Sourdough Focaccia With Rosemary And Tomatoes

Looking for some summer feeling at home? This lovely dish of sourdough focaccia with rosemary and tomatoes takes you straight to Italy.

Imagine sitting on a sunny terrace at a lake in Italy: it is nicely warm as the sun is shining, a light breeze is refreshing you, a glass of wine and some sparkling water are on the table and then this beautiful sourdough focaccia is placed in the middle of the table.

Whether you are sharing it with family, friends or you have it just for you – it’s a pleasure. So whenever you are in need of some holiday or summer feeling: head to the kitchen and bake yourself one of these lovely fluffy sourdough focaccia’s.

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

With this recipe you will have a great sourdough focaccia with rosemary and tomatoes in about 18 to 20 hours.

Total ingredients

You will have a dough of about 1.573 g in total.

Of course you don’t necessarily need to use tomatoes as a topping. You could also go for example for olives or only rosemary.

Make sure to have a mature sourdough starter that is active and healthy. If you think your starter is not, then you can add 8,5 g of fresh yeast to help with the rise.

Difficulty

Generally speaking, most focaccia recipes are simple and this one is too. Just be a bit careful during the shaping process and you should be good to go.

Baking tools

You will need a big baking sheet or pan where you can spread out the focaccia dough as much as possible. We used a 32 x 42 cm wide one. There should be no problem if yours is a bit smaller or even bigger.

Besides that you should be good to go with some of our should have baking tools.

Steps

1. Mix

• Mix all of the mentioned ingredients except the olive oil together in a stand mixer for 8 minutes on speed level one
• Add the olive oil after 2 minutes of mixing over the course of 3 minutes
• The dough should be elastic and smooth

2. Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold

• Cover the dough and let it rest for a total of 2 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
• During that time, gently stretch & fold the dough three times after 1 hour and let it ferment further for 1 hour until 2 hours in total are reached
• After the stretch and fold put the dough back to the bowl and cover it again so it doesn’t dry out

3. Shape

• Drizzle the olive oil into the center of your big baking sheet
• Transfer the dough to the pan and turn it over to coat it with the oil
• Gently stretch the dough into the edges and corners of the pan
• As soon as the dough begins to shrink back, cover it, and let it rest for 10 min
• Gently stretch the dough again
• Repeating once more, if necessary, until the dough fills the pan (if it doesn’t than don’t worry, you will be fine)

4. Proof

• Cover the baking sheet
• Let it proof for 14 to 16 hours in the fridge at 5°C (41°F)

5. Topping

• Take your dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes depending on how warm it is in your kitchen
• Gently dimple the dough at irregular intervals with your fingers, pressing down firmly but not abruptly
• You don’t want to deflate the focaccia too much!
• Drizzle about 15 g olive oil (or enough to collect a bit in the dimples) on top
• Sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt
• Cut the tomatoes in slices and place on top of the dough

6. Bake

• Preheat oven to 220°C (428°F) for ~30 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
• Put the sourdough focaccia in the oven in the middle rack and bake for 25 minutes or until light golden brown

7. Cool

• Let your sourdough focaccia cool for 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy while still warm

Conclusion

Taste

As you can tell from the pictures, this sourdough focaccia is fluffy, soft and moist. You can squeeze the dough together and watch it unfold again because it’s so fluffy.

Combined with some good olive oil and some fresh and juicy tomatoes it is a perfect summer dish. We also added some rosemary as it gives some additional and very traditional Italian taste. Perfecto!

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