Pesto Parmesan Sourdough Focaccia
This pesto parmesan sourdough focaccia is soft, airy, and packed with herby, garlicky flavor baked right into the dough. Topped with extra pesto and parmesan—or fresh mozzarella for a milder finish—it’s versatile and irresistible. Customize with mix-ins like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, or roasted garlic for even more flavor in every bite.
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 salt
- 30 grams pesto
- 500 grams bread flour
- 75 grams finely shredded parmesan cheese optional
For the topping
- 75 grams finely shredded parmesan cheese
- 20 grams pesto measure with your heart here, for a more subtle flavor don't add any additional pesto on top
- Optional: sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, artichokes, olives, onion, roasted garlic, red pepper flakes for topping as desired
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, 30 grams pesto, 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: about 30 minutes after autolyse is complete Coil fold #2: 30 minutes later. This is when I like to add the 75 grams of shredded parmesan cheese – it’s optional, but really delicious. 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 1 tablespoon of olive oil 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.
- Carefully drop small spoonfuls of pesto around the top of the dough and top with remaining parmesan cheese.
- Baking: Bake at 425 °F 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 at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
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.
For a more subtle pesto flavor, use 30 grams of pesto in the dough, but don't add any additional pesto on the top.
