Sourdough Apple Fritter Protein Focaccia

Are you looking for the perfect cozy baking project to embrace the shorter, crisper days of fall? This Sourdough Apple Fritter Protein Focaccia is it. It combines the slow, meditative process of sourdough with the irresistible flavors of cinnamon, butter, and sweet apples. With a super-soft, bubbly interior, crispy edges, and a decadent apple-infused glaze, this recipe delivers all the comfort of apple fritters without the mess of deep-frying, and it’s even packed with a little extra protein.

 

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• Why You’ll Love This
• The Ingredients
• Substitutions
• Equipment Used
• How to Make this
• How To Store
• FAQ
• Other Recipes You Might Enjoy

Why You’ll Love This 

TL;DR

• Sourdough Focaccia: A beginner-friendly, foolproof recipe that works with your schedule.
• Apple Fritter Flavor: Enjoy the taste of deep-fried apple fritters with crispy edges and a delicious glaze, without the hassle and grease of frying.
• Higher Protein: Features cottage cheese and whey protein for a protein boost, making it more satisfying and a little more guilt-free.
• Fights Food Waste: A perfect way to use up over-proofed sourdough and leftover apples.
• Fruity Glaze: The secret to the glaze is the leftover liquid from stewing the apples—a deeply flavorful, no-waste solution.

Perfect Cosy Fall Bread

In fall, when the days are getting shorter, the air crisper and I keep running face first into spiderwebs (not on purpose, I swear!), I feel more and more drawn to cosy baking projects that fill my kitchen with the scent of freshly baked bread, cinnamon and, in this case, apples.
The focaccia rises slowly at its own pace, reminding me to slow down too and settling into a less frantic rhythm.
The dough, when working with it feels silky and moist, and if you give it enough time, rises into the most perfect bubbly focaccia, which is filled and topped with cinnamon-butter flavored apples, creating an apple pie flavored sourdough bread with perfectly crisp, buttery edges.

This recipe was inspired by the fabulous version from Annabelle @hellohoneycomb.

Higher Protein, Easier to Digest

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t squeeze in some protein, getting each portion up to nearly 9g, which is pretty good for a dessert I feel. Both cottage cheese and protein powder work together to achieve this. And of course the slow fermentation means the protein gets broken down into smaller molecules, making it easier digestible for your body, as I explained in my blog post on the topic of baking with sourdough and protein.

Like Apple Fritters, Without The Frying

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely adore apple fritters! The crisp outside giving way to soft dough and juicy apples, with the exact right hint of tang, smothered in sugary glaze is just utterly irresistible. What isn’t irresistible though, is the process of deep frying! Quite to the contrary. Especially the lingering smell of grease in the house and hair (unless I wash it right after) has me stay away from it for the most part. Well…ok…aside from my Apple Cider donuts with plum curd. I do make an exception for them!

But back to this Sourdough Apple Fritter Focaccia: It tastes like said apple fritters, crispy edges, glaze and all, but without the hot oil! Huge plus in my book!
And with that it’s a little less greasy too. A little. Because we do top it with cinnamon-brown-sugar butter.

The Apple Stewing Liquid Doubles As Glaze

When I first made this, I noticed the apples were so juicy that the focaccia dough refused to bake through in the center. Of course I could have used less apples, but where is the fun in that?
Instead I decided to lightly stew them in the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter mix, which causes them to release moisture that can then be separated and used both as topping before baking and the other half in a deeply fruity and flavorful glaze later.
So much better than using milk or maple syrup, as it contains the essence of fall flavor with the apple juices being cooked down a bit and the sugar caramelising.

Great Use For Over proofed Sourdough

Homemade Sourdough Focaccia might be the perfect use for over proofed dough. Be it in form of a classic, savory leaning version which I shared a few weeks ago, or a sweet dessert focaccia like this one. Essentially the longer your dough has time to proof, the bubblier it gets.
I left mine for nearly 2 days (part in the fridge, part on my counter) and look at the gorgeous fluffy texture I got and huge bubbles!

