Sweet Plum Focaccia
With a delicate and airy crumb, this focaccia is the perfect showcase for ripe plums, which caramelize in the oven. The delicate sweetness from the fruit is contrasted by fragrant rosemary and a sweet-salty turbinado sugar and flaky sea salt. I made this with Italian plums and since they are about half the size of a traditional plum, I used 8 large ones.
Servings 8
Ingredients
- 3 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1¼ cups water at room temperature
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil divided, plus more as needed
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 medium red plums, unpeeled, pitted and cut into ½" wedges about 2 cups, (I used Italian plums)
- 3 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Stir together flour and yeast in a large bowl until combined. Add 1¼ cups water and 1 tbsp oil to flour mixture; gently stir with your hands until a shaggy dough forms. Cover bowl with a kitchen towel, and let rest at room temperature 20 minutes to allow flour to hydrate.Transfer dough to a lightly floured work survace Sprinkle dough with kosher salt, and gently rub salt into dough. Knead dough by pressing the heel of your hand into the dough and dragging it back, repeating this motion until the dough feels smooth to the touch, about 5 minutes.Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Brush a 13-18-inch rimmed baking sheet with 1 tbsp olive oil. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Cut dough in half; tuck cut edges under, and pat each dough half into a 9-7-inch oval. Transfer dough ovals to prepared baking sheet spaced at least 1 inch apart. Cover dough with a towel; let rest in a warm (about 80℉) area for 30 minutes. (The top of the dough may get a little dry, but that's okay).
- Uncover dough. Using your fingers, press down deeply into dough to form dimples spaced about ½-inch apart. Cover dough with a towel, and let rise in a warm area for 30 minutes. Place a pizza stone on middle oven rack, and preheat oven to 450℉.
- Uncover dough, and lightly press plum slices evenly into dough ovals. Brush dough ovals evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil; sprinkle evenly with rosemary, sugar, and flaky salt.
- Place baking sheet on hot pizza stone in preheated oven, and bake until plum juices have started to caramelize and edges of focaccia are golden brown, 25-30 minutes.Remove baking sheet from oven. Let focaccia cool on baking sheet about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
