Sourdough is having a moment. Longtime sourdough bakers may cringe at this proclamation, just as our grandparents likely roll over in their graves when they hear “toast” is a thing.
But it’s true. I cannot open a magazine without seeing a feature on a bakery and its naturally leavened loaves; I cannot scroll through instagram without seeing a crumb shot of a halved sourdough miche, a beautiful web of irregular holes, or an intricately scored, thick-crusted boule being presented like Simba to the animal kingdom.
My interest in sourdough in recent months has been spurred by a number of requests about how to make my mother’s peasant bread with a sourdough starter. Initially, I thought why? The beauty of the peasant bread is that it doesn’t require a starter or a long rise or any fussy techniques; it can be on your table start to finish in three hours. Everyone will rave.
Over the years, I’ve been able to answer questions relatively easily about how to make the peasant bread morph into something else: a boule with a thick crackling crust — thank you Jim Lahey — or a thinner round to use for pizza or something palatable for the gluten-free crowd.
But achieving that sour taste — even a subtle sour taste — is something yeast, even with a long slow rise cannot achieve. And, moreover, natural leavening is natural leavening — no yeast allowed.
So I began experimenting. I tried reviving my old starter, long neglected in my fridge, and when it proved altogether spent, I ordered one from Breadtopia via Amazon. I followed the instructions to activate it, and within a day, I had a vibrant, bubbling starter.
After a bit of trial and error, I soon found a nice rhythm, mixing the dough in the afternoon, letting it rise all evening, splitting the dough into two portions and plopping each into a buttered Pyrex bowl in the morning. By early afternoon, the bread was ready to bake. The resulting loaves looked just like the peasant bread, golden crusted, soft crumbed, but with a nice subtle sourness. (Photo below.)
Using the sourdough peasant bread proportions, I decided to make focaccia, my favorite, a bread I love for so many reasons: its versatility — sandwich bread, appetizer, dinner bread — and its flavor and texture: the oil-crisped crust, the generous amount of salt, the chewy crumb.
I also think focaccia is an ideal bread with which to begin a sourdough journey. Why?
- First, it requires no special equipment — not a Dutch oven or a Baking Steel to create a thick crust; not two Pyrex bowls to create a golden, less-thick crust. You likely have a 9×13-inch pan somewhere in your kitchen. This is all you need.
- Second, it requires no tricky shaping technique on a floured work surface. Shaping free-standing sourdough boules is an art and it takes practice and repetition. It’s a beautiful thing when you get the hang of it, but it can be frustrating until you do.
- Third, it requires no scoring. With focaccia, you don’t need a razor sharp lame — you use your fingers to dimple the dough.
Curious about Sourdough? Let’s Start From the Top.
You need a sourdough starter. If you don’t know of anyone who will share his/her starter with you, buy one. In the past I’ve purchased one from King Arthur Flour and, more recently, from Breadtopia via Amazon. Both were easy to feed and activate. There is a photo below of how the Breadtopia starter arrives. To activate, follow the instructions on this video. It’s simple.
Why Buy (or Procure) a Starter?
- First, if you’re curious about sourdough, get to it! Making a starter from scratch takes weeks. I did it once many years ago following the instructions in Tartine Bread, and after nearly losing my mind, I literally jumped for joy when I dropped a spoonful of my starter into a cup of water, and it floated. Making a starter from scratch is a really cool exercise, and it’s something to be proud of should you succeed (or not!), but why not start experimenting with an active sourdough starter while you build a starter from scratch on the side? (If you do want to build one from scratch, check out this post on The Perfect Loaf.)
- Second, feeding a mature starter will help you understand how to build one from scratch. You’ll observe how a starter rises and falls, what happens when you feed it more regularly, what happens when you neglect it, how it smells at various stages, etc.
- Third, they’re relatively cheap (or free if you get one from a friend).
- Fourth, maybe you embark on a sourdough journey and decide it isn’t for you. Why go through the trouble of building a starter till you know you enjoy the process of sourdough baking?
Begin with an Easy Recipe
As noted above, I think focaccia is a perfect sourdough-bread-baking starting point. It will teach you the fundamentals of working with sourdough without the potentially frustrating steps of shaping, scoring, and baking with a Dutch oven. The recipe below also can be baked in a loaf pan, another great option if you do not want to deal with shaping and scoring and Dutch ovens.
