This lemon blueberry sourdough focaccia is soft, chewy sourdough with a crisp golden bottom, packed with jammy blueberry filling and finished with buttery crumble and a sweet lemon glaze. If you love my sourdough bread base but want a bakery-style sweet bake, this is the recipe that delivers it.
The first time I had this lemon blueberry sourdough focaccia, I thought I was biting into a donut. The edges were crisp, the inside was moist and chewy, and bursting with fresh blueberry filling, sweet lemon glaze, and a crumble topping. It's part breakfast bread, part bakery-style treat, and 100% crave-worthy. This recipe was inspired by a video interview I saw of Taylor Swift casually mentioning that she had been making lemon blueberry sourdough, and I had to try turning it into a focaccia. I gotta say, I nailed it.
This sweet version is built on the same dough as my easy sourdough focaccia recipe, swapping rosemary and flake salt for a jammy blueberry-lemon filling baked right into the crumb.
Quick Glance at the Recipe: Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia
- Recipe Name: Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia
- Why You'll Love It: Chewy, juicy, buttery, and just sweet enough. Sourdough depth meets jelly-donut energy with a crisp golden crust and a lemon glaze finish.
- Time and Difficulty: Easy but slow. About 35 minutes of active work spread across two days, with a 12-hour overnight bulk ferment and a 2-hour second rise. Total time: 14 hours 35 minutes.
- Main Ingredients: Bread flour, active sourdough starter, honey, fresh or frozen blueberries, lemon zest and juice, ClearJel (or cornstarch), and a butter-and-olive-oil crumble.
- Method: Mix dough Day 1, ferment overnight, cook the blueberry filling, stretch and book-fold the dough on Day 2 with filling inside, second-rise 2 hours, dimple and top with more filling and crumble, bake at 425º F, glaze warm.
- Texture and Flavor: Crisp golden bottom, chewy open crumb, jammy blueberry pockets, buttery sweet crumble, and a tart lemon finish.
- Quick Tip: Use a bubbly starter that doubles in 4 hours after a feed. A sluggish starter is the single most common reason this focaccia under-rises.
Jump to:
- Quick Glance at the Recipe: Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia
- What Makes This Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia So Good
- Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Ingredients
- How To Make Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Step-By-Step
- Common Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Problems To Avoid
- How To Reheat Focaccia
- Make This Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Recipe Your Own
- Tips and Tricks for Success
- Reheating without losing the crisp bottom
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Blueberry Themed Bakes To Whip Up
- Recipe
What Makes This Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia So Good
This isn't just a regular focaccia with berries thrown on top. The technique here is what separates it from the dozens of other lemon blueberry sourdough recipes online:
A 12-hour cold-ish bulk ferment, not an overnight cold proof. This recipe lives at room temperature (65 to 80º F) for the overnight rise, which keeps the dough soft and pliable for the book fold the next morning. A cold proof is for shaped loaves; a room-temperature ferment is right for focaccia.
The blueberries get cooked into a thick jammy filling first. Most recipes drop whole frozen or fresh berries straight into the dough, and the berries leak juice during the bake, leaving wet caverns in the crumb and purple streaks bleeding through the bread. Cooking the berries down with ClearJel locks the juice into a sliceable jam that holds its shape between layers of dough.
The filling gets folded in with a book fold, not mixed in. Sourdough does not like to be over-handled once it has fermented. The book fold sandwiches the filling in clean layers without deflating the dough or smearing the berry juice through the crumb.
Lemon stays in the filling and on top, not in the dough. Lemon zest is oil-soluble, which means it does not distribute evenly into wet, high-hydration sourdough. Keeping the zest in the cooked filling and sprinkling more on top before the second rise gives every bite real lemon flavor without fighting the dough.
Butter AND olive oil under the dough. Most focaccia recipes use only olive oil. The butter caramelizes during the bake and gives the bottom that golden, jelly-donut-like fried edge that takes the texture up a notch.
Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Ingredients
This is a pantry-staple sourdough plus a quick stovetop blueberry jam. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results, especially with the sourdough portion. Grams matter for sourdough hydration.
