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Hand pulling apart a piece of caramel apple pie focaccia showing fluffy interior, apple chunks, and caramel glaze drip
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Caramel Apple Pie Pull-Apart Sourdough Focaccia

This pull-apart focaccia features soft, fluffy sourdough pieces coated in spiced apple pie filling and cinnamon sugar, then drizzled with salted caramel glaze that hardens into the most satisfying crackly shell. Perfect for fall brunch or Thanksgiving breakfast!
Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple pie bread, caramel apple pie focaccia, fall baking, holiday breakfast, pull-apart bread, sourdough recipe, thanksgiving breakfast
Calories: 185kcal
Author: Noelle Reed

Ingredients

Sourdough Focaccia Dough

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 400 g water room temperature
  • 75 g active sourdough starter fed and bubbly
  • 10 g salt
  • 15 g sugar
  • 5 g ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
  • 1.25 g ground nutmeg optional, 1/4 teaspoon

Apple Pie Filling

  • 450 g apples peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces (about 3 medium apples)
  • 75 g brown sugar packed
  • 8 g cornstarch
  • 15 g fresh lemon juice
  • 3 g vanilla extract
  • 5 g ground cinnamon
  • 1 g ground nutmeg
  • 0.5 g ground ginger
  • 1.5 g salt
  • 15 g unsalted butter

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 30 g cornstarch
  • 8 g ground cinnamon 1 Tablespoon
  • Caramel Glaze
  • 67 g granulated sugar
  • 20 g water
  • 30 g heavy cream warmed
  • 15 g unsalted butter
  • 2.5 g vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • 40 g powdered sugar

Instructions

Day 1: Make the Sourdough Dough

  • Mix the dough
  • In a large bowl, combine water, active sourdough starter, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg (if using). Mix until combined. Add the flour and mix until no dry flour remains. The dough will be sticky and shaggy.
  • Rest
  • Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
  • Stretch and fold
  • Perform one set of stretch and folds to build strength. Wet your hands, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over itself. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 4-6 times total until you’ve worked around the entire dough ball.
  • Bulk fermentation
  • Cover the bowl and let the dough proof at room temperature for 8-12 hours, or until at least doubled in size. Look for a domed top, visible bubbles throughout, and a puffy, jiggly texture.

Day 2: Make Filling, Shape, Rise, and Bake

  • Make the apple pie filling
  • In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine diced apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and butter. Cook, with a lid on, stirring occasionally, until the apples soften, about 8-10 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water until smooth. Pour this into the apple mixture and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool until warm but still pourable. Keep it warm while you work.
  • Prepare your pan
  • Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan generously with butter or cooking spray.
  • Prepare cinnamon sugar coating
  • In a shallow bowl or plate, whisk together granulated sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Set aside for dipping.
  • Ball, Dip and Coat
    Three stages of making caramel apple pie focaccia showing dough balls before filling, with apple pie filling, and after baking
  • Dump dough out onto a greased surface. Pinch a golf ball size chunk of dough off. Working with one ball at a time, dip it into the warm apple pie filling, coating generously on all sides grabbing apple chunks with. Immediately roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat completely. Place in the prepared pan. Continue until all balls are coated and arranged in the pan, touching each other.
  • Second rise
  • Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rise for 1-2 hours at room temperature, or until puffy and the balls have grown together. They should jiggle slightly when you shake the pan.
  • Add remaining filling
  • After the second rise, pour or spoon any remaining apple pie filling over the top of the proofed focaccia.
  • Bake
  • Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until deep golden brown on top. If the top is browning too quickly (check around 25 minutes), tent with foil. The internal temperature should reach about 200-205°F. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
  • Make the Caramel Glaze (See notes section for alternative)
  • Make caramel
  • In a microwave-safe bowl, combine granulated sugar and water. DO NOT STIR. Microwave on high for 1 minute, then check. Continue microwaving in 30-second intervals, watching closely (total time will be 2.5-3 minutes). The mixture will turn from clear to golden to amber. You want a medium amber color. CAUTION: The sugar mixture is EXTREMELY hot!
  • Add cream and butter
  • Carefully stir in warmed heavy cream (it will bubble up dramatically!), butter, vanilla, and salt. The mixture will seize up at first but keep stirring. Let cool for 5-10 minutes until just warm to the touch.
  • Finish glaze
  • Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth. The glaze should be pourable but have some body to it.
  • Glaze
  • Drizzle the caramel glaze generously over the warm focaccia. Make sure every piece gets covered.
  • Set
  • Let the glaze set for a few minutes before serving.
  • Serve
  • Pull apart and enjoy! Each piece is like a mini caramel apple pie.

Notes

Use Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Keepsake, or a mix for best apple flavor
Keep apple filling warm while coating for best results
Watch caramel closely - it goes from perfect to burnt quickly!
Best served fresh and warm the day of making
No sourdough starter? Replace the 75g starter with 37g flour + 37g water + 7g instant yeast. Use room temperature water (or warm water 100-110°F for slightly faster rise).
Your bulk fermentation will be 2-3 hours at room temperature instead of 8-12 hours.
See the blog post for additional tips and information.
Can I use the refrigerator?
OPTION 1: Night Before
Evening: mix dough → proof overnight at room temp → morning: shape balls, dip & arrange → proof 1-2 hours → bake & ice
OPTION 2: Day Before
Morning: mix dough → proof all day → evening: shape balls, dip & arrange → cover well & refrigerate overnight → next morning: bring to room temp 1-2 hours → bake & ice
Both ways = same delicious result! Pick what works for YOUR schedule 
Follow the timing AND signs of complete proofing in the recipe
 
SIMPLE VANILLA GLAZE (CARAMEL ALTERNATIVE)
If you don't want to make caramel, use this easy vanilla glaze instead:
• 120g (1 cup) powdered sugar
• 30-45g (2-3 tablespoons) heavy cream OR milk
• 5g (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
• Optional: 15g (1 tablespoon) melted butter for extra richness
 
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Whisk powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons cream/milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.
2. Add more cream/milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach a thick but pourable consistency.
3. If using butter: Add melted butter and whisk until combined. This makes the glaze richer and gives it a slight sheen.
4. Drizzle over warm focaccia immediately. The glaze will set as it cools.
 