Perfect For Sourdough Beginners

Since you need no special equipment for focaccia like a Dutch oven or stand mixer, you can make this easily as a sourdough beginner. It’s also pretty foolproof, since over proofing is virtually impossible. I love that fact, since it means the bread works around my schedule, not the other way around.

Ingredient Notes

As usual I share just a few notes on some of the ingredients. A full list including amounts is in the recipe card below.

The Focaccia Dough

• Sourdough Starter – (Or Levain) For this dough a really active starter is best, as you want all the bubbles you can get. Though if yours is relatively young, just leave the dough to ferment longer. It’ll be fine.
• Strong White Flour – Focaccia is a very high hydration dough (meaning a lot of liquid in relation to flour) and with that comes the necessity to use strong flour, often called bread flour, for its high gluten and protein content. Of course for me high protein is a bonus. For this one, due to the high moisture content, I highly recommend using bread flour over AP flour for the best results.
• Cottage cheese – A rather unusual ingredient in sourdough bread, I found it to be the perfect ingredient to replace part of the water with a lot more protein. It also introduces a very gentle milky freshness that goes fabulous with sourdough bread. The first time I used this combo was in my Easy High Protein Sourdough Bread and I was absolutely amazed by the results.
• Whey Protein Concentrate – I’m adding about 2 scoops (50g) here to raise the protein content. That may seem very little, but together with the cottage cheese it gets this bread to 17% protein content, compared to usually maximum around 10%. Since this is a dessert version I used vanilla flavor, which is also contributing some sweetness without adding extra calories to the dough.

The Apple Filling

• Apples – I love Pink Lady, as they are juice, sweet and flavorful. Any relatively firm variety will work. I wouldn’t use cooking apples here, as they just fall apart into a mush and we want pieces here.
• Butter – Ok look, I realise focaccia isn’t exactly health food, but the butter for the extra crispy crust can surely be forgiven with all that protein? Are you with me on this? Excellent!
  Plus the flavor it adds is just out of this world delicious!
• Brown sugar – I feel the gentle caramel flavor of brown sugar just pairs so perfectly with cinnamon and apples.

The Glaze

• Icing Sugar – Transforms the buttery stewing liquid into a proper glaze
• Apple Stewing Liquid – We’ll be gently cooking the apple pieces to release some of the liquid, keeping it out of the dough and making the pieces softer. Catching those buttery, cinnamon scented juices was one of my better ideas if I may say so myself. It completely transforms the glaze from “just sweet”, which you’d have with the classic milk based apple fritter glaze, into a deeply flavorful essence of autumn.

substitutions

The Dough

• Flour – While most of my recipes say you could replace the strong white flour for AP flour, the high moisture content of focaccia is not ideal for a swap. Though, if you simply don’t have strong white flour, you might have to add a bit more AP flour and sacrifice some of the bubbliness.
• Cottage Cheese – If you don’t want to use cottage cheese, either use Greek yoghurt, which has a higher fat content (great for this type of bread) and a little less protein. Or reverse engineer by replacing with the same amount of water and about 1-2 tbsp more flour.
• Protein Powder – You can use whey (that’s what this recipe is written for), casein (will need a little more water) or spent barley protein (will need a bit less water) or simply replace it with the same amount of flour, using a little less water, if you want to make this a non-protein focaccia.
• Make it Vegan – Use spent barley vegan protein powder like this one from MyProtein (neither affiliated nor sponsored, much to my dismay!), a bit less water (start at about 1/4 cup less and see how the dough feels after the second coil fold), vegan Greek yoghurt and vegan butter.
• I have not tried baking with any other vegan protein powders, as I dislike their flavor. So I can’t make any other recommendations.
• Gluten Free – I would not advise to make this with GF flour, as the high gluten content in the bread flour is what gives Focaccia the fabulous rise. But if you really want to try, I’d say add some psyllium husk and see how it behaves. I have not tried this myself though. So if you do try it out, I’d love to hear from you!

