Plum Ricotta Focaccia

This is for the #twelveloaves bread baking challenge, put together by the Cake Duchess, Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives, and Life’s a Feast. I can’t resist a baking challenge. The idea is to bake one loaf of bread each month, following that month’s theme. The theme for August is bread with summer fruit.

I knew right off I wanted to use Italian plums as my fruit, but I struggled with exactly how. Then the other night, as I was making pizza, it came to me. I set a piece of dough aside, shaped it into a square, topped it with halved, pitted plums, and let it rise while I baked off all the pizzas. When the pizzas were done, I took about 1/2 cup of ricotta, blended it with a bit of sugar, and dropped spoonfuls between the plums. I sprinkled the whole thing with cinnamon and slid it onto the pizza stone to bake.

I have no idea what exactly it is I made. I’m going to go with focaccia because it seems the closest. Whatever it is it is so very good.

Plum Ricotta Foccacia

• 1/8 of the dough for Peter Reinhart’s Pain a l’Ancienne (recipe to follow)
• 6 Italian plums, halved and pitted
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Begin recipe after removing the dough from the refrigerator and allowing it to warm up for 2 hours.

1. Set a pizza stone on the lowest rack in the oven and preheat to 475.
2. Shape the piece of dough into a square, roughly 6×6 inches.
3. Arrange the plums, cut side down, on top of the dough.
4. Allow dough to rest for 1 hour. It will rise slightly, but not dramatically.
5. Mix the ricotta with the sugar and drop spoonfuls between the plums on the dough.
6. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
7. Bake directly on parchment, on a pizza stone for 15 minutes or until bread is golden brown and plums are soft and beginning to release juice.
8. Slice and eat warm or at room temperature.

Peter Reinhart’s Pain a l’Ancienne, from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice

• 6 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 1/4 tsp.  salt
• 1 3/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 2 1/4 cups + 2 T to 3 cups ice cold water

1. Combine all ingredients and mix a mixer for 2 minutes with the paddle attachment. Switch to the dough hook and continue to mix for 6 minutes. The dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl, but not to the sides. Add more water or flour as appropriate to achieve this texture.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and immediately place in the fridge. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Remove the bowl from the fridge and allow it to warm up for 2 hours.
4. Proceed with recipe above.

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