Source: Seasons and Suppers.
Ingredients
Dough:
- 4 cups (500 g) bread flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1 3/4 cup (420 ml) lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoons (6 g) Instant yeast
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) honey or white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 g) fine table salt
Pan:
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Apple Topping:
- 2 medium tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
Glaze
- 2 cups icing/confectioners/ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup, or honey or golden syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon fine table salt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon white granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) water
Instructions
Dough Prep
- In a large bowl, mix together lukewarm water, instant yeast, vegetable oil, honey and salt. Add in flour and stir until well combined. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough. Repeat one wait and stretch once more time, then cover with the towel again and let rise for one hour. (After the second fold do step 2 of Apple Prep)
- Add the oil to the bottom of a 9×13-inch metal baking pan and brush evenly over the bottom of the pan. Pour dough into the greased pan, then stretch and fold the dough in the pan, top over bottom, bottom over top, then flip so that the smooth side is out. Roughly shape the dough into a rectangle but don’t stretch it to fill the pan. It will spread on its own as it rises. Cover the pan with a large baking sheet or plastic wrap and let the dough rise for an hour and a half.
Apple Prep
- While the focaccia is rising, place the diced apples, sugar and lemon juice into a skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until all the liquid has evaporated and the apples are softened (about 5 minutes). Move to a bowl. Mix together the cinnamon and flour in a small bowl, then add to the apples.
- Preheat the oven to 425F (non-convection/not fan-assisted). After the second proof, scatter the cinnamon apples overtop of the dough, then using oiled fingertips, make lots of dimples in the dough, pushing the apples into the dough as you work. Drizzle with a bit more vegetable oil overtop of the dough.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 19-23 minutes or until deep golden.
Glaze
- While the focaccia is baking, prepare the glaze. Add the icing sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla to a medium bowl and stir together. Set aside. In a small saucepan, bring the water and white granulated sugar to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 1 minute. Add the sugar syrup mixture to the bowl with the icing sugar and whisk until all the sugar has been incorporated and the mixture is smooth. (No lumps) Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until needed.
- When the focaccia is out of the oven, allow it to rest for 5 minutes, then pour the glaze overtop. Use the back of a spoon to spread the glaze to cover the entire top of the focaccia. Allow the focaccia to cool further and the glaze to set before cutting into squares to serve.