Chestnut Sourdough Focaccia
Our friend Kate Ray shares this Chestnut Focaccia recipe. We encourage you to sign up for her substack for many more amazing recipes — most are vegan and many focus on Hudson Valley and Northeast regional ingredients.
Kate Says:
I’m not sure if I’m legally allowed to call this focaccia. I started with a sourdough focaccia recipe, but slowly changed the flours and removed some of the olive oil and what I’ve ended up with a moist chewy flatbread that’s full of flavor but not as floofy as most people associate with “typical” focaccia. (Of course, there isn’t really a typical focaccia, since the bread varies vastly by region.) I make a version of this with soft red whole wheat flour that I also love (let me know if you want that variation), but this version has an extra nutty taste and toothsome texture due to the coarse chestnut flour mixed in.
Start this recipe a few days before you actually want to eat the bread. If I want it on Sunday, for instance, I refresh my sourdough starter on Friday morning, mix the leaven on Friday night, and make the dough on Saturday to bake at any time on Sunday. If that seems like a lot of work (or of course if you don’t have a sourdough culture going), this recipe probably isn’t for you. This focaccia makes a great sandwich — slice it horizontally and make a PB&J or goat cheese with balsamic dressed arugula.
Not as tall as my regular focaccia but still got some bubbles. See the tiny granules of chestnut flour?
Ingredients
Leaven:
15 grams active 100% hydration sourdough starter
30 mL water
30 grams spelt flour
Dough:
360 mL water
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons maple syrup
160 grams spelt flour
200 grams bread flour
100 grams coarse chestnut flour
10 grams sea salt
15 grams extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for topping
Crunchy salt for sprinkling
Method
8-12 hours before mixing your dough (either the night or morning ahead), prepare your leaven: Mix together the starter, water, and spelt flour, cover and leave at warm room temperature.
In a large bowl, mix together all of your leaven, the additional 360 mL water, yeast, maple syrup, and the three kinds of flour. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle the salt and 15 grams olive oil on top of the dough and mix in.
Perform three more stretch and folds at 30-minute intervals (so about 2 hours total). Put the dough into a large container with a lid and leave in the fridge for 8 hours up to 3 days.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450°F.
Pour the dough onto a parchment-lined quarter sheet tray. If it’s still cold and snaps back, let it rest until you can press it out to the edges.
Let rise in a warm place (I usually put it on top of the stove, which is emitting heat from the oven) for about 90 minutes, covered by a dishcloth.
Drizzle olive oil all over the dough and press the balls of your fingers into it to dimple it.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle crunchy salt evenly over the top. Lightly spray the focaccia with a water sprayer (to form a crust and anchor the salt crystals in place).
Let cool before slicing and serving.
I highly recommend a PB&J