A Recipe for Chicago Dog Focaccia from a ‘Great American Baking Show’ Winner and Proud Midwesterner

For cookbook author Martin Sorge, there is one, simple key ingredient that defines Midwestern baking.

“Midwestern baking really just means the person who baked it identifies as Midwestern,” says Sorge. “With such a diverse community, especially here in Chicago, that can mean a lot of things.” 

Sorge grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and moved to Chicago after college. After a stint on the east coast for graduate school, he moved back, drawn by his roots, the lake, and the slightly-less-painful cost of living. He and his husband now split their time between Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood and outside Traverse City, Michigan. All of those influences can be found in his new cookbook, Great Bakes: Modern Classic Recipes from the Midwest, which explores the variety that can be found in Midwestern recipes. 

Sorge says his cookbook has both approachable bakes as well as more challenging “project” bakes good for tackling on a weekend. He knows the value of an approachable bake, as he is self-taught. Primarily a cook in his college years, Sorge says he had “a lot of baking fails” before getting the hang of baking. He began with simple no-knead bread recipes, then graduated to cookies, cakes, and pies. 

If he had any doubt in his capabilities as a baker, his time on The Great American Baking Show on the Roku Channel would boost his confidence. Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith crowned Sorge the winner in 2023. 

“My final showstopper was a giant croquembouche – a tower of cream puffs – and everything was corn-themed, so it looked like a giant corn cob. It had corn pastry cream on top of a cornbread cake, which I just thought was funny, because, you know, I’m from the Midwest,” Sorge jokes.

So what ingredients scream – or, rather, utter a polite “ope” – “Midwestern” to Sorge? Hearty whole grains are an obvious first. He likes to use “off-the-beaten path” grains in his bakes, which do double duty of adding flavor while supporting America’s bread basket. Sorge, who has German heritage, is particularly fond of German bread, whose influences can be found in the cookbook as well. He also relies on Wisconsin dairy, and Michigan fruit, including cherries, which are in several recipes in his cookbook. (Michigan grows 70 percent of the U.S. supply of tart cherries, per the Michigan Ag Council.) 

Also featured in Great Bakes are two other Midwesterners and fellow Baking Show contestants, Sarah Chang and Nirali Chauhan. 

“They generously each collaborated on a recipe that highlights their heritage and some fun, classic Midwestern baking styles,” Sorge says. “So those are two recipes that I wanted to bring in to highlight that ‘Midwestern’ is not just my story, it’s also other people’s stories.”

Chang collaborated with Sorge on a Chinese dumpling-inspired sausage roll, while Chauhan worked with Sorge to develop a chocoflan recipe. (Chauhan’s chai recipe is “the only chai I make,” says Sorge.) 

One of the goals of his cookbook, he says, is to get people to bake bread because “it’s not hard. It’s not scary.” Below, Sorge has shared a recipe for his Chicago Dog Focaccia, inspired by one of the city’s best creations. Having grown up in Fort Wayne, Sorge and his family traveled to Chicago once or twice a year. “I definitely had both deep dish and Chicago hot dogs as a child. If you listed my top favorite food items in the world, one of them would be a Chicago hot dog. They are perfect. No notes,” he says.

When developing the recipe, he asked himself a simple question: “What if I literally just shove four hot dogs into the focaccia?” The resulting bread bakes up around the dogs, like a hot dog bun. Top with the dragged-through-the-garden ingredients, and you’ve got yourself a party dish. 

Says Sorge, “My husband and I ate the whole pan for lunch.” 

Chicago Dog Focaccia 

Reprinted with permission from Great Bakes by Martin Sorge, Agate, August 2026
12–16 hours (30 minutes active), plus cooling, Serves 4
One of my top five favorite foods of all time is the Chicago-style hot dog – a work of culinary art. It’s all about the toppings, but here, the bread plays a bit more of a starring role. It takes the same amount of time as the regular Focaccia, plus some time for adding the toppings.

Ingredients

Focaccia:
320 g (2 2/3cups) bread flour or high-protein all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons (8 g) fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon (2 g) instant yeast or 4 g (1 teaspoon) fresh yeast
255 g (1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon) water
52 g (3 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons) extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon (3 g) flaky sea salt
4 hot dogs, preferably Vienna Beef
2 teaspoons (4 g) poppy seeds

Topping Options:
Yellow mustard
Chopped white onions
Sweet pickle relish
1 medium tomato, sliced into half moons
4 dill pickle spears
Pickled sport peppers
Celery salt

Directions

1. Mix the dough. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, fine sea salt, and yeast. Add the water and 2 teaspoons (10 g) of the olive oil, then mix with a wooden spoon or whisk until you don’t see any dry pockets or lumps of flour. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes. Do 2 sets of stretches and folds.

2. Ferment the dough. Cover the bowl tightly and let sit at room temperature until the dough is puffy and quite bubbly, 8 to 16 hours.

3. Shape and proof the dough. Get a 9-inch square metal baking pan and rub 28 g (2 Tablespoons) of the olive oil all around it. Scrape the risen dough into the pan. Flip the dough over so that it’s coated in oil. If you’re not using a nonstick pan, line the pan with parchment paper. Using your fingertips, press the dough into the pan, gently stretching it into the corners. If the dough doesn’t want to stretch into the corners, cover it and let it rest for 20 minutes, then press it again. Cover the baking pan with a sheet pan and let it rise until it’s puffy and you can see some big bubbles poking up, about 2 hours.

4. Prepare to Bake. About 20 minutes before the 2 hours are up, heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the middle of the oven.

5. Drizzle and dimple. Right before baking, drizzle the dough with the remaining 1 Tablespoon (14 g) olive oil, then use your fingertips, leaving about 1/2 inch of space between your fingers, to dimple the dough, pressing all the way down to the bottom of the pan. Press the hot dogs into the focaccia, spacing them out evenly, then sprinkle the dough with the poppy seeds.

6. Bake until the top is crisp and turns a rich, deep brown with some darker spots, 20–25 minutes. As soon as the focaccia comes out of the oven, remove it from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. Once cool enough to handle, cut the focaccia into 4 sections, separating each hot dog.

7. Top each hot dog with the following: yellow mustard, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish, slices of tomato, a dill pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt. No ketchup. Ever. Enjoy immediately.