Rosemary, Tomatoes Sourdough Focaccia

This sourdough focaccia was really fun to make and it is very easy to handle for a high hydration (70%) dough. The bread was pretty looking and very tasty when dotted with vine ripened tomatoes and rosemary. 
I loved how gassy, light and soft the dough was when I dimpled it with my fingers. This left a trail of big and small bubbles on the surface of the dough. A delightful sight. To me, focaccia is likened to a fluffier cousin of a pizza. 
I made the dough the day before and chilled it for 11 hours and bake it the next day.

Ingredients that I used to top my focaccia

Salami was added 5 minutes before the bread was done

Sourdough Focaccia Recipe   [Print Recipe]

(Adapted from The Perfect Loaf)

345g all purpose flour

148g bread flour

10g extra virgin olive oil

344g water (320g + 24g)

94g mature levain

9g salt

1 teaspoon honey

My choice of toppings:

Vine ripened tomatoes

Rosemary

Flake salt

Olive oil

Fresh cracked black pepper

Salami
1 clove of garlic, minced

Steps to focaccia:

• Feed one tablespoon of levain with 50g of bread flour and 50g of water and wait for at least 3 hours for the levain to double in volume.
• Mix the flours and water (320g) into a uniform dough and let it autolyse while waiting for the levain to mature.
• After 3 hours or once the levain have double in volume, mix 94g of the mature levain into the dough until it is mixed through. Mix in the remaining 24g of water, 1 teaspoon of honey and the salt. 
• When all the water is being adsorbed, drizzle in the olive oil and mix until the oil is absorbed and a uniform dough is formed.
• Transfer the dough into a large bowl. Over the next 2 hours, carry out 4 sets of folds every 30 minutes to strength the dough. 
• Lined a baking tray (25cm x 25cm) with baking paper and spread 1 tablespoon of olive oil on it.
• Transfer the dough into the well oiled baking tray. Stretch and spread the dough gently every 30 minutes for 2 hours so that the dough is spread uniformly especially to the four corners of the tray. Once you feel the dough resisting the stretch of your hands, just let it rest and stretch it more after 30 minutes.

Next day baking: 

• At this point, if can decide to refrigerate the dough to bake later. Oiled the cling wrap and fully cover the surface of the dough and place the baking tray into the refrigerator. I left mine in the fridge overnight (11 hours) and the next morning I let it sit out for 4 hours before topping it with the ingredients and bake.

Same day baking:

• Cover the dough and let it sit for another 2 hours at room temperature and you will observe that the dough looked fluffier and the surface will have lots of bubbles.

The dough with lots of bubbles on its surface

• Preheat oven to 230℃. Set the baking rack at the lower third of the oven.
• Use wet finger tips and dimple the surface of the dough gently.
• Tuck the prepared tomatoes, rosemary evenly over the surface of the dough.
• Minced one clove of garlic and mix it with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and spread gently over the dough.
• Sprinkle over the dough some salt flakes and fresh cracked black pepper. 
• You can get as creative as you want with the topping ingredients.
• Lastly, drizzle some olive oil over the dough and bake in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes. Rotate the tray halfway through baking. I added salami to the top of the bread 5 minutes before the bread is done.
• Cool the bread over a cooling rack once it is out of the oven. 

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