If you're looking for a sourdough bread that balances sweet heat with soft, pillowy crumb, this Hot Honey Sourdough Focaccia is the recipe to try. Sticky, golden brown, and full of flavour, it's an easy sourdough focaccia recipe that beginners and seasoned bakers alike will enjoy. Perfect for any time of year!
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Blurring the Lines Between Sweet and Savoury
Hot honey sourdough focaccia sits somewhere between a rustic Italian sourdough bread and a sweet-savoured treat. The hot honey gives a gentle warmth that cuts through the richness of olive oil and flaky sea salt, while the chewy edges provide contrast to the fluffy focaccia centre.
This means it pairs just as well with mozzarella cheese, roasted garlic, or a drizzle of avocado oil as it does with butter and jam the next morning.
Personally, I love mine still slightly warm, torn into pieces, and dunked into honey butter for a cheeky snack.
Ingredient Notes
Here's everything you'll need for this Hot Honey Focaccia:
- Bread flour: Use strong bread flour with at least 12% protein. If you're using very strong flour (13%+), you may need a splash more water. Using all-purpose flour will produce a tasty but less airy focaccia (you will need to reduce water amount as well).
- Water: Use slightly warm water if you're short on time to kickstart bulk fermentation.
- Hot honey: Either strained or unstrained works here. If you don't have hot honey, mix regular honey with a pinch of chili flakes.
- Olive oil: A good quality olive oil makes a huge difference to the flavour and texture of focaccia bread recipes. Drizzle generously.
- Active sourdough starter: Make sure your starter is bubbly and active.
- Salt.
Ingredient Spotlight - Hot Honey!
Hot honey has gone viral on TikTok - make it once and you'll see why. It's sweet, spicy, and endlessly versatile. You can buy jars in most supermarkets now, but it's easy to make at home with chili flakes, honey, and a bit of trial with spices.
For this recipe, I used my homemade hot honey with smoked paprika, which adds a subtle smokiness that plays beautifully against the sourdough tang.
Step-By-Step Method
DAY 1
1. Feed the starter
In the morning, feed your sourdough starter (1:1:1 ratio of starter, flour, and water) and leave it in a warm spot until it at least doubles in volume.
2. Fermentolyse
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine bread flour, water, and active starter. Mix on low speed until the flour is just hydrated and you have a rough dough. Cover with a damp tea towel and rest for 1 hour.
3. Add salt, oil, and honey
Scatter salt over the dough. Drizzle with olive oil and, using your hands, squish it into the dough until evenly distributed. Avoid using the mixer at this stage, as it can split the dough. Add hot honey, then knead in the stand mixer on medium speed for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
4. Coil folds and bulk fermentation
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or shallow dish. Cover with cling film or a tea towel and leave for 30 minutes.
Over the next 3 hours, perform 6 sets of coil folds at 30-minute intervals with wet hands. Once completed, cover and leave to finish bulk fermentation undisturbed for 1.5-3 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Sourdough should significantly increase in volume and have lots of blisters on top of the dough.
5. Cold proof
Cover and refrigerate the dough for 8-24 hours (overnight works well).
DAY 2
6. Prepare the tray
Grease and line a 24×24 cm baking pan with a large piece of parchment paper. Brush with olive oil.
7. Second rise
Gently transfer the dough into the tray without deflating it. Stretch to fit the corners. Cover and proof in a warm spot for 1-1.5 hours, until puffy and blistered on the surface.
8. Bake
Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Drizzle olive oil over the dough. With oiled fingers, dimple the top deeply so your fingertips touch the bottom of the pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.
9. Finish and cool
While still hot, drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of hot honey. Cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the tin and slicing.
Tips For Best Sourdough Focaccia
If this is your first time making sourdough focaccia, here are some of my best tips:
💧 Embrace sticky dough: This sourdough focaccia dough is wet. Resist adding extra flour - the coil folds, bulk fermentation and overnight rise, will give you structure.
🔁 Don't skip coil folds: Each second set of stretch and fold helps strengthen the gluten network, giving you that airy crumb.
🫒 Add oil by hand: Always squish olive oil into the dough with a damp hand or wooden spoon before kneading. A stand mixer can cause the oil to separate from the dough.
