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This Gluten-Free Sourdough Focaccia Bread is a simple seven-ingredient focaccia recipe that’s made with gluten-free sourdough discard. It’s easy to make, super fluffy and soft, and absolutely delicious! Perfect for dunking in olive oil, using as sandwich bread, or making into sourdough croutons.
Want to make focaccia without a sourdough starter? You’ll love this quick and easy gluten-free focaccia recipe made with yeast!
Early in my gluten-free sourdough bread journey, I wanted to try making focaccia. I had never made focaccia before — gluten-free, sourdough, or otherwise, and I was a bit lost on where to start. I scoured some recipes that used sourdough and all seemed longer and more complicated than they needed to be. They also used eggs, and I want to keep this recipe vegan. So, as it always does, I couldn’t find what I was looking for and had to start on my own journey in focaccia land.
Thankfully, the focaccia gods were smiling upon me and it turns out – gluten-free sourdough focaccia can be EASY. It can be made with sourdough discard, doesn’t need eggs, and doesn’t even need a whole lot of ingredients. In fact, this recipe uses just seven ingredients…and two of those ingredients are water and salt.
This recipe is adapted from my gluten-free sourdough pizza crust – a major winner in itself that you’ve got to try if you haven’t yet!
Love this focaccia recipe? You’ll adore all of my favorite gluten-free sourdough recipes!
Madison says: “This is the best gluten free bread ever! This is my third time making it (the last one I made I brought to a potluck and got compliments). Thank you for putting this lovely recipe with its AMAZINGLY EASY to follow instructions out into the universe.”
Here’s what you need to make gluten-free sourdough focaccia:
- Psyllium Husk: this recipe uses whole psyllium husk to provide chew and elasticity to the bread.
- Water: filtered is best for all things sourdough!
- Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter: here’s a how-to make your own gluten-free sourdough starter. It doesn’t need to be super active here, new discard works just fine, just don’t use discard that’s been sitting in your fridge or freezer for a while.
- Starch: I like using potato, tapioca, or arrowroot starch here.
- Gluten-Free Flours: I typically use a combination of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, and/or quinoa flour here. You can also use flours like cassava, teff, buckwheat, etc. Grain and pseudograin flours tend to work best.
- Sea Salt: for flavor!
- Olive Oil: a must for focaccia, make sure to use a good one to drizzle all over your bread before drizzling and baking!
- Toppings of your choice: sometimes I leave the sourdough focaccia plain, other times I press tomatoes into it, as pictured, or top with herbs…but be creative here! There’s tons of great toppings you can use for your focaccia…(see my idea list below!)
Can I use a GF flour blend for this recipe?
If you would like to use a mix that you can pre-make to simplify the baking process, I recommend using my homemade gluten-free bread flour blend. This blend contains both starches and whole grain flours, so you’ll use it in place of the total amount of starch + flour. In this case of this recipe, that is 335g.
If you prefer a store-bought blend, I like this multi-flour blend from Vitacost. This blend uses very similar ingredients to the ones my recipe calls for, with no additives or gums.
How to make gluten-free focaccia:
Full recipe is in the recipe card below!!
- Mix up the psyllium husk and water and give it a few minutes to let it gel up, then add the sourdough starter.
- While the psllyium gels, combine all of your flours and the salt.
- Mix the flour into the psyllium starter mixture and stir to combine. You’ll have a thick, but soft and squishy dough.
- Press into a well-oiled 9×9″ pan, or press into a similar sized shape on a baking sheet.
- Let rise for three to five hours, or until it feels light and puffy.
- Drizzle with olive oil and use your fingers to dimple the dough, being careful not to press too much that you deflate it.
- Add your toppings!
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and baked through.
- Let cool…or tear into it while it’s still warm!
The best focaccia toppings:
In case you need some inspiration, here are some of the best sourdough focaccia toppings to use! Use them alone, or pick a combination.
- Tomatoes (slow roasted or raw)
- Fresh or Dried Herbs
- Cheese (vegan or regular)
- Onions (raw or caramelized)
- Edible Flowers
- Your favorite seasoning blend, like everything bagel seasoning, dukkah, za’atar, etc.
- Caramelized Onions
- Artichoke Hearts
- Roasted Garlic
…and so many more. Whichever you choose, I always recommend a healthy sprinkle of flaky sea salt before it goes into the oven!
Best ways to enjoy focaccia:
- Dunk into olive oil and vinegar as an appetizer
- Turn into gluten-free sourdough croutons
- Serve with your favorite soup recipe
- Use as delicious sandwich bread
Want more gluten-free sourdough goodness?
- Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread
- Easy Gluten-Free Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Gluten-Free Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten-Free Sourdough Scones
Gluten-Free Sourdough Focaccia
Ingredients
- 20 g psyllium husk, see Notes
- 450 g filtered water, room temperature
- 225 g gluten-free sourdough starter, can be active or fresh discard
- 120 g starch of your choice, such as potato starch, tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch. See Notes.
- 215 g gluten-free whole grain flours of your choice, such as quinoa flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, or combination. I have tested with these three. See Notes.
- 12 g to 15g sea salt, use the smaller amount if you’re adding salty toppings
- Olive oil, for drizzling on top
- Toppings of choice: herbs, sea flaky sea salt, tomatoes, raw or caramelized onions…be creative!
Instructions
- Grease a 9×9″ square baking pan with olive oil; set aside.