- Bread flour. Bread flour produces a nicer chew and develops better structure in sourdough, but if all you have is all-purpose flour, that will work too. You'll just get a softer crumb and fewer big holes. I prefer organic bread flour from King Arthur.
- Active sourdough starter. An active, bubbly sourdough starter is essential. I feed mine in the morning, then put it in a warm place. Once it has doubled in size, it's good to go. Your starter should be doubling within 4 hours.
- Water. Helps hydrate the dough. I like to use warm water (around 90º F) when my kitchen is cool, but if it's hot where you live, just use room temp.
- Honey. Adds flavor, gives a boost to the yeast, and helps keep the crumb soft. I use honey from my friend Krissy (from Self Proclaimed Foodie), who raises her own bees, and I treat that stuff like liquid gold. You can use corn syrup, maple syrup, glucose, or leave it out entirely.
- Salt. Crucial for flavor. I always add it in with the first fold, never with the autolyse, because adding it too early can interfere with hydration. I use ancient fine sea salt from Real Salt, but any fine sea salt works.
- Olive oil and butter. The olive oil goes in the dough during the first fold, and both olive oil AND butter go under the dough in the pan. They bring richness, moisture, and that golden, crispy edge that makes the focaccia taste like a jelly donut.
- Blueberries. The star here. Fresh is best when they're in season, but frozen totally works (more on the frozen-berry handling in Common Problems below). I cook them down into a thick blueberry filling so the juices do not leak out during the bake.
- Lemon zest and juice. Brightens the flavor and cuts the sweetness. Zest is essential here. Don't skip it. The juice goes into the filling and the glaze.
- ClearJel. My go-to thickener for fruit fillings. It stays glossy and stable when baked, doesn't break down at high heat, and gives that bakery-jam shine. If you don't have it, cornstarch works (1:1 swap). Just note the texture will be a little cloudier and softer.
- Powdered sugar. For the lemon glaze. The glaze gets drizzled on while the focaccia is still warm so it melts slightly into the crust.
- All-purpose flour and brown sugar. For the buttery crumble topping that goes on right before the bake.
How To Make Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Step-By-Step
This is a two-day bake. Day 1 is the dough (about 5 minutes of active work + 12 hours of waiting). Day 2 is the filling, the shaping, the second rise, and the bake. The whole thing is hands-off; you just need to be home for the windows where the dough needs you
- Day 1: Mix the dough. Combine the sourdough starter, warm water, and honey in a large bowl. Add the bread flour and mix until no dry bits remain. Cover and let rest 30 minutes for the autolyse. Add the salt and fold it in by hand. With wet hands, pull the edges of the dough up and over the center on all four sides (one round of stretch and fold).
- Bulk ferment overnight. Cover the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave it in a warm spot (65 to 80º F) for 12 hours, until doubled in size and bubbly across the top.
- Day 2 - Make the blueberry filling. In a saucepan, combine the blueberries, sugar, water, lemon zest, and lemon juice over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Mix the ClearJel with cold water to make a slurry, pour it into the simmering berries, and cook until thick and jammy. Cool completely.
- Shape and book-fold. Pour a thin, even layer of olive oil and melted butter into a 9x13 sheet pan. Turn the dough out into the pan and stretch it into a rectangle. Spread about 1 cup of the cooled filling over the dough, sprinkle with extra lemon zest, then book-fold the dough: fold the top and bottom toward the center, then fold in half like a letter. Place seam-side down.
- Second rise. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 2 hours or until very puffy and bubbly on the surface.
- Make the crumble and glaze. While the dough rises, combine the soft butter, flour, and sugar with a hand mixer until crumbly and set aside. Stir together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze and set aside.
- Top and bake. Preheat the oven to 425º F. Dimple the dough with oiled fingers, drizzle with more olive oil and melted butter, dollop the remaining blueberry filling over the top, and sprinkle with the crumble. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown, and the berries are bubbling.
- Glaze warm, cool fully. Lift the focaccia out of the pan onto a wire rack. Drizzle the lemon glaze over the warm focaccia (the glaze melts slightly into the crust this way). Let cool completely before slicing.
