Sourdough Focaccia with Flaked Sea Salt. Sourdough is totally new to me, for years I thought to try it out but felt intimidated by the whole process. And it is a process! But not nearly as bad I was expecting, I’m enjoying it quite a bit. A few weeks ago I got the sourdough starter from a local pizzeria, Red Sauce Pizza, I was purchasing flour and yeast there and they offer a free sourdough starter with purchase. They actually forgot to include it in my bag, I contacted them and they delivered it to my house the next day! That was so nice.

I put the starter (which was super sticky and not bubbly) in the fridge and fed it a few days later, then it started up! I kept it in the fridge and fed it once a week and had no problems at all.

The recipe below is from Alexandra Cooks and I highly recommend going to her blog, she has so much experience and information that I couldn’t possibly explain here since this is so new to me.

The main things I want to point out about sourdough bread making:

It’s not as complicated as it seems
You don’t have to buy a sourdough starter, ask your neighborhood bakery, family, friends or neighbors, they’re all throwing away starter discard! .
You can feed the refrigerated sourdough starter every 1-2 weeks to keep it active
It’s mainly hands off, most of the time is letting it rise
This focaccia definitely needs a non-stick pan like this USA Bake pan
It’s totally worth it because the bread is amazing!

You may have seen on my instagram feed that I made some Focaccia for a fund raiser through The Side Yard Farm.

This week I’m participating in @bakersagainstracism with @thesideyardfarm’s local bake sale here in Portland to support Black United Fund of Oregon! 100% of the proceeds from this event will be going directly to BUFOR to aid in their mission to directly fund social and economic development initiatives in the underserved communities of Portland. I’ll be baking this Sourdough Focaccia with flaked sea salt.The bake sale will run from 11am Monday 6/15 through Friday 6/19. Pick-up of all purchased items will be at The Side Yard Farm on Saturday 6/20 between 10am-4pm, no shipping or delivery available.

Here’s where you can pre-order, it looks like a lot of great baked goods on the site!

https://pdx-bakers-against-racism.square.site

It’s now Wednesday and they’re nearly sold out of everything! More baked items are being added I’m told and they are also accepting donations.

Just a friendly reminder when you pick up your baked goods be sure to wear a mask! Coronavirus cases are on the rise here in Oregon and we all want this to go away as fast as possible!

Below is the recipe for this fantastic Focaccia!

Sourdough Focaccia with Flaked Sea Salt

50 g – 100 g (1/4 to 1/2 cup) active sourdough starter
10 g (about 2.5 teaspoons) kosher salt
430 – 440 g water, room temperature (about 100°F)
512 g (about 4 cups) bread flour
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon

I recommend watching her video here, it helped me a lot!

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.

Perform one “fold”: 30 minutes after you mix the dough, reach into the bowl and pull the dough up and into the center. Turn the bowl quarter turns and continue this pulling 8 to 10 times.

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 at room temperature (70ºF/21ºC) 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 — in summer, for instance, sourdoughs double in 6 hours; in winter, they double in 18 hours. A straight-sided vessel makes monitoring the bulk fermentation especially easy because it allows you to see when your dough has truly doubled. You will also see bubbles in the dough which is a good sign that it is ready.

When dough has doubled, place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a 9×13-inch pan (use a non-stick pan if possible or guess what, it will stick!).

Drizzle dough with a tablespoon of olive oil. Use your hand to gently deflate the dough and release it from the sides of the bowl. Gently scoop the dough into the center of the pool of oil in your prepared pan. Fold dough envelope style from top to bottom and side to side to create a rough rectangle. Turn dough over so seam-side is down. (watch her video for better reference).

Rub top of dough with oil. Leave alone for 4 to 6 hours (At this point you can also put it in the refrigerator overnight for a slow rise, just take it out prior to baking and proceed as below instructions, you will get a higher rise and I think it’s better!), uncovered, 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 a flaked 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.

Adapted from Alexandra’s Kitchen