The Apple Filling

• Try blueberries instead or blackberries. Both would make for a stunning late summer Focaccia.
• Strawberries in early summer can work too, but make sure to cook them down a good bit for the filling, as they contain even more water than apples.
• Peaches, plums, cherries or pears would be other welcome additions.
• Or you could wildly mix them for a summer fruit focaccia. Now there is an idea!
• Raisins would make a lovely addition on top of the apples too. Or instead of them, making this a cinnamon-raisin focaccia.

The Glaze

• The icing sugar belongs into every glaze, but you can vary the flavoring wildly. I love lemon juice in mine. But salted maple would be good too. Or just use milk or plant milk for the classic neutral sweet flavor you find on apple fritters.

Equipment Used

• Digital scales – I keep saying it: when working with flour, digital scales are your friend. Cups can just vary wildly in weight, depending on who uses them and how, which will have a dramatic impact on your dough. That’s why I give the ingredients in metrics instead of cups for dough. However, if you don’t have scales, 1 cup of flour is 120g, when spooned in lightly and levelled.
• Large bowl – To mix the dough in.
• Dough whisk or spoon – To mix the dough. You can of course use your hands or a stand mixer if you prefer.
• Saucepan – For gently stewing the apples
• Fine mesh strainer – To separate the liquid from the apples.
• Cast iron pan or sheet pan – For baking
• Small whisk – To mix the glaze

Food Scale

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Glass bowl

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Dough Whisk

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Saucepan

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cast iron pan

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How to Make this

Day 1

(2 days before you plan to bake)

Sourdough Starter (Levain)

• Using 30g of your existing starter, feed it with 50g flour and 50g water. Leave it loosely covered overnight until it has doubled in volume, is active, and bubbly.
• How strong your starter is depends on your flour. Use good quality flour to feed it for best results. The consistency should be like very thick, stiff pancake batter.
• How long your starter will take depends on the temperature of your house. In winter it might need longer, in summer significantly shorter. I often leave it in the fridge overnight in summer, then let it double within 2-3h on my counter. Otherwise I miss the peak activity window.
• To determine if it’s ready check if it has doubled in volume, is actively bubbling, you see nice, strong gluten strands if gently pulling it away from the walls of the jar with a spoon and it floats on water. At peak activity it will form a slight dome in its jar, before deflating again.

Day 2

(The day before baking or early morning if you want to bake the same day)

Stew Your Apples

• Peel your apples. While this is not strictly necessary and you can certainly skip it, if you’d like more fiber in your diet, I prefer this apple pie-like focaccia without the skin for really tender pieces.
• Cut the sides off the core and chop into small pieces (about ¼ inch thick).

• Melt the butter for the filling in a saucepan, let it brown a bit if you like, add the sugar and apple pieces and bring to a gentle boil.
• Cook on medium high for 5-10 minutes (depending on the juiciness of your apples) until you feel they are not releasing more juice, but it’s rather boiling down. Allow to cook until the remaining juices have mostly boiled down and you are left with some cinnamon-apple flavored, buttery, sugary syrup.

• Using a fine mesh strainer over a jug or bowl, strain the apple pieces and catch all the delicious, buttery juices. You’ll have about half a cup at this point
• Cover and allow to cool while you make the dough.

Mix The Dough

• In a large bowl mix the salt into your flour.
• Blend the cottage cheese and protein powder with some of the water until smooth.

• Add the cottage cheese-protein mix to the sourdough starter together with the remaining water and stir until combined.

• Pour the liquids into your flour and stir until you have a shaggy dough without any dry flour bits.

• Your dough will be very wet and sticky at this point. Don’t add more flour. This is working as intended.
• Cover with a lid, cling film, a shower cap or a damp tea towel and let it sit for about thirty minutes to one hour.

Stretch And Fold

• After the 30min-1h, start a series of 3 stretch and fold. (Or Coil folds, which I used in the pictures. They are ideal for very wet dough.)
• To do this without too much dough sticking to your fingers, wet your hands lightly.
• Push both hands under the dough, pulling it upwards. Then fold it over itself.
• Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this 4 times until the bowl returns to its starting position and the dough is visibly smoother and stronger.

