Chewy. Tart. Gooey. Savory and sweet, with ribbons of raspberry jam and big gobs of buttery brie cheese. This Raspberry Brie Focaccia is such a fun bread, both to make and to eat.
I don’t know about you, but I still love getting magazines in the mail. My favorite magazine to receive, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Bake From Scratch. I love flipping through the pages to get recipe inspiration. The idea for this bread came to me last summer when I discovered their recipes for stuffed focaccia.
I ended up loving this technique of stuffing focaccia dough full of delicious, gooey add-ins, and I have more flavor ideas for the future using this method, as well as suggestions for you below!
Recipe highlights
- Delicious homemade focaccia. Nothing compares to homemade bread! This bread is fluffy, chewy, and bathed in olive oil.
- Looks impressive. Streaks of red raspberry jam & perfectly golden chunks of cheese. You’re definitely going to want to show this off to your friends and neighbors.
- Simple to make. No kneading! No electric mixers! This focaccia recipe is easy to make by hand with minimal effort.
- Light on sweetness. With a lightly sweetened homemade jam, this bread is a touch savory and not super sweet. (Recommendations below if you want it to be more dessert-y!)
Recipe overview
⏱️ Prep: ~30 min • Proof: 2 1/2 hrs • Bake: 45 min • Total: ~4 hrs 🍴 Yield: 1 rustic loaf
💪 Skill level: Intermediate. If you haven’t already mastered a basic focaccia, you might want to start there before making a filled focaccia.
😋 Flavor profile: Buttery, tart, cheesy, jammy, bright, rich. Pairs well with: Honey, cream cheese glaze, salads, berries, coffee, fig leaf lemonade.
How to make raspberry brie focaccia
For full recipe instructions, head to the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here’s a quick recipe overview with step by step photos:
- Mix the focaccia dough. Stir together the water, oil, flour, salt, and yeast. Done.
- Let it ferment. Allow the dough to sit for about 1 ½ hours, until poofy and bubbly. Stretch and fold the dough twice during this time period, about every 30 minutes.
- Stretch the dough into a rectangle. Roll, stretch, and/or pat the dough into a rough rectangle on an oiled baking sheet.
- Spread it with jam & cheese. Add raspberry jam, spreading in an even layer over the dough. Top with chunks of brie.
- Form it into a log. Roll it up like a cinnamon roll and pinch the seams together to seal. Place seam-side down.
- Stretch & rise. Let the dough log rest for about 10 minutes and then stretch it again into a rough rectangle. Allow dough to rise again until bubbly, about an hour.
- Dimple the dough. Use your fingers to dimple the dough all over.
- Top it off. Sprinkle focaccia dough with fresh raspberries, brie pieces, and a little demarara sugar. Drizzle with more olive oil.
- Bake. Bake the bread until golden and gorgeous.
⚡Simplify this recipe
Looking to save a little time and effort on this recipe? Use store bought jam instead of making your own. Keep in mind this will yield a bread that’s sweeter than what’s written here.
Pro tips for perfect raspberry brie focaccia
Sweeten the raspberry jam to your liking. I intended this bread to be somewhere between sweet and savory. If you want the bread sweeter, by all means add more sugar to the jam!
Don’t be shy with the olive oil. It’s so important for the texture and flavor of a good focaccia, plus it prevents the bread from sticking to the baking sheet.
Dimple the dough gently. Be careful not to tear the dough when dimpling.
Substitutions & variations
Raspberry substitutions: Use your favorite flavor of store bought jam or make your own with any fruit. Any type of berry or stone fruit jam would be great here, but consider which cheese to pair with the fruit.
Here are some other fruit and cheese combos that I think are worth trying:
- Apple butter and sharp cheddar
- Pear compote and blue cheese
- Cranberry compote and brie
- Cherry jam and ricotta
- Strawberry or apricot jam with burrata
Other flavor ideas: The sky is the limit here! You could fill this focaccia with cinnamon butter and drizzle it with cream cheese glaze to turn it into cinnamon roll focaccia. Or instead, make it more savory by using ingredients like caramelized onions, roasted peppers, bacon, and herbs.
Make it sweeter: As written, this bread is very light on the sweet side. To make it more of a “dessert bread”, I highly recommend drizzling a warm slice of it with honey! It’s absolutely delicious.
