Written by 
If you’re in the mood for a fall baking project (and I know you are!), this focaccia recipe is where it’s at: tender, yeasted bread meets the cozy vibes of apple fritters all with a crunchy cinnamon sugar top.
Alright, here’s the situation: apple season may have been in full swing up north for a while, but down here in Texas, I always feel like I’m just barely catching the last wave. So, before pumpkins and peppermint elbow their way in, let’s go out with a bang—and a twist! Inspired by Erin McDowell’s legendary focaccia (as enjoyed here in this epic Overnight Focaccia Pizza) , today’s Apple Fritter Focaccia is what happens when a classic fried apple fritter meets a loaf of bread. HEAVEN! It’s got that perfect yeasty fluff, a cinnamon-sugar apple layer, and a drizzle that makes it feel like an all-day dessert disguised as breakfast.
This doesn’t feel optional, right? This bread simply must come out of your oven.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy Overnight Focaccia recipe with apple pie filling:
• all-purpose or bread flour
• lukewarm water
• honey and olive oil
• active dry yeast (I love Red Star Platinum)
• an apple (Cosmic Crisps are my favorite baking apples!)
• unsalted butter
• lemon juice
• dark brown sugar and granulated sugar
• cinnamon, nutmeg, and kosher salt
The best things about this sweet focaccia (besides eating it) is the ease with which the dough comes together. This dough can cross my mind while I’m taking the dogs out just before bed and can come together with a quick stir as I close up the kitchen for the night. It rests, rises, and develops it’s flavor overnight in the refrigerator, making me look like I had this glorious bread planned all along come the following day.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, yeast, and salt. Stir together warm water, olive oil and honey. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to a very soft and very sticky dough with a wooden spoon or firm rubber spatula.
I find it really helpful to measure both the wet and dry ingredients for this focaccia recipe using grams and a scale. A scale will give you the most accurate measurement of ingredients (and make the dough super quick to assemble).
Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before placing the bowl in the refrigerator overnight (at least 12 hours and up to 48 hours).
At any point during the time the dough is resting, make the apple filling. This won’t be a ton of filling, but it packs a punch of flavor.
Peel and dice a large apple (about 170 grams or so) into small cubes. Cook down with butter, lemon, brown sugar, and spices until the juices release and start to bubble at the bottom of the pan. Finally, sprinkle over a mixture of granulated sugar and flour to thicken the sauce and let it bubble down to a syrupy consistency. Really cook the sauce down – we don’t want a watery apple filling to sog our bread.
Allow the apple mixture to cool completely before introducing it to the focaccia dough.
Note: In developing this recipe we (me and my recipe tester/photographer Karlee) noticed that we had slightly different results in terms of the consistency of the dough. This is a VERY wet dough! For me, baking in central Texas, I found the dough to be very wet and sticky, but not alarmingly so. For Karlee baking in rainy Oregon, she found the dough to be alarmingly wet. Without adding additional flour, I encouraged Karlee to push through the wet dough and she baked up a lovely loaf of bread. You could add an additional 35-50 grams of flour as you see fit if your dough feels alarmingly wet but I encourage you to just butter your hands and keep going!
Generously butter a 9×9-inch square baking pan, sides and all. Scoop half of the focaccia dough into the buttered pan and use oiled (or buttered) fingers to nudge the wet dough from edge to edge. Spoon the cooled apple mixture over the bottom layer of focaccia.
Finally, on a generously floured countertop, scoop the remaining focaccia and use greased hands to again nudge the dough into a 9×9-inch square. Use a bench scraper, your hands, and a few prayers to scoop the counter focaccia on top of the apples. Allow the dough to rest and rise for an hour at room temperature. Just before baking, stipple the dough with your fingertips to create indentations in the top of the dough. Drizzle generously with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar just before it hits the oven.
Bake until deeply golden brown and bubbling around the edges. The bread will be puffed and smell absolutely irresistible. Remove from the oven and (hardest part) allow to cool to warm room temperature before running a butter knife around the edges of the pan and scooting the bread onto a cutting board.
Cut the dough into cubes and put on a pot of coffee. We’ve entered the space between where bread meets doughnut and it’s a wonder!
You’re going to love it!
Leave any recipe questions or comments below! And be sure to come back and rate the recipe after you bake it! We appreciate that so much!
xo
Description
If you’re in the mood for a fall baking project, this apple fritter focaccia recipe is it: tender, yeasted bread meets the cozy vibes of apple fritters. With cinnamon-sugar apples nestled in a fluffy dough and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, this Overnight Apple Fritter Focaccia is the ultimate fall morning indulgence.
For the Bread:
For the Apple Filling:
For the Topping:
- The day before you’d like to make the focaccia, make the dough and the apple filling.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. Add the water, olive oil, and honey, and mix with a rubber spatula until thoroughly combined – about 2 minutes. The dough will be very wet and sticky. Cover the bowl and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, uncover the dough and again use the rubber spatula to stir and fold the dough around the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours, up to 48 hours.
- While the dough is resting, make the apple filling. In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the diced apple, tossing to coat in the butter. Add the lemon juice, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and stir to combine. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the apples start to soften, 3-4 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk the sugar and flour to combine. Add to the pot and stir well to combine. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens to a thick syrup, 4-5 minutes. Let the filling cool completely before placing in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight.
- When ready to make the focaccia, bring the dough and filling to room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Grease a 9×9-inch square baking pan with 2 tablespoons of butter, using a pastry brush to swipe the butter along the bottom and sides of the pan. Use a lightly greased rubber bench scraper to deflate the dough in the bowl, folding it over itself a few times.
- Use the bench scraper to divide the dough in half, in the bowl and gently scoop out half of the dough and place in the buttery pan. Flip that dough to coat it in butter. Use your fingers to gently stipple and press the dough from edge to edge and corner to corner as you can. The dough may not want to completely relax, but press it out as best you can.
- Use a spoon or spatula to dot the apple filling over the focaccia in the pan. Use an offset spatula to spread into an even layer.
- Turn the remaining half of focaccia dough out onto a generously floured countertop. Press and stipple the dough out into as much of a 9×9-inch square as you can. Use a bench scraper, your hands, and a few prayers to quickly and gently transfer the focaccia square to top the apple mixture, floured side down. Cover the pan and allow the bread to double in size, about 1 hour.
- About 30 minutes before baking, place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- In a small bowl stir together sugar and cinnamon for topping.
- Use your fingertips to gently stipple the dough to evenly press the dough from edge to edge. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and sprinkle with as much of the cinnamon sugar as you’d like. Sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt.
- Transfer to the oven and bake until focaccia is deeply golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before scooping out onto a wire rack to rest until cool enough to cut into – about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Store any leftovers, well wrapped in the refrigerator. Toast gently in the oven to reheat and enjoy for up to 3 days.
Notes
Note: In developing this recipe we (me and my recipe tester/photographer Karlee) noticed that we had slightly different results in terms of the consistency of the dough. This is a VERY wet dough! For me, baking in central Texas, I found the dough to be very wet and sticky, but not alarmingly so. For Karlee baking in rainy Oregon, she found the dough to be alarmingly wet. Without adding additional flour, I encouraged Karlee to push through the wet dough and she baked up a lovely loaf of bread. You could add an additional 35-50 grams of flour as you see fit if your dough feels alarmingly wet but I encourage you to just butter your hands and keep going!