Ingredients

• 1 cup - sourdough
• 3.5 cups - whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup - all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup - vital wheat gluten (if you can't find this, substitute one more cup of the whole-wheat with all-purpose)
• 2 tsp - active dry yeast
• Salt to taste
• 4 tbsp - extra virgin olive oil
• 2.25 cups - warm water
• For the topping:
• 2 tbsp - finely minced rosemary
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
• 1 tsp - sea salt

How to Make Whole-Wheat Focaccia

• Mix the toppings together in a small bowl and set aside.
• Mix the yeast in 1/2 cup of water and set aside to froth for five minutes.
• After five minutes, add the sourdough to a large bowl. Then add the flours, oil, and the remaining water and mix with a wooden spoon or in the bowl of a stand mixer until everything comes together. This is a very sticky dough at this stage, but that is what will make this focaccia light and airy.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in an oven with the pilot light on or in a warm place for about 1.5 hours or until it has doubled in size.
• Using an oiled spatula, turn the dough over on itself in the bowl for a total of 10 times. You don't want to deflate the dough too much so don't knead it by hand.
• Turn the dough over into a large baking pan (15 by 10 inches) sprinkled with some coarse salt. Or divide in half and place each half in a 9-inch cake tin.
• Press the dough gently out from the centre so it reaches the sides of the pan.
• Cover the pan or pans with plastic wrap and place in the oven with the pilot on for another hour or until the dough has doubled.
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees at least 30 minutes before baking.
• Using a fork, prick the dough all over to remove any bubbles on top. Don't go heavy-handed because you don't want to deflate the dough.
• Brush the top of the bread with the rosemary-olive oil mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
• Remove the focaccia pan or pans from the oven and let stand on a rack for five minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and continue to cool on the rack.
• Recipe courtesy: Holy Cow Vegan