👀 Watch the dough, not the clock: Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, the dough rise may be faster or slower. Look for jiggle, puffiness, and bubbles at the side of the dough.
👆 Dimple confidently: Oil your fingertips and press at a slight angle. Go deep - right to the bottom of the pan - to create those iconic focaccia dimples.
🔥 Bake in the centre: Position your baking dish in the middle of the oven to ensure an even bake and golden brown surface of the dough.
🥖 Choose the right pan: A baking dish with high sides keeps the dough contained for an even second rise. And you can cover the tray with plastic wrap without it touching the dough.
⏳ Let it cool slightly: Don't cut straight away. Rest for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack to allow the crumb to set.
Storage
Room temperature: Wrap tightly in aluminium foil or plastic wrap and store at room temperature for 1-2 days. Refresh with a quick reheat in the oven if you wish.
Freezer: Slice into portions, wrap well, and freeze, wrapped in cling film, for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in a hot oven for 7-8 minutes.
More Sourdough Focaccia Recipes
If hot honey focaccia has sparked your curiosity, there are plenty more sourdough focaccia recipes to explore. From Turmeric Potato Sourdough Focaccia to Sweet Cinnamon Sourdough Focaccia, there's no shortage of ways to bring a flavourful twist to your sourdough journey.
Hot Honey Sourdough Focaccia
Ingredients
Instructions
DAY 1:
- First thing in the morning, feed your sourdough starter and leave it in a warm spot to at least double in volume. We typically feed our starter in a ratio of 1 part starter: 1 part water: 1 part flour, and it doubles (or even triples) within 4 hours.
Fermentolyse and Mixing The Dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, water, and active sourdough starter. Mix the dough in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment for a few minutes on low speed, until the flour is hydrated. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave the dough to fermentolyse (a type of sourdough autolyse where sourdough starter is added too) for an hour.
- After an hour, scatter the salt on top of the dough. Drizzle the olive oil all over, and using your hands, squish the salt and oil into the dough, aiming to distribute it evenly. TIP: Don't be tempted to just mix the oil in by running the stand mixer - the dough will split, separated by oil layers.
- Once incorporated, drizzle in the hot honey and run your mixer on medium speed for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth and elastic dough. It will be wet, but it should start gathering around the dough hook attachment.
Coil Folds, Bulk Fermentation, Cold Proofing
- Scoop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl (we like to use a heavy shallow dish - it helps with coil folds later). Cover the dough with a damp tea towel or cling film (plastic wrap) and leave it in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
- Over the next 3 hours, at 30-minute intervals, perform a set of coil folds, using wet hands.
- After all 6 sets of coil folds are completed, cover the dough and let it finish its bulk fermentation undisturbed for 1.5-3 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- Place the dough in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours (or simply overnight).
DAY 2:
- The next day, grease and line a baking tray (approx 24x24cm) with parchment paper. Brush the parchment paper with a little extra olive oil.
Second Rise
- Take the dough out of the fridge and very carefully transfer it into the prepared baking tray, trying not to deflate it too much. Stretch it out into the corners of the baking dish.
- Cover it again and leave it in a warm spot to proof for another 1-1.5 hours. It will increase in volume, puff up and have very noticeable blisters across the surface.
Baking
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Drizzle a little olive oil all over the surface of the sourdough.
- Oil your fingers and dimple the top of the dough all over. Dimple deep, so your fingertips touch the bottom of the baking dish.
- Bake the hot honey sourdough focaccia for 20-22 minutes.
- Once the focaccia is cooked (and still hot), drizzle the top with extra hot honey (1-2 tbsp). Cool the focaccia for at least 20 minutes before taking it out of the baking tin and slicing into portions.
Video
Nutrition
Mindy says
This hot honey sourdough focaccia looks amazing! The crispy edges and soft centre make it such a tempting homemade bake.
Ieva Greber says
Thanks, Mindy — crispy edges and a soft centre is exactly the contrast I'm chasing with this one. Hope it tastes just as good as it looks when you give it a go!
Ramona says
I saw sourdough and instantly knew this recipe would be made this week, this hot honey sourdough looks amazing! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Ieva Greber says
Thanks, Ramona — love that "saw sourdough, instantly decided" energy! Hope it lives up to the hype when you make it this week.