Common Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Problems To Avoid
- Purple streaks bleeding through the dough. This happens when frozen blueberries get added to the dough whole, without being cooked first. The freeze-thaw cycle bursts the berry cells and the juice runs through the dough during the second rise. Fix: cook the berries into a filling FIRST (this recipe does that). If you ever want to add a few whole berries on top after the second rise, toss them in flour or cornstarch first to slow the bleed.
- Wet caverns where the berries used to be. Whole frozen berries thaw during the bake, release a tablespoon of water each, and leave hollow pockets in the crumb. The cooked-jam approach in this recipe avoids this entirely because the juice is locked into the ClearJel.
- Soggy bottom. Too much filling pressed into the dough at the dimpling stage, or you skipped the butter-and-oil pan prep. The oil-and-butter combo under the dough is what creates the crisp barrier between the dough and the moisture from the filling.
- Filling sinks through the dough during the bake. You skipped the book fold and just spread the filling on top, OR your dough was overproofed before shaping. The book fold creates a load-bearing layer of dough above and below the filling; that's how it stays in pockets instead of sinking to the bottom.
- Glaze runs off and pools at the edges. You glazed when the focaccia was still hot. Wait until it's warm (still around 100º F to the touch), not hot. At that temp the glaze melts slightly into the crust but holds its drizzle shape.
- Crumble topping disappears into the dough. You drizzled the oil and butter AFTER the crumble. The order matters: dimple, drizzle oil and butter, dollop filling, then crumble last so it sits on top.
How To Reheat Focaccia
This focaccia is best the day of, but it holds well for 2 to 3 days. The challenge is reheating without going either gummy or dry. The move: preheat the oven (or a toaster oven) to 350º F, place the focaccia DIRECTLY on the rack (not a baking sheet) for 4 to 5 minutes. The direct contact with the hot rack re-crisps the bottom, and the dry oven heat doesn't add moisture back into the crumb. Microwave works in a pinch but kills the crisp edge.
Make This Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Focaccia Recipe Your Own
Switch out the blueberries for pretty much any filling you like!
Berry
- Raspberry Cake Filling - raspberry-lemon focaccia, same lemon glaze, just swap raspberries for blueberries
- Berry Cake Filling - mixed berry focaccia (raspberry + blueberry + blackberry) with a vanilla glaze
- Glossy Blackberry Filling - blackberry-lemon, swap the glaze to a brown butter drizzle
- Strawberry Reduction - strawberries-and-cream focaccia, top with vanilla glaze and crushed shortbread crumble
- 10 Minute Strawberry Topping - fastest swap, when you don't have time to make a full filling
Stone fruit
- Peach Filling - peach-vanilla focaccia, almond crumble on top, perfect for late summer
- Homemade Cherry Filling - cherry focaccia, drizzle warm with chocolate ganache instead of glaze for a black-forest vibe
Apple and fall
- Apple Filling - cinnamon apple focaccia, swap the glaze for a cinnamon cream cheese drizzle
- Foolproof Caramel Sauce - pair with the apple filling above for a caramel apple focaccia, drizzle the caramel on warm
- Homemade Cranberry Filling - cranberry-orange focaccia for Thanksgiving and Christmas (swap lemon zest for orange)
Citrus and sweet specialty
- Lemon Curd - double-lemon focaccia, drop the blueberries entirely, swirl curd in the book fold + drizzle more on top
- Dulce de Leche - sticky caramel focaccia, no glaze needed, top with flaky sea salt
- Coconut Pecan Filling - German chocolate-inspired focaccia, pair with a chocolate ganache drizzle
Tips and Tricks for Success
- Use a bubbly starter: It should double within 4-6 hours after feeding.
- Let time do the work: No kneading necessary. Just mix, rest, and fold.
- Cool the filling: Don't add it hot, or it'll mess with your dough structure.
- Don't skip the butter and oil: They give you that signature golden, crispy bottom.
