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Ingredients:
 How to make Focaccia
Double-Buttermilk Sourdough Focaccia with Serrano Chiles, Shallots and Goat Cheese
I've been wanting to experiment with sourdough for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity. I found both the starter and final loaf recipes online. Whether the buttermilk serves as a bacterial jump start or just provides the right acidity for something else to move in I'm not sure, but either way it worked.
Ingredients Part 1: Buttermilk Starter
1 cup water
1/4 cup buttermilk
1.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Get this rolling 3-5 days in advance, as you'll need a big happy colony of bacteria come baking time.
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Step 1:
 Combine all ingredients in a 1 quart or larger jar. Mix thoroughly, put in a warm part of your kitchen and ignore.
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Step 2:
 As time goes on, fermentation will begin. This starter got an odd yellowish scum on top of it, but underneath it was definitely working.
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Step 3:
 At this stage you have what is known by some cooks as a mother. If you intend to keep the mother, you must feed the mother regularly. If you intend to use the mother only once, it will live up to a week without feeding. Some people advocate a cycle of nearly starving the mother followed by several feedings, to toughen up the bacteria and provide a resilient and vigorous mother.
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Step 4:
 Ingredients Part 2: Buttermilk Sourdough
Stage 1, Proofing:
1 cup active mother
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
Stage 2, Expanding:
3 cups flour
2 cups water
Stage 3, Bread making:
1.25 cups cold buttermilk
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
Additional buttermilk and flour as necessary to attain desired consistency
Method
Stage 1, Proofing
Combine all Stage 1 ingredients in your favorite mixing bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 hours. In the end your colony should be happily (but slowly) bubbling.
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Step 5:
 Stage 2, Expanding
This stage is about providing our bacteria with a larger playground and getting the population really rolling. Combine all ingredients with the results of Stage 1. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight (8+ hours). If all goes well you will be greeted in the morning with a much more energetic and happy fermentation:
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Step 6:
 Stage 3, bread making
Having finally built up a nice supply of our culture, we are ready to start making actual bread. Add the Stage 3 ingredients and mix until the dough comes together into a cohesive mass. Knead by hand for 15 minutes, until the dough is smooth (but probably still a bit sticky).
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Step 7:
 Cover with a moist cloth and let rise for 3-4 hours.
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Step 8:
 Beat this down and roll/stretch/whatever it into your baking vessel.
Let that rise in a warm (~100 degrees F) oven for 1-2 hours.
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Step 9:
 Meanwhile, let's consider toppings.
Toppings
8 small shallots
8 serrano chiles
Some form of aged goat cheese
Midnight Moon, the cheese I'm using here, is very rich and has a strong floral/honey component to it. This made it an excellent complement to the sour notes in the bread.
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Step 10:
 Mince and/or thinly slice the shallots.
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Step 11:
 And serranos, removing as much or as little of the chiles' hearts as you like to control heat.
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Step 12:
 Slowly caramelize the vegetables in a pan (somehow I missed photographing this even though it took a half hour). Distribute over the top of the focaccia before baking, finishing with micro-planed goat cheese.
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Step 13:
 Bake in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven 30-40 minutes or until done.
Serve in wedges with butter if desired.
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Step 14:
 Closeup of focaccia:
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