Easy Focaccia Bread Recipe With Flavorful Kombucha Dough Starter

In yesterday’s post, we talked about focaccia bread recipes and a time-saving way to develop a flavorful sourdough starter. Before we continue with the actual method of how to make focaccia, let’s take a quick look at the history of focaccia bread.

We’re lucky to have a life-long bread baking expert as our teacher. George Eckrich was an important contributor to the Whole Foods Market bakery and bread program, and later he started his own business with the now legendary, award-winning line of Dr. Kracker whole-grain crackers. So, without further ado – here’s George with the second part of our mini focaccia recipe tutorial…

How To Make Focaccia Bread With Kombucha Sourdough Starter

by George Eckrich

If the key to great killer focaccia is a ciabatta-like very moist dough, how do we mix and pamper a wet and sloppy dough? How do you knead something that is sticky, tacky and flowing? My focaccia never leaves the 8 qt-salad bowl until it goes onto the baking sheet. A number of other home bakers have recommended this bowl technique and it is a great one.

My preferment/poolish begins in a smaller bowl but then is combined into the salad bowl where it is mixed with the other ingredients after 5 or 6 hours. I “knead” with a spoon or spatula, turning the dough over on itself 100 beats or turns. At this point, I carefully lift the dough with the spatula away from the bowl and oil the sides of the bowl.

Many focaccia recipes call for adding oil to the recipe. I don’t, because when I repeatedly oil the dough during the rise, more than enough oil gets into the recipe. Then the dough sits for almost 2 hours. During this time, the yeast and lactobacillus bacteria continue to do their work, transforming flour into CO-2, alcohol and aroma by-products that define great bread. The acidity strengthens the gluten bonds during this resting period, and the sloppy and unmanageable dough becomes much more manageable. After these two hours, the first of 3 stretch-and-fold techniques is used.

Put some olive oil on your hands so that the still tacky dough won’t stick to your hands. The oiled dough is pulled away from the bowl and folded onto itself from all four directions. This folding organizes the stands of gluten into long sheets that will trap more gas and create the open pore structure that defines ciabatta in particular and artisan bread in general.

I re-oil the bowl and let it rest another 50 minutes or so, stretch and fold, re-oil, and rest one more time. Each one of these stretch-and-folds builds additional strength and elasticity in the dough and furthers the goal of building more aroma. After the 3 rd dough rest, I only fold the dough on two sides so that I have a longer dough piece that I can lift onto the baking tray after another 30 minute rest or relaxation.

You could put the dough piece immediately onto the oiled baking sheet or tray, but I find that it is easier to spread out the focaccia if it has relaxed. Pat, stretch or manipulate the dough so that it fills up the baking sheet. Thicker focaccia is better than thinner, because you can slice it open and use it for sandwiches.

How you top it is up to you. Just keep it simple. If you add too much tomato sauce and other toppings, you have pizza, which is really OK, I guess, since there is no well defined line where focaccia stops and pizza begins.

I let the focaccia proof for 45 minutes, and bake very hot at 500 degrees for 18 minutes and turn the oven temp down to 350 for the last 5 minutes.

That’s it! If on a Saturday I start the preferment at 6, I mix the dough around 11 or 12, and have the focaccia out of the oven at 5 to 5:30. If I’m going to a party, sometimes I take the focaccia on the baking tray and bake it at the house. There are unlimited variations of toppings and possible ways to change this process. But the fundamental technique is to keep the dough wet or slack, and do everything that you can to encourage fermentation, either with yeast only, or probiotic enhanced. I guarantee that it will work and that it will taste great!

Focaccia Recipe Information

Preferment:

1 ¾ cups water (80 degrees)
¼ cup probiotic drink: Kombucha or bread drink
2 cups of flour.
1 package dry yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar.

Read the directions on the yeast package; some yeast needs to be dissolved in the water to make it active; other yeast is mixed directly into the flour. Both work, but read the directions! Mix together, consistency should be like a pancake batter. I cover the bowl and poolish with a plastic bag and set aside for 5 or 6 hours.

Dough:

1 cup water (80 degrees)
3 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
Preferment from above.

The sugar is not absolutely necessary, but with home baking, we never know how much simple sugar from the damaged starch is available in the flour and adding sugar ensures the rising and the coloration of the focaccia. Mix as described above with about 100 beats of spoon, using a turning rather than a beating technique. Follow the dough rest and rising instruction, then bake in a very hot, 500 degree oven, turning the temperature down for the last 5 minutes of the 23-minute bake.

Watch the 4-part video tutorial on this Killer Focaccia Bread Recipe!

Related posts:

1. The Secret To The Best Focaccia Bread Recipe Lies In the Focaccia Dough
2. Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe For Sourdough Bread And Sourdough Pancakes
3. How To Make Sourdough Bread And Delicious Pancakes, Too!
4. Easy Recipe For The Best One Pot Brownies