If, however, you are after that artfully scored thick, burnished crust, Emilie Raffa’s recipe for High-Hydration Sourdough is another great, easy recipe.
Final Thought
Sourdough not your thing? You can still make excellent focaccia without a starter and even without a long, slow rise.
How to Make Sourdough Focaccia: A Step-by-Step Guide
Get a starter. If you don’t have a starter and don’t have a friend who can lend you one, I recommend buying one. I bought mine from Breadtopia via Amazon, and I’ve managed to keep it alive for 6 months now. Win!
I store my starter in this quart container. When I’m ready to use it, I discard some of it, and add about 45 g flour…
… and 45 g water. You don’t have to be exact, but when you’re getting started, I think it’s helpful to weigh both the water and flour. Depending on how long the starter has been in the fridge, it may need one or two feedings before use.
If you stick a rubber band around your starter vessel, you’ll know when …
… it has doubled and is ready for use.
If you need reassurance as to if it’s ready, you can do the float test: drop a spoonful of starter into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s ready.
As with all bread, when mixing sourdough doughs, it’s best to weigh everything with a digital scale. Start with 100 g starter.
Add 10 g kosher (or other) salt.
Add 440 g water. (See recipe notes: If you live in a humid environment, you may want to use less.)
Stir to combine.
Add 512 g bread flour.
Stir to form a sticky dough ball.
Cover with a towel or bowl cover, and let rise for 8 – 18 hours at room temperature (times will vary depending on the time of year and how warm your kitchen is … in the summer, this may take only 4 hours):
When it doubles …
… drizzle it with some olive oil.
Deflate the dough by pulling the sides into the center. Video guidance here. At this point, the dough can be refrigerated — just cover the bowl with a bowl cover or towel and stick in the fridge. Do this if it makes sense given your schedule. Remove 5 to 6 hours before you plan on baking.
Dough, ready to make it’s second rise, which will take 5-6 hours. Love this USA Pan.
After 5-6 hours, the dough is ready to be dimpled and stretched and salted. Bake at 425ºF for 25 minutes.
Just-baked sourdough focaccia:
Simple Sourdough Focaccia
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Adapted from my favorite yeasted, slow-rise focaccia recipe — overnight refrigerator focaccia — this recipe replaces the yeast with a sourdough starter.
If you like video guidance, I made this in Instagram Stories.
What you need to make this recipe…:
- …a sourdough starter. I bought mine from Breadtopia via Amazon. It was easy to activate. There are no instructions on the package itself; follow the instructions on the video here.
- …time. Once your starter is ready to go, this recipe requires an initial 4- 18 hour rise, followed by a second 4- to 6-hour second rise. After the initial rise (depending on the time of year and temperature of your kitchen), you can deflate the dough, and stick it in the fridge for 8 to 10 hours (maybe longer), which might help you regarding your schedule. Keep in mind, when you remove the dough from the fridge and transfer it to a pan, it will still need to rise for another 5- to 6- hours.
- …water. Apparently, chlorine in water can adversely affect sourdough. Leaving water at room temperature for 24 hours will allow most of the chlorine to escape.When I am in the habit of making sourdough bread, I fill a large pitcher with water and leave it out at room temperature. I use this for my sourdough breads and starter. Truth be told, I’ve used water straight from the tap and have not noticed a difference.
Water quantity: Depending on where you live and the time of year, you may need to cut the water back. If you live in a humid environment, for instance, I would suggest starting with 430 g water. If you are not using bread flour, you also may need to cut the water back a bit.
Timing:
The more I make sourdough, the more I realize so much depends on the time of year and the temperature of my kitchen. Recently (summer), because it is so warm, the first rise (bulk fermentation) is taking between 4 – 6 hours; in the winter the first rise was taking 12 – 18 hours. I find currently, I really have to pay attention to the dough because if I don’t, the dough will over-ferment, smell sour, and lose its strength. In the winter, I could let the dough rise all day/night without issue.
The key with this recipe is to make sure the first rise doesn’t go to long — you want the dough to nearly double. A straight sided vessel (as opposed to a bowl) makes gauging the first rise easier.
A few thoughts: If you are making this focaccia in the summer (northern hemisphere), use 50 g of starter and check the dough every couple of hours. If you are making this in the winter, use 100 g of starter, and plan for a long first rise.
