Sourdough Focaccia Bread

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Recipe's preparation

Stage 1

1. Whisk the starter with water, honey, and salt until incorporated speed 3/10 seconds
2. Add flour and mix speed 4/10 seconds until it's all combined, then knead "Dough mode" for 3 minutes, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides and hold itself.
3. Tip the dough into a large bowl (it'll be sticky so you might need a sturdy spatula to help get it all out).
4. Cover the bowl with a very damp cloth and set aside in a warm place. Let rise for about 4 hours, dough will have risen some and be puffy, showing a few bubbles on the surface. This will depend on how warm the weather is and how active your starter is. I'm in QLD but use the discard from my starter for this recipe so I need the full 4 hours. Colder climates will take longer as well.

Stage 2

Now stretch and fold four “corners” of the dough, basically on top of itself.

Cover again and let rest several hours at room temperature until dough has doubled from original size, has a few bubbles on top, has a glossy finish and is jiggly if you nudge the bowl. This usually takes another 4-5 hours, if your starter isn't too old.

Depending on how the time is looking, you can move the dough to the fridge overnight. If you're using a nice fresh starter, after folding, cover the bowl and put in the fridge overnight to continue proofing. The fridge slows the fermentation process down.

But if, like me, you use the starter that's been sitting in your fridge all week unloved, you may need to leave the dough on the bench all night to get it nice and bubbly.

Phase 3

Drizzle the top of dough with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Brush a baking tray or cake pan liberally with olive oil, distributing all the way to sides of pan.
Using lightly oiled hands, gently scrape dough out into your cake pan or baking tray. Using your hands, gently stretch the edges of the dough to mostly fill the pan, leaving dough alone when it's about 2-3cm tall. You don't want it to be thin. It will continue to spread out more. Let rise in a warm spot, covered with another sheet pan that’s upside down (so it has room to rise) for 2-3 hours until it is puffy and super bubbly. This amount of time will depend on how warm your house. Warmer will rise faster, cooler it will rise slower.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 200°C
At this point the dough should have visible bubbles in it. If not, let it rise more. Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil onto the bread, get a little oil on your fingers then press your fingertips using your whole hand into the risen dough. Your fingertips should go all the way down through the dough, hitting the pan.
Put pan in oven on middle rack and bake for 15 minutes.
While it's in there, mince the garlic speed 7/5 seconds, scrap down. Then add the butter and melt in the TM bowl 2-3min/50C/speed 2. Add the oregano and mix again speed 2/10 seconds. Alternatively, you can melt the butter in the microwave then add the garlic & oregano.
Remove bread and turn the oven down to 190°C.
Brush dough with melted butter, oregano, and chopped garlic.

Return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes. Switch over to your grill function (door open), then grill the top for 1-2 minutes to brown, watching carefully to see it turn golden brown.
Let cool for 15 minutes and eat.