Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Focaccia Bread

​Sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia bread combines super soft, pillowy focaccia bread with a brown sugar, cinnamon roll filling, topped with a gooey vanilla cream cheese frosting. Seriously, you will wonder where this has been your whole life! Dessert focaccia has been on my radar for a while now, but this sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia really does take it to the next level!

I have combined my popular fluffy sourdough cinnamon rolls recipe with my easy sourdough focaccia recipe to create this one of a kind sourdough dessert recipe with a whole new look! My kids ask me to make this recipe every day, seriously they are obsessed! They love these sourdough cinnamon roll pancakes too!

If you love making cosy winter sourdough recipes and sweet sourdough treats, then you might enjoy making this sourdough applesauce cake (which also features a lovely vanilla frosting) or this sourdough skillet cookie.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Quick and Easy - there's no rolling or bursting with this sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia, making it quick and easy to make. Most of the time is hands off, just waiting for the dough to rise.

Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard - this versatile recipe can be made with active starter or sourdough discard with a little instant yeast to help it along. You choose what works best for your schedule.

​Eat it Anytime - this delicious combination sourdough recipe can be served for breakfast, brunch, dessert ... pretty much any time you like! 

How To Make Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Focaccia Bread

If you've made sourdough focaccia bread before, you'll know just how easy it is to create a delicious sourdough bread with very minimal effort. This sweet focaccia bread is no different! It is quite a high hydration dough, but it really does need minimal hands on time, making it pretty easy to handle. 

You can choose to use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard plus commercial yeast. You'll need to ensure that you adjust your timings based on which one you use (I've added a sample timeline below to help you navigate this).

Mixing The Dough

Weigh out your sourdough starter, sugar and water into a large bowl.

Mix the water and starter together briefly. Then add flour, sugar and salt and mix whole lot together until it forms a sticky dough. You don't want any dry flour left at all.

You can use a dough scraper or Danish whisk for this process. I like to use my jar spatula.

Cover your bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and let it sit at room temperature for around an hour.

Strengthening the Dough

After the dough has been through autolyse you need to bring it together into a ball. Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself, into the centre. You should feel the dough strengthen as you do this. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth or tight, just work around the bowl stretching and folding (around 10 - 15 times is perfect).

Bulk Fermentation

Now you want to leave your dough to ferment. Cover it with a tea towel or plastic wrap and leave it alone to double (see notes).

Focaccia is super forgiving so it doesn't need to be perfectly doubled - near enough is fine.

Shaping Focaccia

Once the dough has doubled you need to shape the dough. Shaping focaccia is super simple (and absolutely forgiving). I've chosen to split my sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia dough into two smaller trays, but you can definitely do one big one.

If you are using a cast iron dish, you can just use oil, but I have used some parchment paper to make them easier to access and move. If you are using a cake pan like me, I recommend you use some parchment paper to avoid the focaccia bread sticking to the pan (it's a mess you don't want to have to deal with).

Use a dough scraper to gently ease the dough out into your desired pan.

Rub your hands with a little olive oil and gently pull the dough out to fill the tray. Again it doesn't have to be perfect as it will naturally fill the tray as it proofs.

Second Rise

Let your dough rise again. Leave it until it's spread out and filled the tray. It will be puffy and pillowy ... you might even have some gorgeous bubbles popping up.

Topping

Once the dough has filled the tray and is looking puffy and full of volume, you need to dimple the dough and add the toppings.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar over the top of the dough so you get an even coverage. Then pour the melted butter over the dough. Then use your finger tips to gently dimple the focaccia dough and push all the brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter into the dough.

Baking Sourdough Focaccia

Preheat the oven to 200C (392F).

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Once baked through, remove from the oven and carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool. Don't leave it in the tin as it will sweat.

Frosting

Whisk the frosting ingredients together until it forms a smooth, slightly runny paste. Add it to a piping bag and then drizzle it over the cinnamon roll sourdough focaccia. I've used my stand mixer to whip the frosting in this instance (around speed 5 until thick and creamy).

I added a star tip to my piping bag and piped the frosting on in little puddles.

What Baking Pan To Use?

Here are some ideas of what you can bake sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia bread in:

• Cast iron skillet or bread pan.
  
• Divide into two portions and bake in round cake tins lined with parchment paper (I do this with 20cm (8 inch) cake tins.
  
• Baking tray (either using olive oil or baking paper) - any medium sized tray is fine, the dough can stretch out to fit. 
  
• I've used 2 enamel trays in this post - they are lined with parchment paper, mainly to protect the trays and they measure 9" x 11" (23cm x 28cm) and this recipe fitted perfectly when divided in two.

Sample Baker's Timeline for Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Focaccia Bread

This sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia bread is super forgiving time wise. Focaccia is one of those magical breads that can be a little under or a little over fermented and no one will really notice too much!

Here is my baking timeline for making this sweet sourdough focaccia bread:

9pm - Before going to bed, feed your sourdough starter 1:3:3 so that it's bubbly and at peak when you wake up.

7am - Mix the sourdough focaccia dough together. Allow it sit for around an hour.

8am - Perform stretch and folds (one set is fine in this instance).

8.10am - Leave the dough covered at room temperature to bulk ferment.

2pm - Shape sourdough cinnamon roll focaccia bread into pans and cover for it's second rise.

6pm - Add brown sugar, cinnamon and butter, dimple and bake.

7pm - Add vanilla cream cheese frosting and serve for dessert!

You'll also find plenty of information on creating your own sourdough baking timeline here.

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