Flour choice:
- I’ve been using King Arthur Flour’s special patent flour — bought a 50-lb. bag of it at Restaurant Depot. Its protein content, 12.7%, is the same as the protein content of its bread flour. I suspect all-purpose flour (11.7%) would work fine here, but you may want to reduce the water a bit — bread flour absorbs slightly more liquid than all-purpose flour.
Ingredients
- 50 g – 100 g (1/4 to 1/2 cup) active starter, see notes above
- 10 g (about 2.5 teaspoons) kosher salt
- 430 – 440 g water, room temperature, see notes above*
- 512 g (about 4 cups) bread flour, see notes above
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
- Nice, flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
Instructions
- Place the starter, salt, and water in a large bowl. Stir with a spatula to combine — it doesn’t have to be uniformly mixed. Add the flour. Mix again until the flour is completely incorporated. Drizzle with a splash of olive oil and rub to coat. Cover bowl with a tea towel or bowl cover and set aside to rise for 4 to 18 hours (the time will vary depending on the time of year, the strength of your starter, and the temperature of your kitchen — recently (summer), my sourdoughs have been nearly doubling in 6 hours).
- Drizzle dough with a tablespoon of olive oil. Use your hand to deflate the dough: pull the dough from the sides and press it into the center. Video guidance here. Turn dough over so seam-side is down.
- Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a 9×13-inch pan. (I have been using this USA Pan, which I love. I have had no sticking issues. If you are using a glass pan, you may, as a precaution, want to butter it it first — I have had disasters with bread sticking when I’ve used oil alone with other baking vessels.) Plop dough into the center of the pool of oil. Rub top of dough with oil. Leave alone for 4 to 6 hours or until puffy and nearly doubled.
- Heat oven to 425ºF. Rub hands lightly with oil, and using all ten fingers, press gently into the dough to dimple and stretch the dough to nearly fit the pan. Sprinkle generously with sea salt. Transfer pan to the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden all around. Remove pan from oven and transfer bread to a cooling rack. Cool at least 20 minutes before slicing.
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: sourdough, bread, focaccia
Incidentally, this same recipe can be used to make sandwich bread. You need one large loaf pan, 10×5-inches, such as this one.
As noted above, this same recipe can be baked, like the original peasant bread recipe, in buttered Pyrex bowls. More on this soon.
Just-baked sourdough peasant bread.
Sliced sourdough peasant bread.
Chiara says
I picked up your book for the quick bread recipes and I love them. I recently got a bread machine second hand for the same reason- quick and easy homemade bread. One of my bread machine books has recipes for sourdough bread using a starter that you make from active dry yeast and feed with equal parts (in cups not weight) flour, water, and some sugar. The bread machine loaves are baked with this starter and added commercial yeast. I’ve tried to start a starter with wild caught yeast as you describe here, but the fussiness of it all made me give up. I’m wondering if you know anything about the sort of starter I’m using and how it’s different from sourdough risen without commercial yeast. I haven’t tried my starter with your peasant bread recipe yet, but maybe I should!
alexandra says
Hi Chiara! So happy to hear this re book. Thank you 🙂
Regarding your question about the starter, I think the perspectives vary. Purists would say that a true sourdough starter would not contain any commercial yeast (active dry or instant) — it would be made purely from wild yeasts. And some would say that sugar doesn’t belong in a starter either. That said, I’ve seen many starter recipes that call for feeding with a little sugar or honey, so again, there are a wide range of thoughts on this subject. How are your loaves turning out? Are you getting a nice sour flavor?
Chiara says
The loaves are wonderful. Not too sour, but I think that has to do with the development of my starter. I generally find sourdough easier to digest, so it’s nice to have a simple homemade alternative that doesn’t require picking up a bread baking tome to figure out. I have three young kids at home and now is not the time in my life to figure out sourdough, unfortunately:)
alexandra says
So happy to hear this, Chiara! And I hear you … the more I dig into sourdough, the more overwhelming/intimidating I find it becomes. I like simple. Next up, I’m hoping to work some freshly milled flours into the dough. Thanks for taking the time to write, little ones and all 🙂
Jocelyn says
Hi there. What size pyrex bowls are you using here? Does the focaccia recipe make one or two of those loaves? Thanks!
alexandra says
Hi! The Pyrex bowls are each 1-qt. They’ve become a little harder to find and more expensive, but they’re out there. The recipes makes 1 focaccia or 2 Pyrex bowls or 1 large loaf pan. Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you need clarification.
