Chef John's Prosciutto Plum Focaccia recipe puts a unique twist on classic focaccia, featuring juicy plums wrapped in salty prosciutto baked into a fluffy, olive oil-infused dough. This visually stunning bread is bursting with sweet, salty, and savory flavors, perfect for any occasion. Watch the video to see how Chef John creates this delicious focaccia.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Prosciutto Plum Focaccia.
00:08That's right, instead of just poking the dough with our fingers, we're going to be pushing
00:12in some prosciutto wrap plum, which not only produces something incredibly delicious, but
00:17makes for one of the most beautiful focaccias you will ever see.
00:21So with that, let's go ahead and get started with this very simple dough, which begins
00:25with some dry active yeast, to which we will add some very warm water, as in like 105 degrees
00:32or so.
00:33And what we'll do is simply let this sit for about 15 minutes to allow the yeast to wake
00:38up, or bloom, as we call it in the business.
00:41And if you don't have anything better to do, and you look really close, you can actually
00:45watch this happen.
00:46Oh yeah, that is some active yeast, which is exactly what we want.
00:51And once that yeast has bloomed for about 15 minutes, we'll add the rest of the ingredients,
00:55which will include some olive oil, a little touch of sugar, followed by some all-purpose
01:00flour.
01:01Oh, and a little bit stuck in the bowl, so I went back and added the rest, which I'm
01:06only mentioning so you don't think that's a different ingredient.
01:10But anyway, we'll finish up with a little bit of salt, at which point we'll grab a wooden
01:13spoon and give this a mix, and we will keep mixing until things come together to form
01:19a very sticky, very soft dough.
01:22And then what we usually do with things like this, once our dough does come together, we
01:26normally transfer it onto the work surface, and then use some flour to knead the dough
01:31and shape it back into a ball.
01:33But this time we're not going to do that.
01:35Alright, what we'll do here, once it's mixed, is drizzle over some olive oil, and then rub
01:40a little bit on our hands, at which point we'll stretch and form this back into a ball
01:44of dough that's going to be fairly smooth and uniform, but it really doesn't matter,
01:49since we're going to let this slowly ferment in the fridge, which means we really don't
01:53have to do any kneading at all.
01:55So while this type of dough does take a little bit of time, it takes very, very little effort
01:59or attention, and as we're balling this dough up, we want to make sure we incorporate any
02:04dough that's still stuck to the bowl.
02:06And that's it, our work for today is done, and we will simply wrap the dough and pop
02:10it in the fridge overnight, where it may or may not double in size, which is basically
02:16where we want it to be before we move to the next step.
02:19So what I generally do is pull it out in the morning, and then simply let it sit on the
02:23counter warming up, until I think it's doubled in size, which at this point I thought mine
02:27had.
02:28And you know the rule of thumb for dough rising, if you poke it and it deflates, it's ready.
02:33Which means we can take it and move to the next step.
02:36But before we do, let's go ahead and rub a little bit of olive oil onto the counter,
02:40since I find that a lot easier to shape with, than trying to use flour.
02:44And that's it, once our surface and hands are oiled, we will press and shape our dough
02:48into a rectangle, pretty much as large as we can get it.
02:52And if your dough seems really elastic, and it keeps pulling back, and won't stay stretched
02:56out, you can simply stop and let it rest for a few minutes, and then continue stretching
03:01and pressing.
03:02But anyway, once we eventually get that pressed out into a nice big rectangle like this, we'll
03:07go ahead and fold that into thirds one way, and then once that's been accomplished, we
03:11will fold it into thirds the other way, which is going to produce a nice thick rectangle
03:15of dough, which we will then press back out, but not quite as large.
03:21This time we're only shooting for something about 6 by 9 inches.
03:24And once we do, we will stop, and we'll transfer that onto a very generously olive-oiled sheet
03:29pan.
03:30And then what we'll do before we move into final production, is drizzle on some olive
03:34oil, and rub that all over the surface, before we cover this, and then let it proof at room
03:39temp for a couple hours, or until it spreads out, and kind of puffs up a little bit.
03:45Which might happen sooner than 2 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is, or how cold your
03:50dough was when you started this.
03:52But anyway, we'll keep an eye on it.
03:55And while we're waiting, we can prep our plums, and by prep I mean carefully slice some pieces
03:59like this, and even though that pit in the center is going to stop the knife, and sort
04:03of protect your hand, we still want to be very careful, and for me a thin serrated knife
04:08is perfect here.
