Cinnamon-Sugar Focaccia (No-Knead, No-Fuss)

When focaccia meets cinnamon roll, good things happen. In this union, focaccia dough gets folded and dimpled with a cinnamon-brown sugar-butter mixture and baked until bubbly and golden all around. Cinnamon rolls without all the fuss? Yes. You. Can 🎉

Assembling ​cinnamon rolls​ always feels like a process, from making the dough and rolling it out, to spreading on the filling and coiling it up, to slicing, baking, and making the glaze.

Cinnamon roll focaccia feels effortless in comparison. As you know, ​focaccia dough​, made with 4 ingredients, takes no time to stir together, and it can hang out in your fridge for days.

Moreover, with cinnamon roll focaccia, there’s no rolling and coiling — you’ll fold and dimple the dough, but all of this takes place in the confines of the 9×13-inch pan you’ll bake the focaccia in. You won’t flour a work surface or your hands, you won’t coil or cut. Overall, it’s very simple.

This would be the perfect thing to make for a fall or winter brunch, when you need something sweet to feed a crowd but maybe don’t have the energy for a more elaborate ensemble. Find step-by-step instructions below.

Cinnamon-Sugar Focaccia, Step by Step

First, gather your ingredients:

Whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast, then…

…add the water:

And stir with a spatula until you have a sticky dough ball:

Cover the bowl and let rest for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold it. Video guidance:

Slick the dough with oil, cover the bowl, then stick in the fridge for at least 12 hours or as long as 3 days.

Remove from the fridge and take a moment to marvel at its beauty:

Then deflate it with a flexible bench scraper.

Prepare your pan:

Turn the dough into the pan, and turn it in the oil to coat.

Don’t touch it for 1.5 hours:

Then stretch it to fit the pan:

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine some butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon:

Whisk until smooth…

… then pour over the dough, distributing it as evenly as possible:

Spread the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the dough, then fold the dough envelope-style, and turn it so that the open ends of the envelope face the short ends of the pan:

Cover the pan, and let it rest for another 1.5 hours or return to the fridge for another 24 hours (see notes below):

Then mix another batch of the cinnamon sugar butter mixture over the dough and dimple, distributing the mixture as your dimple:

Sprinkle with sea salt, then transfer to the oven…

… and bake until evenly golden:

Transfer the focaccia to a cooling rack:

Let cool briefly, while you mix up a simple glaze:

Then transfer the focaccia to a serving board, and drizzle the glaze over the top:

Cut into squares and serve:

Make It Ahead

If you want to reduce the amount of work on the morning you want to serve this, you can make the recipe through step 8, but after you cover the pan, you’ll return it to the fridge. You can use plastic wrap or a zip-top bag. I love these 2-gallon bags for this purpose:

Remove it one hour before you plan on baking it and let it rise at room temperature (covered):

Then proceed with the recipe, dimpling and spreading over the final layer of the brown sugar-cinnamon-butter mixture. Note: as you dimple, you will feel the cold inside layer of the initial brown sugar-cinnamon-butter mixture — it will feel slightly solidified… don’t worry, it will be fine.

Bake as directed:

Glaze as directed:

Cut and enjoy the deliciousness:

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