Michelle m Bagby says
Girl, am in LOVE with your mom’s peasant bread in Pyrex bowls. (Isn’t EVERYbody???)
Cannot wait for your sourdough version….
Drooling already….Mic
alexandra says
Yay!! Hope you love it. Can’t wait to hear how it turns out.
Mersine says
Hi
Do you have a gluten free version?
alexandra says
No, I’m afraid I don’t. If you’re looking for a good gluten-free bread, however, I would pick up a bag of Cup4Cup gluten-free flour — that’s the brand I love the most — and start with this recipe: gluten-free peasant bread
Jamie Scarlett says
Wow, One of the best sourdough start up walk through articles that I have found. Wonderfully explained and the pictures are stunning. Thank you for sharing and this has totally inspired me for the bread dish this Sunday! Awesome work and thanks again.
★★★★★
alexandra says
Awww, thanks. Good luck on Sunday. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be sourdough baking this weekend as well. 🙂
Sunie Worrells says
I am just starting on the sourdough adventure. I bought my starter from breadtopia through Amazon. I thought it wasn’t going to grow, but now I have about a half quart of healthy looking starter. You said that when you are ready to bake you throw out half of the starter and add flour and water. Is that after you remove what you need for your current baking?
I’m still a loyal devotee of your peasant bread variations — especially the quinoa and flax, oatmeal, and rye (oh, I have never had such good rye bread!). But adding sourdough will be a grand thing to do also. Thanks, Alexandra!
alexandra says
Hi Sunie! This is so much fun! OK, so I store my starter in the fridge. When I want to use it, I take it out, discard most of it (maybe 75%?) then add equal parts by weight flour and water. Within 6 hours typically, the starter has doubled. If it hasn’t, I’ll feed it again, without discarding any of it.
After I use it for whatever bread I am using, I typically feed it again before storing it in the fridge.
Does that make sense? Please let me know if not! And thank you re peasant bread 🙂 🙂 🙂 I am loving exploring the world of sourdough, but if anything, this sourdough journey has made me appreciate the peasant bread even more.
One final note: I have been using bread flour for this focaccia. I did this unintentionally — bought a 50# bag of KAF’s special patent flour from restaurant depot and didn’t realize this had the same protein content as bread flour. There’s no marking on the bag. But, this is what I used while experimenting, so it’s what the recipe is designed for. Bread flour or ap flour doesn’t make a difference in the peasant bread, but I’m finding it does for the sourdough.
Jocelyn says
What’s the cook time for the focaccia in the loaf pan? Is it the same?
Thanks!!
alexandra says
Hi! I do 15 minutes at 425F, then lower the heat to 375F and continue baking for 25-30 more minutes. I’ve been checking the baked bread with my instant read thermometer—if it’s 207ºF or above, it’s good.
Jocelyn says
Dope thanks!
Mary says
I love this sour dough focaccia! I also made the dough and let it rise in bowls, and one day, I baked half as focaccia in a quarter sheet pan and half in a pyrex bowl. Every loaf was a success. If you live in a humid climate as I do, you might use a little less water, so the dough isn’t quite as slurpy, but really it doesn’t matter. It all bakes really well. The taste is almost sour sweet, although there’s certainly not any sugar in it. My husband who doesn’t like sour dough bread loves this bread. It’s fun to make and once you have a routine, it’s easy to work around. If you have to go out, you can always slow down the rise by putting the bowls in the fridge. Another great variation on your peasant bread, Alexandra!
★★★★★
alexandra says
Great to hear this, Mary!
Ellen White says
Good morning, Alexandra! Just home from Easter holiday and discovered this post. You always explain and describe THE best… Thrilled to find you using sour dough. My starter is from one 65 years old (from a friend and from her family) and I’ve had mine almost 20! Sooo basic and useful for a family. Might you please convert these weights to cups so that I might try this soon?Absolutely love focaccia and a version of sourdough that I don’t have. Thanks you.
(Pssst. IF you might want my recipes, I would be happy to share hard copy by mail… Just send address by email and I will copy for you. Some are so old, they don’t copy well enough using my iPad…)
★★★★★
alexandra says
Ellen, hello! And sorry for the delay here. Just updated the post so that in includes volume measures in addition to the weights.
WOW: that is crazy about your starter. So fun. And I would love some of your recipes! Thank you for sharing 🙂