FOCACCIA TWO WAYS: ROSEMARY SEA SALT AND CHERRY MARZIPAN
Notes:
Focaccia is one of the easiest yeasted breads to make. The base recipe comes from Alexandra Cooks, requires no kneading or turns and only takes 5 ingredients that come together in about 5 mins of mixing. The rest is just giving the dough the proper time to rise overnight in the fridge and then for a few hours at room temperature. When you give this recipe enough time to rise there is no need for additional ingredients to add flavor (e.g., sugar); the yeast breaks down the starches of the flour and creates simpler sugars that naturally yield flavor and complexity. After you dimple in your toppings with your fingers you want to bake the bread right away so you don’t lose the air pockets you’ve created so make sure your oven is preheated and ready to go. If making the cherry marzipan focaccia, you can either make the marzipan yourself, which is a very simple recipe, or buy it. If you make it yourself you can control the amount of sugar (store bought tends to have way too much). I’ve included ingredients and directions for making marzipan below.
Equipment:
9” x 13” pan (glass or metal are both ok)
Parchment paper
Large mixing bowl
Medium sauce pan (for cherry compote)
Ingredients (measurements are for making two focaccia breads so half it if only making one):
Base focaccia recipe:
Bread Flour (I used King Arthur brand) - 8 cups (1024 g)
Salt (I used pink Himalayan salt) - 4 tsp (10 g)
Dry instant yeast - 4 tsp (16 g)
Water - 4 cups (910 g)
Extra virgin olive oil - enough to drizzle over the dough before refrigerating
Rosemary focaccia:
Rosemary leaves - ~2 tsp (fresh preferable)
Extra virgin olive oil (to drizzle on top before baking) - ~2 tbspns
Flaky sea salt (to sprinkle on top)
Cherry Marzipan focaccia:
Cherry marzipan focaccia. A delightful combination of cherry and almond flavors enhanced by butter and yeasty, pillowy focaccia. As always the recipe is tailored to be just sweet enough. This sweet focaccia is perfect for breakfast or after dinner.
Cherry compote:
Water - 1/4 cup
Fresh lemon juice - 3 tbspns
Cornstarch - 2 tbspns
Pitted sweet cherries, fresh or frozen (1-pound bag of frozen cherries is a good amount to use) - 4 cups
Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup
Unsalted butter - 1 tbspn
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Marzipan:
Finely ground almond flour - 1 and 1/2 cups
Confectioner’s sugar - 1/2 cup
Almond extract - 2 tsps
Egg white - 1
Top the cherry marzipan focaccia:
Melted butter - 4 tbspns
Finish the cherry marzipan focaccia:
Simple glaze:
Confectioner’s sugar - 4 tbspns
Milk - 1 to 2 tbspns
Almond extract (optional) - 1/2 tsp
Directions for plain or rosemary focaccia:
Whisk together flour salt and yeast.
Add the water and stir together with a spatula until it full comes together to form a rather wet, sticky dough (3-5 mins).
Drizzle olive oil over the top, cover tightly, and refrigerate (at least for 18-24 hours, but as long as 72 hours is fine). I refrigerated for 24 hours to give the dough a decent slow rise. It will at least double in size during this time.
After slow rising, remove from fridge and split the dough in half (if you made enough dough for two breads). Deflate and transfer to two 9” x 13” inch oiled pans with parchment paper and allow to “fast rise” for 2-4 hours. *If you only have one pan you can leave the other half in the original bowl and let it fast rise there; it will just have slightly more time to rise until the first dough portion is baked, which is ok.
After 2-4 hours aggressively dimple the dough with fingertips. If you don’t want to add any toppings you can just drizzle on more olive oil and finish with a good sea salt and bake right away. If making the rosemary focaccia, add the rosemary, dimple it on, and then finish with more olive oil and sea salt and bake right away. If making my cherry marzipan version follow additional directions below.
Bake right away at 425 F for 25 mins or until golden all over. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Keep covered or sealed in a bag in the fridge and toast again in the oven (or toaster) to refresh. This bread is excellent for making sandwiches or as an accompaniment to soups, dinners, etc.
Cherry marzipan focaccia:
Cherry Compote directions:
Make the cherry compote while the dough is fast rising for 2-4 hours so it is cooled and ready to go by the time the fast rise is complete.
Whisk water, lemon juice and cornstarch together (do this with cold water and not over the heat). Heat will cause cornstarch to clump so it needs to be mixed with cold liquid first separately.
In a medium saucepan add the cornstartch/lemon juice mixture then add cherries, sugar, butter, and salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and simmer until thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.
Marzipan directions:
Place the almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, almond extract and egg white into a food processor and pulse until a thick dough is formed. If too wet you can add slightly more almond flour; if too dry you can add a tiny bit of water. It is unlikely you will need to adjust.
Roll the marzipan into a ball or log and wrap tightly and place in the fridge until ready to use.
The marzipan will keep in the fridge for at least a month and frozen for several months. This recipe yields ~12 oz.
Directions to assemble and bake cherry marzipan focaccia:
After the fast rise is complete place half the dough in your prepared 9” x 13” pan, then dimple so that it reaches all the corners of the pan.
Spread ~2 and 1/2 cups of the cooled cherry compote over the top of the dough, and approximately half (i.e., approx. 6 oz) of the marzipan broken into pieces with your fingers over the top. Then dimple both in together. *You can save leftover cherry compote in the fridge to top pancakes, yogurt, or whatever your heart desires.
Spread some final pieces of the marzipan over the top so they are visible then drizzle the melted butter over the top.
Bake right away at 425 F for 25 mins until edges of dough are golden and topping has taken on even more color. Remove from pan and allow to cool.
Drizzle some simple glaze over the top to finish and enjoy slightly warm. This bread keeps extremely well covered in the fridge for several days. Warm it up for 15-20 seconds in the microwave and it’s like you have fresh cherry marzipan focaccia again.
Fresh rosemary, flaky sea salt, olive oil and focaccia are so complementary it seems like they were designed for each other. Dare I say so there is no simpler or tastier bread.