Other options to make this more of a dessert focaccia:
- Increase the sugar in the homemade raspberry jam to your liking
- Use store-bought jam instead of making your own
- Sprinkle extra demerara sugar on top before baking
- Dust the bread with powdered sugar after baking
- Glaze the baked, cooled bread with meyer lemon glaze
- Drizzle with honey cream cheese icing
- Use this recipe for strawberry glaze, substitute raspberries, and spoon over top
Make it sourdough: If you’d like to leaven this bread with sourdough instead of yeast, use this recipe for sourdough focaccia instead. Or try this sourdough discard focaccia recipe for a version that’s in-between.
Use a 13×9 inch pan. You could also bake this bread in a 13×9 inch pan instead of using a rimmed baking sheet. The final bread will be a bit thicker. You may need to increase the baking time slightly.
If you try this Raspberry Brie Focaccia, please leave a star rating and comment below! I really appreciate your feedback.
Raspberry Brie Focaccia
Equipment
- Rimmed baking sheet or 13×9-inch pan
Ingredients
Focaccia Bread
- 1 ¾ cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for pan
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 cups bread flour
- 1 package (2 ¼ tsp) instant yeast
Filling
- 2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 4 ounces brie cheese, sliced and cut into chunks
Topping
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup fresh raspberries
- 2 ounces brie, sliced and cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons demerara sugar, or other coarse sugar
Instructions
For focaccia:
- Mix dough: Whisk together 1 ¾ cup warm water, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and 1 Tbsp salt in a large bowl. Add 4 cups bread flour and package of yeast, mixing until combined. Dough will be slightly dry and shaggy.
- 1st rise: Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to ferment and rise in a warm place for about 1 ½ hours total, stopping to stretch and fold the dough twice during the fermentation period.
- 1st stretch & fold: After the first 30 minutes, stretch and fold the dough. With wet or oiled hands, grab the dough from underneath, stretching it out to the side about as far as you can without tearing it. Fold this back into the middle of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat on all sides. Cover back up and continue to allow dough to rest and ferment.
- 2nd stretch & fold: Around the hour mark, stretch and fold the dough again. Cover back up and let rest another 30 minutes.
For raspberry jam:
- Cook: While dough is fermenting, make the jam. Add 2 cups raspberries, ¼ cup sugar, and 1 tsp lemon juice to a sauce pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until water content has evaporated significantly and mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.
- Cool: Pour into a bowl and allow to cool completely before using.
To shape & fill the bread:
- Prep: Once dough has proofed for about 1 ½ hours, it's time to shape it (dough should be hydrated and bubbly at this point). Coat a rimmed baking sheet OR 13×9-inch pan thoroughly with olive oil and place the dough in the pan, tossing to coat both sides in olive oil.
- Stretch dough: Stretch and press dough gently into a rough rectangle about 1 inch thick.
- Fill: Spread cooled jam evenly on top of dough. Don't spread it all the way to the edges – leave about an inch of space around all sides. Distribute brie evenly on top of jam.
- Roll: Roll dough up into a log, starting with one of the short sides. Pinch the seams together to seal and place log seam-side down on the pan.
- Re-stretch: Let the dough log rest about 10 minutes. Then gently stretch and press it back into a rough rectangle. It may break open a bit, revealing some of the jam inside. That's ok, but be careful not to tear it open too much.If you're having difficulty stretching the dough without breaking or the dough is bouncing back, let it rest another 10-15 minutes and try again.
- 2nd rise: Allow dough to rise again until very bubbly and airy, about an hour. Preheat oven to 425° F.
- Dimple: Dimple the dough all over with your fingers, pushing all the way through the dough to the pan while being careful not to tear the dough.
- Add toppings: Drizzle dough all over with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sprinkle with ½ cup fresh raspberries, 2 ounces sliced brie, and 2 Tbsp coarse sugar.
- Bake: Place bread in preheated oven and bake until golden brown on top and bottom, about 15-20 minutes. Internal temperature should be at least 190° F.
Notes
Did you try this recipe?
Be sure to leave a comment below!
First focaccia I’ve ever made and I will definitely make it again. Lots of great reviews from the tasters
Wow, I’m so proud! This isn’t necessarily the easiest focaccia recipe to start with, I’m so happy it turned out great and that you all enjoyed it! It’s definitely one of my favorite recipes 🙂