Focaccia is arguably one of the best breads out there. It’s fluffy, crispy, and works well with a variety of toppings. Focaccia is a true comfort food and tastes amazing dipped in soup, as a sandwich, or eaten all on its own. The latter is typically what ends up happening in my family.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my method to baking is a bit less scientific than most. I usually play around with consistencies and approximate amounts of ingredients until it feels correct. I typically don’t even measure anything, especially now that we are living in a bus and didn’t pack a kitchen scale!

However, I do feel pretty confident with this recipe, considering I made two large pans of it for the charcuterie board at my wedding this past summer and it turned out perfectly.

Sourdough Focaccia – The Recipe

While I know focaccia bread is a true artform and many Italian bakers will tell you that there is a correct way to make focaccia, I’ve found that nearly every baker has their own unique recipe. If you look at other recipes online, everyone recommends using different amounts of starter, flour, and water. So, experiment and see what works best for you!

I’ll be sharing two dough recipes today, both of which are to be handled the same but will result in different flavor profiles. Please note that these recipes are the same as a sourdough loaf recipe with different handling procedures.

Also note that these recipes are adapted for a hard sourdough starter, which is what Steph and I both prefer to use. If you like a wet starter, simply decrease the amount of water added into this recipe.

Recipe For A Mild Focaccia

This recipe is great for those who don’t love an intense sourdough flavor or for baking in the summer when fermentation happens quickly.

• 100g of Sourdough starter
• 400g of luke-warm water
• 500g of bread flour
• 12g (3 tsp) of salt

Recipe For A More Intense Sourdough Flavor

This recipe is exactly the same as Steph’s Sourdough Bread Recipe. This is best for the lovers of sourdough flavor or in the winter months to give your dough an extra boost of yeast.

• 300g of Sourdough starter
• 300g of luke-warm water
• 400g of bread flour
• 12g (3 tsp) of salt

The Process

1. Mix all of your ingredients in a large bowl. It’s best to mix the starter and water first, then add the flour and salt together.

Knead and Rise:

1. Once combined, knead every 30-45 minutes between 3 and 4 times, as Steph outlined in her recipe. (results in 1.5 to 2 hours of kneading and sitting)
2. Allow dough to rise, covered, for 3-5 hours (depending on the time of year) or until dough has doubled in size.
3. Knead once more and cover in a thin layer of olive oil before allowing it to sit for another 2-4 hours.

Prep For Baking:

1. Once it has doubled in size again, take your cooking vessel of choice (I recommend a cast iron pan or glass pan) and add a light layer of olive oil to the bottom.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3. place your dough in the pan and pour some additional olive oil on top.
4. Allow your hands to become coated in the oil to keep the dough from sticking to you as you spread the dough to fill the bottom of the pan
5. Once spread, use your fingers to create small craters in the dough.
6. Add some sea salt on top and any other toppings you enjoy.
   • Suggest trying pepper, rosemary, oregano, garlic, basil, thin tomato slices, or anything else that sounds good to you!

Bake:

1. Place the dough into the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the top is a golden brown color. If you’re using a glass pan, you will also want to make sure the sides are brown as well.
2. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes. If you cut into it too early, it can make the bread a bit too wet tasting. Enjoy!

How We Bake In Our School Bus

Living in a schoolie means that we don’t have a lot of kitchen space. So, we’ve had to make do with the space we have. I knew that I needed to have a way to bake once in a while while living on the road and we were able to find the perfect solution! A simple oven attachment for our camp stove.

The stove that we use in our bus is an old Colman dual-fuel camp stove. It turns out, Colman makes a compatible oven attachment! It’s simply a metal box that folds open and closed for easy storage. It has a temperature gauge and fits right on top of the primary burner on our stove.

We haven’t used it too many times and still need to do some experimentation with it, but we were able to successfully make this focaccia bread, so I think it was a success!