Name: Fruit Focaccia | Sweet Focaccia with Dried Fruits
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 29 min
Total time: 44 min
Ingredients: Bread flour - 1 1/4 cup (can be substituted with bread APF); Instant yeast - 3/4 tsp; Sugar - 3 TBSP; Salt - 3/4 tsp; Raisins - 1/4 cup; Dried cherries - 1/4 cup; Boiling water - 3/4 cup; Olive oil - 3 TBSP; Coarse Sugar / Turbinado sugar - 2 TBSP

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Mildly sweet Fruit focaccia, loaded with dried cherries and raisins that gives it the perfect balance of flavors.

Focaccia happens to be one of our favorite flatbread and I make them quite often for dinner. Our favorite happens to be the Focaccia with herbed oil and Caramelized onions. I was first exposed to focaccia with this recipe for Focaccia Caprese, which happens to be the most popular one. This time I wanted to make something slightly sweeter to be served with the evening tea and that is how I landed on this recipe from Pavani’s blog.

She has adapted the recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website and that happens to be one of my favorite place to looks for baking recipes. I love their products and pretty much what I use in my kitchen for baking.

This fruit foccacia had the perfect combination of sweet and tartness from the cherries and raisins used in the recipe. It was perfect with the evening cup of tea and the boys loved it as their after school snack. The addition of the sugar gave the focaccia a very beautiful deep golden color.

My Other recipes in the A-Z International Flatbread Series –

A for Aish Baladi
B for Boulanee Katchalu
C for Chickpea Flatbread / Socca
D for Dhal Puri
E for Emirati Khameer

Preparation time – 15 minutes
Baking time – 25 to 30 minutes
Difficulty level – Easy
Recipe adapted from – Cook’s Hideout

Ingredients to make Fruit Focaccia | Sweet Focaccia with Dried Fruits – Makes one 8 inch pan

Bread flour – 1 1/4 cup (can be substituted with bread APF)
Instant yeast – 3/4 tsp
Sugar – 3 TBSP
Salt – 3/4 tsp
Raisins – 1/4 cup
Dried cherries – 1/4 cup
Boiling water – 3/4 cup
Olive oil – 3 TBSP
Coarse Sugar / Turbinado sugar – 2 TBSP

Procedure to mak Fruit Focaccia | Sweet Focaccia with Dried Fruits –

Place the dried cherries and the raisins in boiling water for about 10 to 15 minutes. This allows the dried fruits to soften a bit.

In a large bowl or the bowl of the stand mixer, add the flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt. Mix to combine.
Pour in about 2 TBSP of oil and mix. Add the soaked fruits along with about 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid. Make sure that the soaking liquid is warm. If not, heat it up until warm to touch and then use it in the recipe.
Mix until a soft dough forms. Add more water if needed and make a very soft dough. The dough will be slightly tacky but should not be stick to touch.
Grease a 8 inch round pan with olive oil and place the kneaded dough on the pan. Using your fingers spread the dough until it touches all the sides of the pan. The dough would sort of curl up and come towards the center. Rest the dough for few minutes and spread again. You might need to do this 2 or 3 times for the dough to be evenly spread all over the pan.

Cover the pan and let the dough rest for about an hour or until it is puffed up.
During the last 30 minutes of the resting time, place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 F.
Once the dough has rested, drizzle about 1 TBSP of olive oil on the surface and spread evenly. Make few shallow marks with your fingers and sprinkle the top with coarse / turbinado sugar.

Place the pan on the pizza stone and bake until golden brown. It took me about 25 minutes.
Remove the pan and let the focaccia cool on a rack. Slice and serve warm.