Herb + Garlic Sourdough Focaccia: Simple Overnight, Artisan Side Dish

This herb and garlic sourdough focaccia bread smells like heaven when it is baking! The herbs and garlic combine with the yeasty, warm scent of sourdough make something really special. I am familiar with the wonderful smell of homemade sourdough bread as we have been sourdough bread consumers in our household for years. But this herb and garlic sourdough focaccia recipe is next level!

I’ve made it several times in the past month, and each time there have been NO leftovers. Which is saying something, since the sourdough recipe I use is also the recipe I use to make sourdough bread. And that usually makes a large, dutch oven loaf or two bread pan size loaves, which is definitely not a quantity we usually eat in one sitting. But there’s something about the moist texture and the chewy crust and the crunch of the roasted garlic chunks… Like I said, it’s almost a divine experience!

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Dear Focaccia: Welcome to my Life!

Growing up on the West Coast of the USA, every grocery store I went to as a child had a bakery section with loaves of “San Francisco Sourdough” bread. My Grandma, Sonel, loves sourdough bread, so as a child I remember fondly munching through multiple pieces of San Francisco Sourdough toast in a row when visiting her house, with butter dripping through the large holes, of course!

Sometime shortly after Gabe and I got married, I began cultivating my own sourdough starter. I didn’t know of anyone at the time who had a starter. So I went through a rather laborious process getting a starter up and going. To be fair, I attempted to do it in the winter (not the best time of year for impatient sourdough newbies), and I only used whole wheat flour for my bread recipes. So it took some trial and error to develop a system and recipe to make bread that would actually rise, after I finally got the starter to work!

But I never ventured into the world of focaccia. Or sourdough focaccia. I have no idea why, as I lived in Rome for a year while in university and my love for Italian foods and bread should have propelled me down the focaccia path. Pizza and “pizza bianca” (very similar to focaccia) were regular staples of my university-life diet. But I suppose that since I was studying at the time and not baking that much, I just never got hooked on it.

So it’s only been in the past few months, after I started experimenting with a higher hydration bread recipe, that I got inspired to make focaccia. And, let me just say, I’m glad I did! Herbs, garlic, sourdough, and olive oil… how could that not just make life better?!

How I use Focaccia in my Meals:

As you’ve probably worked out by now, sourdough bread is a staple at my house. My husband and I have four kids (6 years old, 4 years old, 2 years old, and currently 9 weeks). Since I work full time at home managing the household, taking care of the kids, and homeschooling our oldest two, we try to keep our food expenses relatively low. Along with my genuine enjoyment of cooking and my desire to feed our family the most nutritious food I can, making our own sourdough bread is also an inexpensive way to provide a delicious food source.

So I often serve bread with our dinner meals, particularly soups and stews. Bread is also a frequent breakfast food, usually in the form of toast or cooked into an egg-rich casserole. And sandwiches are a very common meal option for lunches. So suffice it to say, sourdough bread COULD be on the menu for any meal of the day!

Quite simply, I use focaccia the same way! It accompanies eggs or goes into egg bakes for breakfast. And it can be cut open and used for a quick sandwich at lunch. Or it can be fresh baked and served up alongside any of our favorite soups (including my creamy, spicy lentil soup, or my chunky, pumpkin and sausage soup).

Basically, it is a form of bread, so it can be used just like you would bread… But there’s also something a bit more fancy about focaccia. So it makes a wonderful side dish for a meal in which you want to add a bit more class.

How to Make This Herb and Garlic Sourdough Focaccia

As with all recipes that utilize sourdough starter to provide the rising agent, this recipe does require some time. That being said, it isn’t a complicated or difficult recipe, and requires a fairly minimal amount of hands-on time. But you do have to plan ahead!

To make this herb and garlic sourdough focaccia, you’ll need to start the dough about 16-20 hours before you intend to have fresh-baked focaccia. The variance comes due to the temperature and the activity of your starter: warm household temperature and active starter = faster process. Cold household temperature and struggling starter = slower process and, I’ll be honest, possible disappointment.

The day before you want to bake the herb and garlic sourdough focaccia, the recipe calls for you to mix your flour and water, let it hydrate, then add the starter and salt and complete six stretch and folds. This process happens over about 3 hours. Then you’ll allow the dough to sit for an extended time period to do its first rise. Usually this is overnight and into the next morning. After that, you’ll dump the dough into the baking dish, punching it down and spreading it out as you shape it to the baking dish. Then you’ll top with olive oil and garlic and herbs, let it rise for a few more hours or until it has bubbled up again, and then bake it!

Variations for this Herb and Garlic Sourdough Focaccia:

Gluten free: I haven’t attempted sourdough with gluten free flour, so I don’t know. Any gluten free sourdough bakers reading this? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Dairy free: There’s no dairy in the recipe as written, so if you don’t care about dairy, you could use butter rather than olive oil. But otherwise, you’re good to go!

Whole wheat vs All Purpose: I make all of my sourdough bread products with 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour. No, I don’t yet have a flour mill to grind my own wheat – that’s a dream of mine! But I have good success with the 50/50 ratio. My starter is also whole wheat, so I suppose my bread is technically slightly more whole wheat than all purpose. At any rate, in my experience, if you venture toward more whole wheat, you may need to add some gluten flour to help the gluten structures form, which will give bread products their wonderful bubbles. All purpose flour is typically easier to bake sourdough with, so if you only use all purpose, that should be fine.

Types of Herbs: I’ve used garlic, parsley, and thyme because that’s what I frequently have available. My basil plant isn’t doing so well in the current winter months, but if you have access to basil, go for it! And the rosemary plant at my husband’s work met its end, so I don’t have easy access to that either. But again, if you’ve got rosemary, that would be delicious. Since I love the combo of sage and butter, if I was going to try this recipe with sage, I’d probably top the focaccia with melted butter rather than olive oil to get that pairing.

Happy Baking!

Let me know in the comments if you make this recipe and what you served it with! I’d love to hear your creative ideas. And stay tuned because I’m working on making a sweet version of this sourdough focaccia that would be perfect for breakfast or dessert!

Pictures of the Process:

Mix the water and flour and let it sit for 30 minutes:

Add the starter and salt and let it sit another 30 minutes. Complete 6 stretch and folds. The first three separated by 30 minutes, and the last three separated by 15 minutes.

Cover and let the dough rise overnight or until at least doubled in size and starting to produce beautiful bubbles:

Prep a baking pan with baking paper and olive oil, and pour the dough into the oiled baking pan:

Using your fingers (dipped in water to keep the dough from sticking to them), gently stretch/push/shape the dough to cover the bottom of the baking dish:

Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic and herbs, and let rise for 1-3 hours until about doubled in height. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Slice, serve and enjoy!