- Combine the psyllium husk and the water in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Let it thicken and gel up for about 5 minutes. Add in the sourdough starter and mix to combine.20 g psyllium husk, 450 g filtered water, 225 g gluten-free sourdough starter
- Add in the starch, flour, and salt. Mix until a smooth dough forms. If the dough seems sticky, let it rest for a few more minutes to let the psyllium and flours absorb.120 g starch of your choice, 215 g gluten-free whole grain flours of your choice, 12 g to 15g sea salt
- Press into your prepared pan, or press it into a similarly sized shape on a baking sheet.
- Let rise for 3 to 5 hours at warm room temperature, or for up to a day in the refrigerator. The dough will feel lighter and puffy when it’s ready.
- An hour before you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- When it’s fully risen, drizzle the dough with a healthy glug of olive oil and use your fingers to press dimples into the dough.Olive oil
- Add toppings if desired, or just sprinkle with flaky sea salt.Toppings of choice: herbs
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through. If you’d like to test for temperature, you’re looking for an internal temp of about 210°F (or a little less if you’re at altitude).
- Let cool for 30 minutes and then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire baking rack (this keeps the bottom from getting soggy).
- Store at room temperature for two to three days, in the fridge for up to a week, or slice and freeze in an airtight container for up to six months.
Thank you so much for this recipe! This focaccia is delicious! So nice to be able to eat sourdough again and your recipes are wonderful and easy to follow! I ordered your cookbook and look forward to making more of your great recipes!
So glad you’re loving the bread, Cheryl!
My dough was more like cake batter , hellpppp!
Did you use psyllium husk? That should help thicken things up!
This foccacia is to die for! Absolutely delicious! I kept the dough in the refrigerator for one day and baked right away from the refrigerator. Maybe that affected the baking as I baked twice longer. The toothpick was not clean so I continued to bake. Anyway, the crust is crunchy and I love it!
Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe
So glad you enjoyed it, Lina!
Could this be made in a loaf pan to use for sandwich bread? How would you adjust cooking times if so? I’ve made it several times in an 8×8 and we love it but I’d like larger slices for sandwiches.
Hi Rachel, have you try including potato flour in the grain flour combination? If yes, did it work?
Hi Holly, no I have never used potato flour.
If I want to use this recipe for pizza, do I bake it first then add toppings? Or put toppings on raw dough?
Hi Cindy, I wouldn’t recommend putting the toppings on raw dough because it will weigh it down – I’d bake for at least half the time to let the dough rise and set on top before adding your toppings!
Hey! I have some discard in the fridge I need to use. I’m very new to this gluten free sourdough journey. My starter was VERY active and lovely. I used majority for sourdough bread(which was unfortunately very gummy and soft inside-it was my first bake). I realized when I refed the starter after taking what I needed for the bread I kept too much and didn’t know the grams resulting in underfeeding so it was not bubbly or risen. The discard I have is from that jar when I ended up measuring to keep only 20g and do a bigger feed in hopes to save my starter. Would I be wasting the recipe to use that discard that was from a very active starter the morning before and then underfed the following day? Discard has been in the fridge 2 days.
You can still use it, I’d recommend using it on a discard recipe :) enjoy!
When you bake gluten free you try combinations of things to find the just right mix. I have done so many things with this recipe. By far my favorite is using equal parts brown rice flour, sorghum flour and millet flour. I also have made this in a boule shape using the focaccia recipe and I actually like it better than the regular sourdough recipe that is meant for the boule. The crust is not as hard using this recipe. I want to thank you for all of your hard work and effort helping me finally finding a bread recipe that is sourdough gluten free that is oh soooo yummy that my husband loves it too and he does not have to eat gluten free.
Thank you so much for the helpful review and kind words, Angela! So glad I could help you make some fabulous GF bread :)
Thank you for graciously sharing your recipe. Trying the this recipe. I weighed all ingredients. Use brown rice and sorghum amd potato and tapioca. It is very soupy. Have let it set after mixing an extra 15 minutes still soupy. Not sure if Inshould add more flours or starch or….any thiughtd?
Hi Tammy, did you change anything about the recipe? Or was your starter super liquidy? The dough isn’t as thick as the regular sourdough bread but definitely shouldn’t be too thin or batter-like either.
No, I used it as stated and weighed everything. I ended up adding 80 fe of oat flour, let it rise for since I wrote email (8/2 hrs) Iam going to bake it now. My hf sourdough is always runny. I can not form it into a boule, so I just plop into a loaf pan.
Any thoughts on that?
Thank you for your time and thoughts
Tammy
Hi, my first time making focaccia and have a few questions. I want to make a cinnamon roll type. The recipe I saw was for regular flour and not gluten free. Can I add cinnamon to the dough before hand? Also saw not to add anything on top until maybe half way through. I want to add a butter, cinnamon and brown sugar mix to the top. How long do I wait to add it?
Hi Tracy, cinnamon can imepede dough rise, so I’d recommend sprinkling it onto the dough after mixing and folding it in, to half a cinnamon swirl, instead of adding it directly to the dough. The butter/cinnamon/sugar mix can be poured on after dimpling, before going into the oven, same as you’d add the olive oil. Enjoy!! Sounds delicious :)
Thanks for letting me know. Also the dough was really dry when I mixed it. So I added more water. It seems very gummy now. The water and psyllium husk became pretty thick. Could that have been the reason?
Hi Tracy, that’s odd – this is usually a pretty wet and pliable dough. The psyllium shouldn’t be super thick since this is a lower amount of psyllium recipe. Did you change anything about the recipe?
No I followed it to the t. I thought it was odd too. I used a mix of brown rice flour and sorghum flour. I’ll have to try it again and see if it does the same thing.