04:10But as long as you can get 12 nice wedges about this size, without cutting your hand,
04:14use whatever you want.
04:16And that's it, once our fruit is cut, we will take some nice thinly sliced prosciutto, and
04:21we'll tear off small pieces, and we'll wrap these up.
04:25And by the way, this will totally work with peaches instead, or apricots, or poulots,
04:30or pretty much any stone fruit.
04:32So feel free to use those other options if you want.
04:35I mean, you are after all the panettiere, of what kind of fruit this focaccia should
04:39carry.
04:40But for me, plums have the perfect balance between sweetness and acidity, to pair most
04:44perfectly with that salty prosciutto.
04:47But no matter what you use, once those are done, we'll wrap it up, and pop those in the
04:51fridge until we need them, and we'll head back and check our dough, which for me had
04:55been proofing about 2 hours.
04:57And as you can see, it's definitely spread out a bit, and also risen some, and the surface
05:02should feature a few bubbles here and there.
05:04So to me, that was looking just about perfect.
05:07So I proceeded to the optional step of sprinkling this with some freshly chopped rosemary, which
05:12I really enjoy.
05:14But if you're not into it, leave it off.
05:16And that's it.
05:17If this was regular focaccia, we would start poking this with our fingers, but here we're
05:21going to take our prosciutto wrap plum, and we're going to push those in, and we're going
05:25to push them in deep.
05:26All right, I don't want you literally going all the way to the pan, but almost all the
05:30way down is recommended.
05:32And since I wrapped 12 pieces of fruit, I used a nice uniform 3x4 pattern, which I thought
05:38would give us the perfect ratio between meat, fruit, and bread.
05:41Although we will be discussing that decision at the end of the video.
05:46And then once our prosciutto wrap plums have been inserted, we will give this surface another
05:50light drizzling of olive oil, before our final step, which is to sprinkle the top with some
05:55nice coarse flaky sea salt.
05:58And we want enough to taste and feel it, but we don't want too much.
06:02So please, put on the perfect amount.
06:05And that's it.
06:06Once that's been sprinkled over, this is now ready to transfer into the center of a 475
06:11degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until it's beautifully browned and looks like this.
06:17Oh yeah, when this came out of the oven, two thoughts came to mind.
06:21The first was, that's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
06:24And then I thought, you know what?
06:26We probably could have snuck some more plums in there, and we'll discuss that in a minute.
06:30But while this is still hot, what we want to do is brush it with some olive oil, just
06:34for a little bit of added richness, and also to kind of shine it up a little bit.
06:39And once we do that, we can go ahead and transfer this onto a rack, where we will, in theory,
06:44let this cool down to room temp before we cut it.
06:46But fair warning, that's going to be very hard to do.
06:50And if you were to transfer this to a cutting board, and slice off a piece while it's still
06:54slightly warm, I don't think anyone would blame you.
06:57Or me.
06:58But anyway, I did go ahead and cut a piece.
07:05And I was beyond pleased with the texture.
07:08This featured a thin, crispy crust, surrounding a very light, very airy, very tender inside.
07:14And after admiring that, I went in for a nice big bite.
07:18And that, my friends, truly was magnificent.
07:21Right above and beyond a pretty much perfect focaccia bread, we have that sweet and sour
07:25fruit wrapped with that salty, savory ham.
07:29And when you get some of everything in one bite, it is absolutely magical.
07:33Which brings up the issue I mentioned earlier.
07:35We probably could have pressed this out a little larger and a little thinner, and then
07:38maybe have done like 16 or 20 pieces of plum, just so there would be more in each bite.
07:44But the real question is, even though we could have done that, should we have done that?
07:49Right, there's a certain psychology involved.
07:51And we just put a small amount of a very flavorful filling or stuffing in something that's blander
07:56like a bread, which makes each bite that features that extra special, and has us craving more,
08:02which was sort of what was happening here.
08:04So that's one school of thought.
08:06The other school of thought, which I'll call my wife Michelle's school of thought, is put
08:10as much of the good stuff as you can fit on or in.
08:13So I promised her next time I would try it that way.
08:16But really, either way works beautifully, and there's really no wrong way to do this.
08:21And whether you make this exactly as shown, or you push in even more prosciutto wrap plum,
08:27either way, I truly loved how this came out, and I really do hope you give it a try soon.
08:34So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
08:38more info as usual, and as always, enjoy!