Whole Wheat Sourdough Focaccia

And here's a recipe I am adapting from Marcus at The Fresh Loaf (in turn based upon the Focaccia recipe in Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads).
Day 1 - make the dough
350g 400g 450g WW Flour
200g WW starter (mine is 75% 100% hydration)
300g   275g water
20 30g wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp 60g Olive Oil
-Mix everything in KitchenAid, Knead 10 min. (I left this one wet since it is a focaccia)
-Put in an oiled container, cover and refrigerate.
Day 2 - make the Focaccia
About ¼ cup olive oil
Corn meal (optional)
Remove from fridge and let rise until ready to turn out into pans.


I turned half out in an oiled large cast iron skillet, and the other half into my oiled cast iron Dutch oven.
-With oiled fingertips slowly press the dough out to fill the pan if making pizza. Let it rest 15 minutes, then finish stretching to edge of pan.(it will be slack so this is usually pretty easy).


-Pour remaining oil over dough, or don't if you're not as big a fan of olive oil as I am.
-Let rise 45 min. if pressed for time, or longer if you can (90 min. is the most time I've ever had).

I let the dough in the Dutch oven rise an hour or two.


For focaccia in Dutch oven, I preheated oven to 425 and baked with lid on for 30 minutes, reduced heat to 350 and baked another 10 or 15 minutes until internal temperature is 190 or better (I use a meat thermometer!).


For the pizza crust, I just baked partially at 400 for 20 minutes then cooled it to finish baking as pizza later.


-Remove from oven, let cool on rack for a few minutes.  I like to throw a little extra mozzarella on to melt as it cools.


I’ll update this as I try it more…
1. Focaccia in Dutch oven may have been best thing I ever baked. Great crumb, great taste (I sprinkled a little thyme, rosemary, kosher sea salt, and olive oil on it before baking.)

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread – a work in progress…

Many thanks to “Sourdough Home”, where I found the following table and many tips that have started me on my way to learning to make sourdough
Here are the ingredients for a loaf of the bread:

Weight	Ingredient	Volumetric Measurement	High starter mix
180 grams	Water	3/4 cup	30cc
210 grams	Active Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter	3/4 cup	510
30 grams	Light Olive Oil	2 1/3 TBSP	30
30 grams	Honey	1 1/2 TBSP	30
20 grams	Vital wheat gluten (optional)	2 2/3 TBSP	20
320 350 g	Whole wheat flour	2 2/3 cup	200
8.2 grams	Salt	1 1/4 tsp	8

Pour starter into a mixing bowl. Add the water, salt, honey, and oil. Whisk together.
If you are measuring by weight, add all the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix it all together. If you are measuring by volume, add the flour a cup at a time and stir. After the first cup, add the rest of the dry ingredients. Make sure the dough is well mixed, feeling it to see if the water has been incorporated through the dough. Yes, this means you should use your fingers to feel the dough, massage it, and look and feel for dry spots where flour has not been moistened. If you find such, mix the flour into the dough and get it moistened.

If you want to follow the rest of the directions from Sourdough Home, follow the link above. I have found them to be a bit problematic, so here is what I am doing at present:
I have found a couple things:

• Drier dough makes better bread. The gloppy doughs that I see advocated on many websites do not work for me. I can’t make them taste good, anyway.
• I have tried kneading with my KitchenAid for long periods as suggested, as long as 20 minutes. I don’t think this adds anything after the first few minutes, as I think the 8 hour to 2 day resting/rising/refrigeration periods I have used tend to obviate the need.
• Making this a 2 day project with over nights in the fridge increase the sourness, which I like.
• I love the Le Creuset baking method, but so far have found 450 too hot, but that may be my crappy oven! BTW, I cut parchment paper with a plate as my template to fit in the bottom of the pot – the bed just comes right out!
• Now that I have an oven with bread proofing setting, I can do THREE rises in a day and my last loaf was the best ever! 

I will continue to edit this as I discover stuff. In the meantime, my favorite sites for reference are

• The Fresh Loaf
• Sourdough Home
• Sourdoughs International
• Breadtopia
• King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Section