Reheating without losing the crisp bottom
This focaccia is best the day of, but it holds well for 2 to 3 days. The challenge is reheating without going either gummy or dry. The move: preheat the oven (or a toaster oven) to 350º F, place the focaccia DIRECTLY on the rack (not a baking sheet) for 4 to 5 minutes. The direct contact with the hot rack re-crisps the bottom, and the dry oven heat doesn't add moisture back into the crumb. Microwave works in a pinch but kills the crisp edge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, frozen blueberries work great for the filling. Don't thaw them first. Add them straight from the freezer into the saucepan with the sugar, water, and lemon. They'll release their juice as they cook and turn into the same jammy filling. If you ever want to also add a few whole berries on top of the focaccia at the dimpling stage, toss them in a teaspoon of flour first to slow any color bleed.
A book fold is a way of folding dough that creates layers, kind of like folding a sheet of paper into thirds. You stretch the dough into a rectangle, spread the filling across the surface, fold the top edge toward the center, fold the bottom edge to meet it, then fold the whole thing in half like closing a book. This creates dough-filling-dough layers that hold the filling in place during the second rise and the bake instead of letting it sink to the bottom of the pan.
No, cornstarch works as a 1:1 swap. The reason ClearJel is my preference is that it's a modified food starch that stays glossy and stable when baked at high temperatures, where cornstarch can break down and turn the filling a little cloudy and softer. Both work; ClearJel just gives a more bakery-jam finish.
A metal 9x13 sheet pan is the standard and gives the crispiest bottom. Avoid glass or ceramic pans for this recipe because they don't conduct heat as quickly, which means the bottom of the focaccia won't crisp the same way. A heavy aluminum quarter sheet pan or a half sheet pan works too.
Wrap leftover focaccia loosely in foil or store it in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Don't refrigerate it; the fridge dries out sourdough fast. To bring it back to life, pop a slice directly on the oven rack at 350º F for 4 to 5 minutes to re-crisp the bottom. After day 3, the focaccia is best toasted or turned into croutons.
More Blueberry Themed Bakes To Whip Up
Recipe
Equipment
- 1 9"x13" Pan
Ingredients
Focaccia
- 75 grams Sourdough Starter
- 400 grams Water Warmed to 90ºF
- 25 grams Honey
- 500 grams Bread Flour
- 10 grams Salt
- 35 grams Olive Oil
Blueberry Filling
- 16 ounces fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1 ounce butter
- 6 ounces water
- 2 ounces sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ounce ClearJel
- 1 ounce cold water
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Crumble Topping
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ⅛ cup sugar
- 3 Tablespoons soft butter
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Day 1
- 12 hours before you want to bake your sourdough, mix together the sourdough starter, warm water, and honey together in a large bowl. I usually do this at li ke 8 or 9pm so I can bake in the morning.
- Add in the flour, mix until combined.
- Cover the dough and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. This allows time for the flour to hydrate and the gluten begin to activate.
- Add in the salt and mix it in thoroughly.
- With wet hands, pull the edges of the dough upwards until they won't stretch anymore then fold over onto itself. Repeat on all four sides of the dough. (see the video for a demonstration).
- Cover the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap and place it in a warm place (65ºF-80ºF) for 12 hours (overnight). Keep in mind that if your room is colder or hotter, the bread may rise slower or faster.
Blueberry Filling
- Add your blueberries, sugar, water, lemon zest, and lemon juice to a saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a simmer.
- Combine the cold water and ClearJel together to make a slurry.
- Pour the mixture into the blueberry mixture and cook over medium-high heat until it thickens. Set it aside to cool. Cover and refrigerate to use tomorrow.
Day 2
- Cover your sheet pan in a thin even layer of olive oil and melted butter.
- Add the dough to the sheet pan and stretch it out into a rectangle.
- Spread a cup of the filling over the dough with lemon zest.
- Fold the edges of the dough over each other to enclose the filling (book fold).
- Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 2 hours or more or until it's very puffy and risen well.
Crumble Topping
- Combine your flour, butter, and sugar together using a hand mixer until combined and set it aside.
Baking The Focaccia
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF.
- Dimple the top of the dough with oiled fingers. Drizzle the top of the dough with more olive oil and melted butter.
- Add some more dollops of blueberry filling on top.
