Focaccia Loaf

• 650g strong flour
• 300g sour starter
• 260ml warm water
• 9g dry yeast
• 14g salt
• 60ml olive oil
• 1/2 tsp fennel seed-crushed
• 3/4 tsp brown sugar
• 30ml olive oil (to finish)
• olives/rosemary/sea salt to finish

Step 1

Dissolve yeast in a little of the water.

In a large bowl add flour, salt, fennel seeds and sugar. Mix together.

Make a well in the flour and add the yeast mixture, sour starter and olive oil.

Step 2

Stir the mixture from the middle and gently incorporate the four from the sides of the bowl.

Empty the mixture onto a clean bench when it’s too firm to mix with a spoon. Using a little four knead the bread for 10mins. 

If you have a good quality mixer with dough hook, then you can make this recipe by adding everything to the mixer at once.

Step 3

Place the kneaded dough into a clean, oiled bowl (double the size of the dough), cover with oiled glad wrap and leave to ferment in a warm place until twice it’s size (approx 45mins)

Step 4

As soon as the dough has doubled in size, remove from the bowl into an oiled and lined tray (30 x 60cm).

Using oiled hands lightly stretch the dough to the edges. The dough doesn’t need to touch all edges as it’ll grow to the sides during the next fermentation.