Honey Butter Sourdough Focaccia Bread
Another great sourdough recipe for you! Try this honey butter sourdough focaccia bread and enjoy the sweet and buttery flavor od this fantastic sourdough focaccia bread!
If you are new here, welcome! I share tons of recipes…sourdough is my main gig these days…and so much more! I have shared a few focaccia bread recipes here including:
Our Favorite
Sourdough Focaccia Recipes
We love sourdough bread at our house, and focaccia bread is one of the kids most favorite. We love it for its airy and bubbly texture as well as the fact that you can make just about any combination of flavored focaccia bread.
Honey butter focaccia bread is such a simple recipe but also one that is oh so good. I bake the honey butter on the bread int he oven and then when it comes out, I like to drizzle the remaining honey butter over the bread to add even more of that sweet buttery goodness.
I also like to sprinkle flakey sea salt over the bread after that. The flakes along with the sweet honey butter is a wonderful combination of flavors and textures.
Have you ever made focaccia bread of any kind? Sourdough focaccia dough as well as regualr focaccia dough should be quite a loose and sticky dough. My recipe is almost a 100 percent hydration dough which means there is almost equal amounts of bread and water in the dough.
This makes for a light and airy dough with all those yummy air pockets to fill up with honey. This is an easy sourdough focaccia recipe as well. It can be mixed up the night before, let sit overnight to bulk ferment and then placed in a baking dish the next morning, placed in a warm spot and allowed a finish rise before dimpling the dough and baking.
I know it may seem daunting, but really, sourdough focaccia is hard to truly mess up. ONE TIP…do not pop all the glorious bubbles when you dimple the dough. You want to keep as many as you can!
This bread is baked in a 9 by 13 baking pan, not a loaf pan or a dutch oven.
Make sure to get my new honey butter sourdough focaccia bread recipe below!
Honey Butter Sourdough Focaccia Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz active sourdough starter
- 1 1/2 cups water (plus 3 tbsp) also 400g
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 cups bread flour
- 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for the bowl
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for the bread ( you can use less or more as needed)
Toppings (all optional)
- 5 tbsp melted butter
- 5 tbsp honey
- flakey sea salt optional
Instructions
- First, you need to get a large mixing bowl. It can be plastic or glass but not metal. Metal can react to the starter. I like to use a glass bowl and transfer it all into my proofing container with a lid when its time for its bulk fermentation.
- Take your sourdough starter and water and mix them in the bowl(it does not need to be warm water). I like to use a digital scale to measure these out. Once they are combined, add your honey, salt and bread flour(you can use all purpose flour but i prefer bred flour). Mix this until it is well combined. I like to use my danish dough whisk but you can use a wooden spoon. At a certain point it will become easier to mix it with your hands, and this is exactly what I do.
- Once it is combined well, cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let it sit for about 30 minutes. After about 30 minutes, you want to do your first knead. With wet hands, take the dough from one of the sides of the bowl, lift it, and fold it over the dough. Repeat this, rotating the bowl and raising the dough and laying it across itself. I do this to all sides and then let it rest. This should be a very wet dough. If it is tough, add a bit more water to it. Only 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Its time to let the wild yeast do its thing. You can let it sit at room temperature to let it bulk ferment, but if I have time I will make sure to repeat the kneading process a couple more times. If I make it in the evening, I have plenty of time to do this since there is not a lot of active work, it only takes about 10 minutes of my evening to get my dough going.
- If you want to bake your bread the next morning I would recommend leaving it out on your counter at room temperature, covered.If you want to wait and bake it the next evening, I would put your dough in the fridge to allow the yeast to slow down overnight. I have woken up to dough that has burst the lid and it spilling over the side of the bowl. If you choose this route, you simply need to take the dough out a couple hours prior to baking
- So for ease with these instructions, I will be going with the first option which is what I usually do(bulk fermenting on the counter overnight). With either option you want to cover bowl with plastic wrap to prevent the dough from drying out.
- In the morning, the dough should have at least doubled in size, mine often quadruples in size. This is from the longer fermentation process. This long rise is what will give your bread its amazing flavor.
- Oil the counter and gently let the dough drop out of the bowl or container onto your countertop. You want to try to avoid popping all those bubbles. I gently spread the dough, pulling the corners to make it larger. I will then fold the dough over itself once or twice. Then I will make sure to oil my 9 by 13 cake pan with a 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or use nonstick spray.
- Transfer dough carefully in the sheet pan and gently pull it so that it starts to fill the pan. You do not to stress about it too much because it will spread and once we poke those holes in it, it will fill the entire pan.
- At this point I like to cover the pan with a towel and let the dough rise once again until it doubles its original size. This can take about 1-2 hours. It will totally depend on how active your starter was.
- PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 425 DEGREES F
- While the dough is rising in the pan, mix your melted butter and honey together. Once it has doubled in size, carefully pour about 2/3 of the honey butter mixture over the top of the dough and gently spread it across with your hands.
- Now its time to poke those holes in the focaccia bread. Gently poke to create dimples in the bread. The honey butter will fill those dimples.
- Put the bread in the hot oven and bake on the middle shelf for about 20-25 minutes. You are looking for a nice darker golden brown color on the top and the bottom will be nice and crispy.
- When it is done, take the focaccia out of the oven, Pour the remaining honey butter over the top of the bread( you can use a pastry brush to spread it) and sprinkle with flakey sea salt.
- Cut and enjoy! You can enjoy this warm or room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap to store. You can also store this in plastic bags. I will often cut it into slices and bag it up so the kids can grab it easily. This is amazing toasted or right out of the bag!
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Want more sourdough or sourdough discard recipes? Make sure to check them out below!
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