Here we are again, with the latest instalment in my ongoing Sweet Focaccia series – Chocolate Cherry Focaccia! And guys, it is so good – it contains an entire block of dark chocolate, after all. I absolutely love baking with cherries during their short season and they are honestly one of my favourite parts of summer. But combining them with chocolate? Plus fluffy, airy focaccia? And a delicious pink glaze? An absolutely elite combination of flavours and textures that I’m positive you’ll love.

I sort of love that focaccia has taken over both my TikTok feed and the Australian café scene in the last couple of years. If you’ve stumbled across this post and you’re brand new to making focaccia, I’m here to reassure you that it’s probably easier than you think. The recipe I use is honestly so simple, dare I say foolproof. However I would recommend taking a look at this post where I go into more detail about all the ingredients, because each one is there for a reason, and there are slight differences between countries. If you’ve made focaccia before, let’s get on with it!

It’s a no knead, high hydration dough that gets a quick mix and then rises overnight in the fridge. And when I say quick mix, I truly mean it. We’re not hauling out a stand mixer or kneading for twenty minutes. It’s a bowl, a wooden spoon (or a Dough whisk makes it even quicker!) and a super shaggy dough. Trust the process. The overnight rest does all the heavy lifting for you. By the next day, the dough is risen, airy and full of bubbles. This is exactly what we want.

The cold rise is where the flavour develops. A quick round of stretch-and-folds helps to develop the gluten structure without kneading, and helps the dough to retain all those air bubbles. All you need to do is wet your hands and lift one side of the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Many recipes call for multiple rounds of stretch-and-folds, but I only do one ‘round’ for this recipe and it always turns out super fluffy and perfect. 

Then I transfer the dough to a generously buttered baking pan. I like to use a rectangular metal pan with straight sides. At this point you can add in any inclusions that you want running through the middle of your dough. This time I did half a block of chopped dark chocolate. Fold the dough over itself gently like a letter to enclose the filling and rotate it to fit in the pan. It’s a slightly messy process, but that’s exactly what we want. The dough relaxes again as it rises in the pan for about 90 minutes-2 hours.

After this second rise, comes my favourite part – the dimpling! For sweet focaccia I like to use melted butter instead of olive oil and dimple in my toppings. There is something satisfying about pressing your fingertips into the dough. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty! It’s one of those baking moments that feels almost like a meditation. Baking is my happy place, but making bread and yeasted doughs specifically just makes my busy brain relax in the most beautiful way.

Chocolate Cherry Focaccia of course means that the topping is some delicious fresh cherries and the other half a block of chopped dark chocolate. You could also use frozen cherries if fresh aren’t in season where you are. A scattering of raw sugar over the top also gives it a lovely texture when baked.

And then it’s into the oven! We are going for a short, hot bake – 220°C or 450°F for about 20-30 minutes, rotating at the half-way mark. As they bake, the cherries soften and release their juices, which mingle with the melting chocolate and sink in as the fluffy focaccia dough rises around them. You’ll see little jammy pockets and that’s exactly what we want here. I was nervous that the chocolate would start to burn but my loaf was perfectly fine.

The smell while this Chocolate Cherry Focaccia bakes is insanely good. When it comes out of the oven, try to resist the urge to slice into it straight away. It’s actually still cooking as it cools and if you cut into it too soon, the crumb can be a little gummy. Plus the chocolate will firm up just enough to give you fudgy streaks instead of burn-your-mouth molten chocolate lava. However if you really can’t resist, I won’t judge.

And then the glaze. The pink cherry glaze is optional, but very highly recommended. I make it with muddled and strained cherry juice and icing sugar, and drizzle it generously over the slightly warm focaccia so it settles into the dimples and cascades over the edges. It adds sweetness, contrast in colour and just completes the focaccia perfectly. However if you like it indulgent, a chocolate ganache sauce could be an awesome option too.

Some more delicious Focaccia recipes:

• Cheesy Garlic Bread Focaccia
• Peach Crumble Focaccia
• Fruit Mince Focaccia
• Blueberry Almond Croissant Focaccia

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Chocolate Cherry Focaccia

A super simple no knead Chocolate Cherry Focaccia finished off with a pretty pink cherry glaze. Fluffy, sweet and absolutely delicious!

Course Bread, Breakfast, Brunch

Keyword Bread & Yeast, Focaccia

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Rising 12 hours

Total Time 13 hours 15 minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

Focaccia Dough

• 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active or instant dried yeast
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 625 g plain/all purpose flour (5 cups)
• 1/2 tablespoon cooking salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 90 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• Butter for greasing pan

Topping

• 25 g butter, extra, melted
• 90 g dark chocolate, extra
• 175 g pitted cherries, extra
• Raw sugar

Glaze

• 2 tablespoons cherry juice
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (205g)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the water, yeast and honey. If you are using active dry yeast, let it sit for a few minutes to activate, until it starts to look foamy on top. If you are using instant dry yeast, you can skip the wait and move on to the next step.
2. Add the flour and salt and mix together with a spatula, wooden spoon or dough whisk until flour is incorporated and you have a shaggy dough.
3. In another large bowl, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and swirl around the bowl to coat. Transfer the dough into this bowl and over with plastic wrap. Now you have two options. For a quick rise, leave at room temperature for 3-4 hours depending on the temperature. Or, place the bowl into the fridge to chill and rise for 8 hours, overnight, or up to 1 day. Either way the dough should be doubled in size and look very bubbly.
4. Butter your pan generously. I use a 23 x 32cm metal pan with straight sides.
5. Stretch and fold your dough either using wet hands or two forks. You want to pick up the dough from the edge and lift it towards the centre. Rotate your bowl and repeat 3 more times. I usually just do this once, however you can continue doing this 2 more times if you like.
6. Transfer the dough to the buttered pan. Spread over 2/3 of the 90g of chopped chocolate. Fold 1/3 of the dough in towards the middle and add the remaining 1/3 of the chopped chocolate over the folded dough. Bring the other 1/3 of the dough over the top to enclose the chocolate. Rotate the dough in the pan to sit nicely. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size again (this usually takes about 2 hours for me).
7. When the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 230°C (450°F).
8. Drizzle the melted butter over the top of the focaccia dough and then scatter the cherries and extra dark chocolate over the top as evenly as possible. With damp hands, dimple the toppings into the dough. By this, I mean get your fingers into the dough, all the way to the bottom of the pan, to form deep holes. The dough may bubble up around the hole. Repeat until there are dimples and bubbles of dough evenly all over the dough. Scatter over the raw sugar.
9. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden. When cooked, remove from the oven and cool in the pan for at least about 20-30 minutes. Remove from the pan carefully and place onto a wire rack or wooden board.
10. To make the glaze, combine the cherry juice with the icing sugar and mix until you have a slightly runny glaze consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled focaccia and serve in slices. This focaccia is best on the day it’s made. It can be stored in an airtight container and placed into the oven for a few minutes to crisp back up.