Fruit Focaccia | Tuesday's with Dorie

This fruit focaccia is so good for breakfast! It's great eaten unadorned on the day it is baked, and is excellent sliced in half, toasted, and buttered the next day.

The fruit is macerated in hot water for about three hours, and then the resulting liquid is used for the water in the bread. How cool is that?

This bread takes a little planning, because the second (of three) rises takes place in the refrigerator overnight, at least 16 hours, to develop flavor.

It's worth it.

I sprinkled the top lightly with demerara sugar, but you could also use turbinado or coarse white sugar.

This recipe produces enough squares to feed a crowd, perfect for a Sunday brunch.

This recipe was chosen for today's bake for the Tuesdays with Dorie, and is from the wonderful PBS series, Baking with Julia (Child) and the book edited by Dorie Greenspan. Julia always had a guest baker on her show who would share their recipes and techniques for some pretty amazing sweet and savory baked deliciousness.

The original recipe can be found here. Here is how I slightly adapted it:

Fruit Focaccia Recipe

Ingredients

12 ounces dried reduced sugar cranberries

8 ounces golden raisins

3 1/2 cups hot water (115 to 120 degrees F)

5 tsp instant yeast

1/4 C honey

Zest of one orange

15 ounces (3 3/4 C) unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Demerara sugar

Instructions

1. Place the fruit in a medium bowl and cover with the hot water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for three hours.
2. Drain the liquid out of the fruit, reserving 1 1/4 cups for the bread. Press down on the fruit in the strainer to get out any excess water. 
3. Mix the juice, honey, and orange zest together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the flour and salt to the liquid and mix on low with the dough hook until incorporated, about 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Mix on medium for 10 minutes. 
5. Lower the speed to medium low and add the butter, one piece at a time. 
6. Increase the speed back to medium and knead for about 5 minutes. 
7. Lower the speed to medium low and add the fruit in 3 batches, until just incorporated. 
8. Place the dough into a large oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. 
9. Press the dough down to deflate, cover with plastic wrap, and and place in the refrigerator for 16 to 24 hours. 
10. Line the bottom of a half sheet pan with parchment and spray it with spray oil.
11. Place the cold dough on top of the parchment, and gently stretch it out, slowly pressing it with your fingertips to push the dough toward the sides of the pan. This may take a little while, as the dough is cold. The dough should almost fill the pan. If you end up with a one to two inch margin all around, don’t worry.
12. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap and let rest until it warms up and begins to rise, about 3 hours depending on the temperature of the room. The dough is ready when it feels “spongy.
13. When the dough is ready, and place a baking stone (optional) on a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat it to 400 degrees F. Lightly sprinkle the top of the bread with the sugar.
14. Place the pan on the heated stone and bake the focaccia for about 25 to 30 minutes, turning halfway through. The top should be a deep golden brown. Slide the focaccia onto a cooling rack, and slide the parchment paper from underneath the bread. If you have two racks, you can invert the bread onto the rack, remove the paper, top the bread with the other rack, and flip it over. Cool right side up.