- Sprinkle the surface with the crumble topping.
- Bake your focaccia for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove the bread from the pan after it's done baking and let it cool on a wire rack before cutting into it.
Video
Notes
- Bread flour vs all-purpose flour. Bread flour produces a chewier crumb with bigger open holes. All-purpose flour produces a softer, denser, more moist crumb. Either works. Bread flour is closer to the bakery-style result.
- Active starter is non-negotiable. Your starter should double within 4 hours of a feed. A sluggish starter (more than 6 hours to double) is the single most common reason this focaccia under-rises overnight. Feed your starter the morning of Day 1 and check it's doubled before you mix the dough that evening.
- ClearJel vs cornstarch. ClearJel is a modified food starch that stays glossy and stable at 425º F. Cornstarch works as a 1:1 swap, but the filling will be slightly cloudier and softer.
- Olive oil quality matters here. It's not just a structural ingredient, it's a flavor ingredient. Use a decent extra-virgin olive oil; the bottom of the focaccia tastes like it.
- Honey alternatives. No honey on hand? Corn syrup, maple syrup, glucose, or even just plain sugar all work. The honey is feeding the wild yeast and adding flavor, not doing anything structural.
- Fresh vs frozen blueberries. Both work for the filling. If using frozen, add them straight from the freezer into the saucepan, do not thaw first. Frozen berries release water as they cook, so reduce the filling water by 2 ounces if you go frozen.
- 9x13 sheet pan (standard): bake 20 to 25 minutes at 425º F
- Quarter sheet pan (9x13): same as above
- Half sheet pan (13x18): thinner focaccia, bake 18 to 22 minutes
- Two 9-inch round cake pans: split the dough between two pans, bake 18 to 22 minutes
- 10-inch cast iron skillet: half recipe, bake 25 to 30 minutes for a deeper, breadier focaccia
- Blueberry filling: make up to 3 days ahead, store in the fridge in an airtight container. Stir before using.
- Crumble topping: mix up to 2 days ahead, store in the fridge.
- Cold-proof option: after the 12-hour bulk ferment, you can move the dough to the fridge for up to 24 hours before doing the book fold. Pull it 2 hours before shaping to warm up.
- Baked focaccia (room temp): wrap loosely in foil or store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Do not refrigerate, it dries out sourdough fast.
- Reheating: place a slice directly on the oven rack (not a sheet pan) at 350º F for 4 to 5 minutes to re-crisp the bottom without drying out the crumb.
- Freezing: do not freeze the assembled focaccia, the cornstarch in the filling breaks down on thaw and the bread goes soggy. You can freeze the cooked blueberry filling on its own for up to 3 months.
- Off-season blueberries: swap 16 oz fresh/frozen for 6 oz dried (rehydrate in 8 oz warm water for 30 minutes, reduce recipe water by 6 oz) or 3 oz freeze-dried (add 12 oz water to the filling).
- Other fruit fillings: any thick fruit filling works (raspberry, blackberry, cherry, peach, apple, cranberry, marionberry, strawberry reduction). Match the moisture to the original blueberry filling.
- Lemon out, orange in: sub orange zest and juice 1:1 for an orange blueberry version, especially good for winter.
- Bread flour out: all-purpose flour works, see Ingredient notes above for texture difference.
- No ClearJel: cornstarch 1:1.
- No glaze: dust with powdered sugar after cooling for a less-sweet finish.
- Do not add hot filling to the dough. Warm filling deflates the dough and breaks the gluten you spent 12 hours building. Cool to room temp or chilled before book-folding.
- Do not add salt with the initial mix. Salt slows hydration and gluten development. Hold it back until after the 30-minute autolyse.
- Do not skip the butter and olive oil under the dough. That layer is what creates the crisp golden bottom. Skip it and you get soggy bottom focaccia.
- Do not refrigerate the finished focaccia. The fridge dries out sourdough fast. Store at room temp.
- Do not add whole frozen berries on top after the second rise. They thaw during the bake, bleed purple streaks, and leave wet caverns in the crumb. Use the cooked filling dollops on top instead.