• Repeat every 30 minutes to 1 hour for 2-4 times or until your dough looks smooth and strong like in the last picture.

Bulk Ferment

Now you have two options:

• You can cover your dough and store it in the fridge overnight for a slow fermentation (8-12 hours, or even up to 3 days if you prefer a stronger sourdough flavor or life gets in the way of baking).
• Or you can allow your dough to ferment on the counter, for it to be ready to bake in the afternoon or evening, depending on your room temperature. This works particularly well in warm rooms.
• In this case jump straight to the shaping, as you’ll want the rise to take place in the baking dish.
• If you don’t have a warm room, but would like to bake the same day, store your shaped dough in your closed oven (switched off or with just the light on) with a cup of freshly boiled water beside it, which should provide just the right temperature.
• Leave until your dough has doubled in Volume (3-6 hours, sometimes longer)

Day 3

Or the late afternoon of day 2

Shaping The Focaccia

• The next morning (or right after the last stretch and fold, if you go for same day baking) take your dough out of the fridge.
• Melt the 30g butter for the dough and pour it into your baking dish. You could use parchment paper and then top it with the butter if you are worried about your dough sticking.

• Gently transfer your dough into the prepared baking dish and carefully stretch it to fit the dish. If it feels resistant, let it relax for 30 minutes and try again.
• You can push your hands under the dough and pull from the center towards the sides for even distribution.

Fill With Apples

• Using about 1/3 of your stewed and cooled apples, tumble them all across your focaccia dough. Make sure they are evenly spread, to avoid any spots that bake slower due to the moisture.
• Pulling dough from underneath with your hands, stretch it gently over the apple pieces from all sides. This will prevent the apples from tumbling into one big heap in the center and keep them relatively evenly distributed.

• Pinch the dough closed as good as you can in the middle, then flip it over so the seam is at the bottom.

Last Rise

• Cover again and leave for 3-6 hours or until doubled in volume, jiggly and really bubbly.

• This is the secret to the perfect Focaccia: Patience.
  I baked one of mine too early and while it still tasted amazing, it didn’t have the characteristic huge bubbles and airy texture. You want to go nearly to the state of over proofing. Further than with classic sourdough bread.
• If you feel it’s not rising well, give it either more time or use the oven method described above to give it a bit of a boost.

Bake your Protein Sourdough Focaccia

• Pre-heat your oven to 375°F/190°C

• Distribute the remaining apple pieces over the focaccia.
• Using your hands, gently spread about half of the buttery, sugary apple butter over the dough.

• Start dimpling the dough, to create the typical Focaccia surface by pushing your fingertips deep into the dough and continue until you have an even dimple pattern.
• Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Tent with foil, to prevent burning, then bake for another 20-30 minutes or until cooked through in the middle.
• Check temperature at center with thermometer ideally. Should be 185F/85C
• Alternatively check with a toothpick in the center. It should come out clean.
• Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes while you mix the glaze.

As you can see here, I pushed the rise of my latest bake fairly far, leading to huge bubbles and a very fluffy dough.

Glaze

• To make the buttery apple-cinnamon glaze, slowly mix the remaining cooked down apple juices with the icing sugar. You might need to add 1-2 tbsp water to get enough liquid but try whisking without first.
• The consistency should be thick but drizzle-able.
• Pour your glaze over your gorgeous Sourdough Apple Fritter Protein Focaccia
• Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee for breakfast, tea or just a lovely cosy snack.

How To Store

This Sourdough Apple Fritter Focaccia keeps for about 2-3 days in an airtight container. Because it contains apples, I usually keep it in the fridge instead of on the counter.

It freezes beautifully too for up to 6 months. I tend to store 2 slices in small containers or freezer bags, then lightly sprinkle them with a bit of water before heating them at 350°F/175°C for about 10-12 minutes in my air fryer for the crispiest edges you can imagine, making them even better reheated.

Keep some for surprise guests. They will adore you for it!

FAQ

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