomes much easier to deal with.
Cover the pan tightly and place it in the refrigerator for 8 to 18 hours. This cold proof is where the flavor deepens and the texture improves.
Overnight is ideal because the starter gets time to bring that gentle tang, the dough relaxes, and the final bread tastes more complex.
If you are planning ahead, mix the dough in the afternoon, refrigerate it at night, and bake it the next day when you want your kitchen to smell like you have your life together.
The next day, take the pan out of the refrigerator and let the dough sit at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours, until it is puffy, jiggly, and full of visible bubbles.
It should spread naturally into the pan and look alive.
This final proof matters. If you bake it too early, the crumb will be tighter and the bread will not have that dramatic focaccia bounce.
If your kitchen is cool, give it the full 4 hours. If your kitchen is warm, start checking at 2 hours. When you poke the dough gently, it should feel airy and soft, not dense.
Preheat your oven to 425°F and place a rack in the lower-middle position. While the oven heats, drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over the top of the dough.
Mix 1 tablespoon water with a small pinch of salt, then dip your fingers into that mixture and press deeply into the dough to make dimples.
Go all the way down until your fingertips almost touch the pan, but do not rip through the dough. This is the fun part!
You want lots of little valleys where oil and salt can settle. If big bubbles appear, leave most of them alone.
Those bubbles bake into gorgeous pockets. Pop only the very huge ones if they look like they might balloon too aggressively.
Sprinkle the top with flaky salt and rosemary. Add garlic, tomatoes, olives, or red pepper flakes if you are using them, but do not overload the dough.
Heavy toppings can weigh down the rise, and focaccia should look generous, not buried.
If using garlic, tuck the slices slightly into the dimples or coat them with oil so they do not burn. Burnt garlic is rude, and we are not inviting it.
Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, until the top is golden brown, the edges are crisp, and the bottom is deeply golden when you lift a corner with a spatula.
If the top browns too quickly but the bottom still looks pale, move the pan to a lower rack for the last 5 minutes.
If the bottom is perfect but the top needs more color, move it up one rack near the end. These little decisions are how you bake like a real person, not a timer with hands.
When the focaccia comes out of the oven, let it sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer it to a wire rack. This keeps the bottom crisp.
If you leave it in the pan too long, steam gets trapped and softens that beautiful crust you worked for.
Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing. I know, this is emotionally inconvenient, but cutting too early can make the inside gummy.
Give it a little time, then slice into squares and prepare for the corner pieces to disappear first.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this sourdough focaccia warm with extra olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.
Or slice it open and turn it into the kind of sandwich that makes regular bread feel underdressed.
It is excellent with tomato soup, roasted vegetable soup, chicken salad, pasta salad, grilled chicken, baked salmon, scrambled eggs, or a big green salad with lemon vinaigrette.
For party-style serving, cut it into small squares and place it on a board with whipped feta, marinated olives, roasted red peppers, salami, burrata, pesto, or herbed cream cheese.
For a dinner table, serve it beside lasagna, spaghetti, minestrone, grilled shrimp, or a simple sheet pan meal.
For breakfast, toast a piece and top it with a fried egg, avocado, chili crisp, or a swipe of ricotta and honey. Yes, focaccia for breakfast is legal in the court of good taste!
Storage and Reheating
Store leftover focaccia at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped loosely in foil for up to 2 days.
Do not refrigerate it unless you absolutely have to, because the fridge dries bread out faster than you can say “why is this chewy now?”
To reheat, place slices in a 350°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or warm them in a skillet over medium-low heat until the bottom crisps again.
The skillet method is fantastic because it wakes the olive oil back up and makes the edges taste freshly baked.
You can also freeze focaccia. Wrap pieces tightly, freeze for up to 2 months, then reheat straight from frozen at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes.
Final Tips for Perfect Sourdough Focaccia!!
Use an active starter, give the dough enough time to ferment, and do not panic when the dough feels sticky. That stickiness is not failure. It is future fluff.
Keep your hands wet or oiled when handling the dough, be patient during the final proof, and use enough olive oil in the pan to get that crisp bottom.
If you want bigger bubbles, be gentle when transferring and dimpling.
If you want more flavor, do the overnight cold proof. If you want people to ask for the recipe, bake this once and try not to look too smug!
This sourdough Focaccia recipe is the kind of bread that makes a meal feel instantly more exciting, whether you serve it with soup, salad, pasta, eggs, roasted vegetables, or nothing but a little dish of olive oil and flaky salt.
It is golden, chewy, crisp-edged, wildly fragrant, and forgiving enough for home bakers who want bakery results without bakery drama.
Make it once, and you will understand why a pan of focaccia on the counter has a shorter life span than your last promise to “just eat one piece!”
