Focaccia Bread: The Easiest Way to Be a Sourdough Mom

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Focaccia Bread: Sourdough, but more forgiving than your traditional loaf

I don't consider myself a sourdough expert. In fact, if I remember to feed my starter, it's a small miracle to get to use it when it is 'peaked'. This is why focaccia has become a weekly staple in my house... I don't have to be perfect. Small errors don't cause big, negative impacts which allows for a lot of flexibility. Lord knows, I need flexibility. Outside of the wide range of nutritional benefits, it's one food that the kids never complain about eating.

The Versatility of Focaccia

I can, and have, eaten focaccia at every meal. A herb-infused focaccia is the perfect vessel for fresh avocado and egg at breakfast. It makes a killer deli sandwich. Cheeseburger focaccia for dinner is a meal that never disappoints. And the options for dessert focaccia are endless.

Bake the Focaccia- Tips & Tricks

There are a ton of sourdough focaccia recipes out there. I have tried a lot of them but I am here to share that this is the best one. It's tried and true and my personal favorite for base focaccia. Experimenting by adding different toppings is amazing once you have your base-focaccia down so, big Thanks to The Clever Carrot for that one.

Next, I cannot stress this enough. Do yourself a favor and just buy the KitchenAid stand mixer. Can you make focaccia without it? Yes. But why would you? I know sometimes money can get tight but if you spend even a moderate amount of time in the kitchen, it will pay itself back in no time at all and you (and your wrists) will thank yourself down the line.

You want the perfect crusty texture, bake at a high temperature. However, you might need to ask yourself... is my oven really *425? For the longest time I put off buying an oven thermometer, but it has really helped me step my baking game up.

Lastly, get creative. I happen to live in Central Washington, where cherry orchards are around just about every corner. A friend of mine let me know that she had a ton of cherries that still needed to be picked and that I was welcome to take whatever I wanted. I packed up the kids and set out to her house. My toddlers and I picked about 40 pounds of fresh Bing cherries to bring home. What business does a four-person household have with 40 pounds of cherries? Absolutely none. But we sure love them... as evidence by my two-year old son's face and clothing covered in blood-red cherry juice while in the orchard. So after washing and pitting them (use a pitting tool like this one and save yourself a ton of time), I set about 20 pounds off to the side for freeze drying, and divided the rest for eating fresh, sharing with family/coworkers, and you guessed it; baking in my focaccia. When I didn't find a "cherry focaccia" in my Pinterest search, I asked my ol' pal ChatGPT what flavors pair best. When it spit out options that I already had at home, I knew I would be baking a cherry, chocolate and hazelnut focaccia with sea salt sprinkled on top and friends, it did not disappoint. One of these days if I get brave, maybe I will write out the recipe and link it here. But for now, my word of encouragement is to go forth and get to baking.