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a pan of pepperoni pizza focaccia right from the oven.

Pepperoni Pizza Sourdough Focaccia

This pepperoni pizza focaccia features a garlic- and herb-infused sourdough dough loaded with pepperoni, then topped with sauce, mozzarella, and crispy pepperoni. A fun, crowd-pleasing twist on pizza.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Proofing Time 12 hours
Course Main Course
Servings 12 pieces

Equipment

  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • dough whisk
  • Kitchen scale
  • 9x13 baking dish

Ingredients
  

For the Dough

  • 100 grams sourdough starter active and at peak
  • 425 grams water
  • 10 grams tomato powder optional, but adds great flavor
  • 10 grams salt
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 500 grams bread flour
  • 30 grams roasted garlic finely minced
  • 30 grams pepperoni sliced
  • 100 grams mozzarella cheese shredded
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil for baking

For the toppings

  • 350 grams shredded mozzarella
  • Pepperoni measure with your heart
  • Your favorite pizza sauce measure with your heart, about ½ cup
  • 100 grams Fresh mozzarella optional, but delicious (reduce shredded mozzarella if also using fresh)

Instructions
 

Feed your start

  • About 12 hours before you're ready to mix up your bread, you'll need to make sure to feed your sourdough starter. Feed at 1:10:10 ratio – 6 grams sourdough starter, 60 grams flour, 60 grams water. Stir well until everything is incorporated and there are no dry bits of flour remaining. Cover and place somewhere warm overnight. You can also substitute 10 grams of bubbly sourdough starter if you prefer.

Mix the Dough

  • In a large mixing bowl combine 415 grams water, 100 grams active sourdough starter, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 10 grams tomato powder and 500 grams of bread flour. Mix together with a dough whisk or a spoon until a sticky dough forms. Continue mixing for an additional 5 minutes to begin to develop the gluten. Cover and let rest for 30-60 minutes.
  • Fermentolyse: Add the salt and remaining 10 grams of water. Use your fingers to squeeze and pinch the dough until all the salt is incorporated and you don’t feel any granules on your fingers. The dough is going to be really sticky and wet, but should stay together. If it’s too wet, you may need to add a little extra flour at this point. Cover and let rest 30 minutes before beginning coil folds.

Coil Folds

  • Coil folds help strengthen your dough without traditional kneading. You’ll do a series of them over the first couple of hours of bulk fermentation.
    Prepare your hands: Wet your hands lightly with water. This prevents the sticky dough from sticking to your fingers.
    Lift the dough: Slide your hands gently under the middle of the dough.
    Lift the dough up toward the top of the bowl. The dough will stretch naturally — it should stretch without tearing. If it tears, lift a little less high next time.
    Let it coil: Once the dough is lifted, let it fall back onto itself, folding the dough underneath naturally. This creates the “coil” shape and helps build strength.
    Repeat on other sides: Repeat the lift-and-coil on the opposite side of the dough. Then, rotate the bowl about 90 degrees and repeat on both new sides. Keep your hands wet and work slowly — rushing can tear the dough.
    Rest: Cover the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes.
    Coil fold #1: 30 minutes about after fermentolyse
    Coil fold #2: 30 minutes later. This is when I like to add the 30 grams roasted garlic, 30 grams pepperoni slices and 100 grams shredded mozzarella cheese. Adding inclusions during this stage helps to make sure they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough.
    Coil fold #3: 30 minutes later
    Coil fold #4: 30 minutes later
  • Finish bulk fermentation: Cover the dough and let rise for a couple more hours (longer in the winter when it’s cold). You’ll know the dough is ready to shape when the dough is puffed up, jiggles when you shake the bowl, has scattered bubbles visible on the sides and top. With focaccia you are looking for your dough to nearly double in size. If in doubt, let it rise longer.
  • Shaping: Prepare your 9x13 baking dish by spraying with your favorite non-stick spray. Then drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of the pan and try to evenly spread it across the bottom. Dump your dough into the baking dish and gently stretch it so it reaches the corners.
  • Cold Fermentation: Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight up to 36 hours. If you want to bake the same day, you can skip this step and let the dough rise for about 2-3 hours in the pan until it’s puffed up and risen. Then bake according to recipe directions.

Day 2: Baking

  • Remove pan from the fridge and let dough rise until it’s puffed up and jiggly. This will 3-5 hours, assuming your dough is about 78-80F. If your dough is cooler, this will take longer. The focaccia dough will begin to bubble up as it rises on the counter and the dough will become light and airy.
  • Preheat your oven to 425 °F
  • Drizzle ½ cup of pizza sauce over the top of the dough and gently dimple the dough. Be careful not to deflate the dough, just gently dimple it so it has that signature focaccia look. Start at the top of the pan and work your way down the dough until the entire focaccia is dimpled and bubbly. Be careful not to use too much sauce or the focaccia will remain soggy - less is more.
  • Top with remaining pepperoni and mozzarella, or any additional toppings you like.
  • Baking: Bake for about 30 minutes until baked through and internal temperature reaches 200 °F. If your cheese is getting too dark you can cover the top with tin foil while the center finishes baking.
  • Once finished, let cool in the pan about 5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling – this keeps the bottom from getting soggy. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve with additional pizza or marinara sauce if desired.

Notes

If you want to bake this same-day and speed up bulk fermentation, increase the amount of starter to 200 grams.
Focaccia is a high hydration dough, so you need to make sure you’re using a quality bread flour with a high protein content – aim for 14% or higher. If you don’t have that type of bread flour, you can decrease the water, or add vital wheat gluten to help reach a higher protein count. Vital wheat gluten helps to add extra protein to the flour, making it able to absorb the higher water ratio.
If you’re using bread flour, you would use 475 grams of bread flour and 25 grams of vital wheat gluten.
If you’re using all purpose flour, you would use 425 grams of AP flour and 75 grams of vital wheat gluten.
Keyword focaccia, pizza, sourdough focaccia
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