This is more baby-post really, like a brioche add-on.

Focaccia and brioche have something in common.  The sponge.

This is basically a gooey bucket of pre-starter if you will…  just yeast, liquid and some flour that sits overnight and does it’s nasty-smelling loving thing.

It’s kind of like a fermentation cheater and foresight at the same time, cause with nothing to inhibit them our yeastie buddies go crazy.

Take that and add it to a dough mixture the next day, and you cut out the fermentation stage you’d have with say, a baguette.

Poof!  A goose!

But more importantly, it’s like the ultimate yeast level-up with flavor perk added, because now they can compete on an equal playing field with eggs, butter, salt, oil, hell anything else you’d add to enrich your bread (focaccia and brioche are enriched breads, the ingredients of which inhibit yeastie fart parties, remember?).

My point.

By taking 10 seconds to make a sponge the day before, you can be the focaccia master at your next, well, anything.  Shit make focaccia for poker night.  You can put pretty much anything on it, and once you make the dough (sponge added), it just needs to rise, add your crap to the top, poke it with “claw fingers” and bake!  Genius.

Form your hands into the shape of claws.  You then take this and smash you fingertips into the dough several times.  This makes the classic focaccia shape when the bread bakes.

I know you were wondering 😉