Recipe: Concord Grape Foccacia

When your focaccia goes grape picking. The dough is simple, but the topping? Concord grapes are unlike regular table grapes, their flavor is bold, musky, and almost perfumed - the taste of childhood juice boxes elevated into something grown-up and gorgeous. As they roast, their deep purple skins give way to carmelized jammy sweetness with a hint of tart bite. Mix that with a little salt, olive oil and bubbly golden crust…MAMMA MIA!

It’s rustic enough for a picnic, chic enough for a dinner party. Proof that bread can have a little fun, too.

Ingredients:

4 cup (177 ml) warm water (105° to 110°F)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) milk, slightly warmed
1 1/2 teaspoons (6 grams) sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons (5 grams) active dry yeast
2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
6 tablespoons (90 ml) olive oil
1 1/2 cups halved Concord, red or black grapes, seeded
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary needles
2 tablespoons (8 grams) raw or another coarse sugar
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt (heads up: some are finding this too salty; if you’re worried, use less)

Step 1: Gather your harvest.
Find yourself a basket of Concord grapes, preferably from a roadside stand in Massachusetts where the farmer also sells mums and maple syrup. If the grapes perfume your car on the drive home, you did it right.

Step 2: Wake the yeast.

Mix warm water, warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Wait for the bubbles like you’re watching leaves change —slow, inevitable, and oddly thrilling. About 10 minutes.

Step 3: Make it dough.

Add the flour, salt, and enough olive oil to make the whole kitchen smell cozy. Knead the sticky dough until your arms feel like you’ve just stacked a cord of firewood.  

Step 4: Let it rise.

Generously olive oil a large bowl and place the dough inside.  Cover the bowl, set it near the window, and let it puff while you put on a sweater and admire the foliage. This part takes about 1.5-2 hours, or one long walk down a leaf-strewn trail.  

Step 5: Grapes meet dough.
Press the dough down with a floured hand.  Brush a large baking sheet with olive oil and put the ball of dough on it, brushing it with olive oil. Let it rise for 20 more minutes under a kitchen towel. With olive oil coated hands, stretch it out to the shape you want and create cute little baby dimples. Tumble those Concord grapes across the top, pressing them in like little amethyst jewels. Sprinkle with sugar and a pinch of flaky salt, because autumn baking is nothing without a little sweet-and-salty magic.

Step 6: Bake until golden.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Then, into the oven it goes for 15 minutes, filling the house with a fragrance somewhere between a vineyard and a cider mill. This is the smell of October, baked into bread.

Step 7: Slice and share (or not).
Bring it to the table warm, with a pot of tea or a glass of cider. Say it’s “just something for fall” as everyone devours it faster than pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.