Maple Sourdough Focaccia: Chewy, Sweet, Simple + Easy Overnight Recipe
Okay, friends, as you may know, I’m a big fan of minimizing my time in the kitchen and using breakfast rotations to feed the fam around here! But I made this maple sourdough focaccia bread for breakfast when we were hosting some friends. And I have to say, I was pretty pleased with it! It was worth the extra bit of effort.
So let’s talk about the focaccia bread: it’s sourdough (obviously!). So it has a delightful sour tang to it. It’s an overnight ferment, so it doesn’t seem to land quite as hard into my tummy when I’m done eating it. It’s bubbly and chewy. The crust is golden and you sort of have to bite and tear a bit. The inside is moist and airy with BIG bubbles. It is sweet, but not so sweet that you feel like you need to go hike a mountain to burn off the sugar. Just a little sweet. And the little bit of maple flavor is a fun combination for an autumn morning. Or any morning, but especially autumn!
With a cup of coffee, a hearty protein source, and some friends to sit around the breakfast (or brunch) table with you, this focaccia is a winner!
Why Maple?
I made my herb and garlic sourdough focaccia recipe several times in quick succession to accompany a couple meals. And I was, admittedly, on a sourdough focaccia kick! So I started wanting something specifically breakfast-y. I love cinnamon rolls, so at first I thought of doing a cinnamon roll inspired focaccia recipe. But then I realized I should just make cinnamon rolls or my sourdough cinnamon swirl bread! However, I wanted to develop a slightly quicker, still a bit sweet but not overwhelmingly sweet breakfast option, that would make the kitchen counter messy!
My first thought was to make this a maple pecan focaccia bread, and that DOES sound delicious! But I was out of pecans and sometimes they are hard to find here in New Zealand. I checked the next time I was at the grocery store, but I didn’t spot them in the baking section. And I didn’t want to take the time to look anywhere else. So I opted for no nuts. Although I did make this recipe again later and added walnuts, which was delicious!
The maple syrup by itself makes a delicious, light sweetness, but I thought it needed a bit more depth of flavor. Thus, the brown sugar. To be fair, though, we don’t get a lot of high quality maple syrup here in New Zealand at my local grocery store, so perhaps if you had quality stuff to work with, you wouldn’t need the brown sugar!
Timelines for Making Maple Sourdough Focaccia Bread
The timelines for making this maple sourdough focaccia bread can seem intimidating, but I promise, it is mostly hands off time. The night before you want to make it, it’ll need your attention intermittently Here’s how I usually approach it:
5pm: Mix up the flour and water, and pull the sourdough starter out of the fridge
5:30pm: Add the sourdough starter and salt to the flour and water. Mix well.
6:00pm: First stretch and fold
6:30pm: Second stretch and fold
7:00pm: Third stretch and fold
7:15pm: Fourth stretch and fold
7:30pm: Fifth stretch and fold
7:45pm: Sixth stretch and fold
Overnight rest
6:30am: Dump dough into baking sheet, add toppings, let rise in oven warmed to 100 degrees F and turned off.
8:00am: Bake focaccia
8:30am: Serve and enjoy focaccia
If your house is cool at night, I would recommend starting the mixing and stretch and folds a bit earlier in the day. As I write, we are just finishing winter and starting to move into spring, but our nights are still chilly. I’ve noticed I’m having better luck with my sourdough if I start it shortly after lunch the day before I want to bake it.
How to Serve Maple Sourdough Focaccia:
This focaccia is delicious by itself, but you can also serve it with butter. When I was growing up, my family always kept a salt shaker filled with cinnamon and sugar. I think this focaccia would be pretty delicious sliced in half with a slather of butter and a few shakes of cinnamon and sugar on top!
Since it is pretty solidly carbs, I’d definitely recommend adding a protein source. Bacon or ham fried up would be tasty. And, of course, eggs would be a great accompaniment! Scrambled with a bit of cheese on top sounds delicious. But if you wanted to get fancier, an egg bake with veggies or a veggie-rich omelette would go very nicely!
If you were leaning away from utilizing this maple sourdough focaccia as a breakfast bread and were thinking something different, I feel like it would go really nicely with my chunky pumpkin soup, or maybe a blended squash + coconut soup would be tasty too.
Or you could lean toward something a bit more fresh, and serve it with a large salad with hearty toppings: roasted chicken, avocado, cranberries, roasted almonds, orange slices or pears or apples, and a creamy balsamic vinegar or poppyseed dressing.
Basically, this focaccia is so tasty, it would pair nicely with a LOT of things! Play around with it and see what you come up with!
Variations to Consider:
Could you make this dairy free?
I think you totally could. Substitute the butter for extra virgin olive oil or refined coconut oil for a neutral-ish oil flavor. I would be sure to include the salt for sprinkling if you opted for this!
What other ideas could you do with it?
I think sprinkling walnuts or pecans on top with the brown sugar and maple syrup would be tasty. I also think tucking cranberries into the dough when mixing it up would be really fun. You could also always sprinkle cinnamon along with the brown sugar and maple syrup on the toppings. And if you wanted to get really fancy, you could spread cream cheese frosting or a glaze over it once it had cooled for an extra sweet kick!
However you choose to use this focaccia bread, I hope you enjoy it!
Maple Focaccia Bread
A deliciously sweet and slightly tangy focaccia bread recipe with satisfying bubbles, a chewy crust, and a delightful maple flavor. Great to serve with breakfast or accompanying a pumpkin soup.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup active sourdough starter
- 1 Tbsp salt + 1/2 tsp (divided)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil (or melted butter)
- 3 Tbsp butter, cubed
- 4-6 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Mix flour and water until forms a dough. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes
- Add sourdough starter and 1 Tbsp salt. Mix with dough thoroughly until incorporated into the dough. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough 4-6 times. Cover and let sit overnight (approximately 9-12 hours, depending on temperature of your kitchen). Dough should have more than doubled (possibly tripled), and have large bubbles scattered on the surface (1/2 - 1 inch in diameter). Dough will be loose.
- Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (if desired).
- Drizzle 2 Tbsp olive oil or melted butter over the baking sheet and spread around thoroughly to cover all the surfaces of the baking sheet.
- Turn out the dough onto the baking sheet. Using fingers damp with water or dipped in olive oil, press (or gently stretch and wiggle) the dough outward until you have helped it cover the surface of the baking sheet.
- Drop chunks of cubed butter on the focaccia dough, spreading it around evenly. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt.
- Drizzle the maple syrup and sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the focaccia dough evenly.
- Allow dough to rise for 60-90 minutes, until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 420 F (210 C) convection.
- Bake focaccia for 25 minutes. Check after 15 minutes and rotate baking sheet if needed. Focaccia will be golden and crusty on the surface when it is finished baking.
Hi! I’m excited to try this recipe, it looks great! How much sourdough starter do you add?
Thanks,
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca! I hope you enjoy it! I add 1/2 cup of active starter. Thanks for asking – I totally missed that I hadn’t added that to the ingredient list! I have updated the recipe card now!