NOTES:
• Heavy cream makes a richer glaze than milk
• If you don't have cream or milk, use melted butter (15g/1 tbsp) + water (15g/1 tbsp) for the liquid
• Glaze should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon but still drip off
 
 
YEAST SUBSTITUTION GUIDE FOR CARAMEL APPLE PIE FOCACCIA
No Sourdough Starter? Use Yeast Instead! Don’t have sourdough starter? You can use instant yeast or active dry yeast instead! Here’s what to do:
Replace This:
• 75g active sourdough starter
With This:
• 37g (about ¼ cup) all-purpose or bread flour
• 37g (about 2½ tablespoons) water
• 7g (2¼ teaspoons) instant yeast OR 9g (2¾ teaspoons) active dry yeast ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Instructions Based on Yeast Type: Using INSTANT YEAST (also called Rapid Rise):
This is the easiest option!
Mix everything together at once: Add the flour, water, and instant yeast along with ALL the other recipe ingredients (500g bread flour, 400g water, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg) right from the start. Mix until combined.
Bulk fermentation: Let the complete dough rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature until it doubles in size and becomes puffy and jiggly. (This replaces the 8-12 hour overnight fermentation you’d do with sourdough starter.)
Continue as normal: Once your dough has doubled, proceed with the recipe exactly as written - same stretch and fold, same shaping, same apple pie filling coating, same cinnamon sugar coating, same second rise, and same baking! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Using ACTIVE DRY YEAST: This requires one extra step to activate the yeast first. Activate the yeast: Mix the 37g warm water (100-110°F/38-43°C) with the 9g active dry yeast in a small bowl. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy and bubbly. If it doesn’t foam, your yeast is dead - start over with fresh yeast.
Mix everything together: Once your yeast is foamy, add it along with the 37g flour and ALL the other recipe ingredients (500g bread flour, 400g water, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg). Mix until combined.
Bulk fermentation: Let the complete dough rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature until it doubles in size and becomes puffy and jiggly. (This replaces the 8-12 hour overnight fermentation you’d do with sourdough starter.)
Continue as normal: Once your dough has doubled, proceed with the recipe exactly as written - same stretch and fold, same shaping, same apple pie filling coating, same cinnamon sugar coating, same second rise, and same baking! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Important Notes: Water Adjustment:
• Worried about wet dough?
Start by decreasing the water in the main recipe to 360g (1½ cups). Experienced bakers can stick with the full 400g.
• Use room temperature water for instant yeast
• Use warm water (100-110°F) for active dry yeast
What Actually Changes:
• ✅ Much faster bulk fermentation (2-3 hours instead of 8-12 hours)
• ✅ Mix yeast right in with the flour and water at the beginning (same as you would with starter)
• ✅ Look for the dough to double in size and become puffy and jiggly
• ❌ Everything else stays EXACTLY the same, same mixing method, same stretch and fold technique, same shaping with apple pie filling and cinnamon sugar coating, same second rise time, and same baking temperature and time!
Temperature Tips:
• Ideal bulk fermentation temperature: 75-80°F (24-27°C)
• Warmer kitchen = faster rise (might only take 2 hours)
• Cooler kitchen = slower rise (might take 3+ hours)
• Don’t worry if it takes a bit longer - just watch for the dough to double! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Quick Reference Chart:
All-purpose or bread flour: 37g (¼ cup) Water: 37g (2½ tbsp)
INSTANT YEAST: 7g (2¼ tsp)
ACTIVE DRY YEAST: 9g (2¾ tsp)
Bulk Fermentation Time: 2-3 hours (until doubled)
Everything Else: Exactly the same as the sourdough version! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
FAQ: Q: Can I use regular all-purpose yeast from the grocery store?
A: Yes! Most grocery store yeast is either instant or active dry - check your package. Instant yeast (also called Rapid Rise or Bread Machine yeast) is easier because you don’t need to proof it first.
Q: Why does instant yeast need less than active dry?
A: Instant yeast has smaller granules and is more potent, so you need less of it to achieve the same rise.
Q: Can I let the yeast dough rise overnight in the fridge?
A: Absolutely! After mixing, you can refrigerate the dough for up to 24 hours for even better flavor. The cold temperature slows the rise. When ready to use, let it come to room temperature and finish doubling if needed, then continue with shaping and coating with the apple pie filling.
Q: My dough isn’t rising. What went wrong?
A: Check these things:
• Is your yeast fresh? (Check expiration date)
• Was your water the right temperature? (Too hot kills yeast, too cold slows it way down)
• Is your kitchen cold? (Move to a warmer spot)
• Did you accidentally add salt directly to the yeast before mixing? (Salt can inhibit yeast)
Q: Will the yeast version taste the same as sourdough?
A: It will be slightly different! The sourdough version has a subtle tang and more complex flavor from the long fermentation. The yeast version is milder and sweeter, which actually works beautifully with the caramel apple flavors. Both are delicious!
Q: Can I use this yeast method for all your sourdough recipes?
A: This substitution works best for enriched doughs like focaccia, pull-apart focaccia variations, and similar recipes. For lean doughs like basic bread loaves, you may need to adjust the formula differently. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Pro Tip: Instant yeast is more forgiving and faster to use. If you’re new to baking or want the easiest route, choose instant yeast over active dry!
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