Quick and Easy Cinnamon Roll Focaccia
, Published Sep 06, 2024
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Cinnamon Roll Focaccia is a sweet twist on classic focaccia bread recipe featuring cinnamon and brown sugar and a sticky maple vanilla glaze. This easy recipe is foolproof even for beginners and perfect for sharing.
Can anyone resist focaccia bread? I know that my whole family go nuts for it whenever I bake some – whether it is my Sourdough Focaccia or my Air Fryer Focaccia. So I was eager to try new variations on this traditional Italian bread and my son suggested Cinnamon Roll Focaccia. Ding ding! We have a winner
I love to bake cinnamon rolls too, but they require a bit more effort than focaccia bread which is truly easy (dare I say lazy?) to make. It doesn’t require kneading or shaping and it can be ready to bake in about two hours.
Combining the two is surprisingly easy – the focaccia is made a little sweeter, using butter instead of olive oil.
Then we incorporate the cinnamon sugar and frosting beloved of cinnamon rolls and voila! We have the most amazing cinnamon roll focaccia bread that is just as delicious for breakfast or a sweet treat.
Cinnamon Roll Focaccia Ingredients
- Flour: white bread flour has a higher protein content that all purpose white flour, giving our focaccia structure and lift. You CAN use all purpose flour if you like but the resulting bread will be a bit more denser with a close crumb.
- Yeast: I prefer to use instant or rapid rise yeast which is mixed with the flour without requiring activation first. See notes if you prefer to use
- Sugar: white granulated sugar is mixed with the flour to give this twist on focaccia a bit more sweetness.
- Salt: always needed to make any type of bread.
- Unsalted butter: melted unsalted butter replaces oil in this recipe.
- Dark brown sugar and fragrant ground cinnamon.
- Powdered sugar, maple syrup, vanilla bean extract and melted butter are used to make the sticky glaze.
- Water: ideally use filtered water when making bread.
How to Make Cinnamon Roll Focaccia
Full measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. Please take a look at the steps and video before attempting this recipe!
Make the dough
Add the flour, sugar, salt and yeast to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the water and three tablespoons of melted butter and stir well to make a shaggy sticky dough. Rest for 10 minutes.
Do a series of stretch and folds: dip your fingertips in melted butter or grease with a little oil. Grab the underside of the dough furthest from you in the bowl and stretch it and fold it over the top. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the stretch and folds three more time. Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
Repeat the stretch and fold once or twice more – you will notice the dough will start becoming smoother and more elastic. Grease the bowl with a little melted butter, cover and leave to rise for 60-90 minutes until doubled.
Second rise
Grease and line a 9×11 sheet pan with a baking liner or paper. Tip the dough onto the lined pan and flatten the dough with your fingers to fill the pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and some melted butter.
Fold the dough into thirds (letter fold) and then flip over seam side down. Cover the pan and proof for 45 minutes or until the dough has almost doubled in size and filling the pan. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450°F / 225°C.
Dimple and bake
Drizzle melted butter over the dough and dimple the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dimple once again.
Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F (200°F) and bake the focaccia for 25-28 minutes or until it registers at least 190°C (87°C) on an instant read thermometer. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.
Glaze and serve
Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the warm focaccia and cool before slicing. Best served slightly warm – reheat in the microwave for just a few seconds or toast in a toaster.
Lucy’s Pro Tip
Recipe Tip
Focaccia dough contains a lot of water (high hydration) so it is quite a sticky dough that spreads out. Resist the temptation to add more flour – the dough will become smooth as you do a series of stretches and folds.
Storing and freezing
This sweet focaccia is a bit more moist than traditional focaccia so the best way to store it is to slice it and freeze it in a suitable airtight container. You can toast frozen slices to serve. I wouldn’t advise you store in the fridge as that will dry it out.
Related Recipes
- Air Fryer Sourdough Bread
- Cottage Cheese Bread
- Easy Sourdough Discard Focaccia With Yeast
- Sourdough Focaccia – Perfect for Beginners
If you loved this Cinnamon Roll Focaccia recipe, please give it a star rating! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #supergoldenbakes – don’t forget to tag me @supergolden88
Cinnamon Roll Focaccia
Video
Ingredients
For the dough
- 3 ½ cups (420g) white bread flour
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp rapid rise yeast or see notes
- 1 ¼ cups (300ml) water
- ⅓ cup (80g) unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
Cinnamon Sugar
- ½ cup (90g) dark brown sugar
- ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
Glaze
- ½ cup (60g) powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
Make the dough
- Add the flour, sugar, salt and yeast to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the water and three tablespoons of the melted butter and stir well to make a shaggy sticky dough. Rest for 10 minutes.3 ½ cups (420g) white bread flour, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp rapid rise yeast, 1 ¼ cups (300ml) water, ⅓ cup (80g) unsalted butter
- Do a series of stretch and folds: dip your fingertips in melted butter or grease with a little oil. Grab the underside of the dough furthest from you in the bowl and stretch it and fold it over the top. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the stretch and folds three more time. Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
- Repeat the stretch and fold once or twice more – you will notice the dough will start becoming smoother and more elastic. Grease the bowl with a little melted butter, cover and leave to rise for 60-90 minutes until doubled.
Second rise
- Grease and line a 9×11 sheet pan with a baking liner or paper. Tip the dough onto the lined pan and flatten the dough with your fingers to fill the pan. Sprinkle with approximately half of the cinnamon sugar and some melted butter.½ cup (90g) dark brown sugar, ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
- Fold the dough into thirds (letter fold) and then flip over seam side down. Cover the pan and proof for 45 minutes or until the dough has almost doubled in size and filling the pan. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450°F / 225°C.
Dimple and bake
- Drizzle melted butter over the dough and dimple the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dimple once again.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F (200°F) and bake the focaccia for 25-28 minutes or until it registers at least 190°C (87°C) on an instant read thermometer. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.
Glaze and serve
- Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the warm focaccia and cool before slicing. Best served slightly warm – reheat in the microwave for just a few seconds.½ cup (60g) powdered sugar, 2 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 1 tbsp melted butter
1st time making a sweet focaccia and this was awesome!!! Thanks for a great recipe and the visuals.
Kids and hubby raving about it!!!
That’s awesome, thanks so much for your comment 🙂
What an incredible result! My 18yo daughter announced “This is like a donut! I’d even prefer this over Krispy Kreme!” She said it was so delicious that when she took the first bite she had to lean on something. 😂
She has asked me to make this instead of a cake for her next birthday, so I’ll definitely be making this again.
I was baking it at 7am and it made the house smell incredible!
Very easy to follow recipe, and thank you for including the amounts again in the instructions.
Ange you and your daughter have made my day!!
5-starts doesn’t seem high enough!
This is the 2nd cinnamon roll focaccia I’ve made, and when compared to my first batch (a different recipe), this one is, by far, THE BEST one. In fact, I’ve got a 2nd batch baking right now, because the family loves it so much—especially the cinnamon layers and the maple syrup glaze. The recipe is easy to follow, the pictures give you visuals and walk you step by step through the process, and the video was great as it helped me understand what a “letter fold,” is. Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe! I’ve pinned it and plan to make it again, and again, for many years to come!
Wow! Thanks very much for the kind words Celeste, very much appreciated!
My first cinnamon focaccia bread and it turned out PERFECT!! I was skeptical bc no one had rated yet, so here’s a well deserved 5 star!! Thank you!
Hi Shay – thanks so much for your lovely comment and rating. I truly appreciate it.