I've been making variations of focaccia for years, but outside of the Focaccia Muffins, I haven't always been very adventurous with the toppings. Maybe this recipe is the start of something new. This Hazelnut Caramelized Onion Focaccia is one I've been making over and over. The dough bakes up soft and fluffy. The onions cook down until mellow and lightly sweet, and the hazelnuts toast top, adding a little crunch without taking over.
Steps For Making Focaccia
There's a relaxing rhythm to making focaccia, which is probably one reason it's become so popular lately. You mix the dough in a stand mixer, let it rise right in the bowl, spread it into a pan, and let it rise again. Then comes the fun part: pressing your fingertips into the dough to create those olive-oil-catching dimples before adding the toppings. In this case, that's caramelized onions, chopped roasted hazelnuts (I use the pre-roasted ones from Trader Joe's), and rosemary.
Focaccia Pan Size and Freezing
Focaccia can be baked in almost any shape -- round, square, or my current favorite, a 7×11-inch rectangle. If you want to give it as a gift, the inexpensive metal pans from Dollar Tree work surprisingly well. You can freeze the unbaked focaccia right in the pan, then give it along with simple baking instructions. Or freeze it for yourself and have a ready-to-bake focaccia waiting for an easy dinner night. Fully baked focaccia also freezes well.
About the Bake Temperature
I bake this focaccia at 400°F, which is slightly lower than many traditional recipes. With sweet onions and nuts on top, a hotter oven (like 425°F) can burn the nuts and dry out the onions. At 400°F, everything browns evenly while the crumb bakes through perfectly.In my oven, it takes about 28 minutes to get golden brown and baked through.
Focaccia Bread Sandwiches
This focaccia should be thick and fluffy enough to work for sandwiches, especially on day 2. Straight out of the oven it is very soft, but if you refrigerate the leftover focaccia until it is stiff, you can carefully slice through the bread so you have a top and bottom piece. It's great with peppered turkey. I haven't tried it with a lot of different types of sandwiches yet because we mostly just eat it with dinner.
Things to Try
- There's plenty of flavor in the recipe as written, but for even deeper flavor, you can use active dry yeast and let the dough rise slowly in the refrigerator. An overnight rise of about 12 to 24 hours works well, with the dough brought back to room temperature before shaping and baking.
- I haven't tried this focaccia with Type 00 flour yet, but it would most likely give the bread an even softer, more tender interior.
- You can also experiment with flavored oils. For instance, onion-infused olive oil or a light drizzle of hot pepper oil over the top both work well.
- For the onions, try mixing different types, such as sweet, yellow, and white, for a little contrast in both flavor and appearance.
Recipe
Hazelnut Caramelized Onion Focaccia
Ingredients
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (225 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon salt plus an extra pinch if desired
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
Topping
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion (230 grams)
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ⅓ cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
Instructions
- Combine the water, yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand for a few minutes or just until you see it start to foam.
- Add the flour, remaining sugar, and salt. Stir by hand until well mixed, then add the olive oil. Stir well. Set the bowl on the mixer stand and knead with the dough hook for about 7 minutes stopping occasionally to scrape the side of the bowl. It will be a loose dough, but when you scrape it off the side it should have some snap to it.
- With a heavy duty scraper, scrape dough into the center of the bowl. Cover the bowl and let dough rise for about 1 to 1 ½ hours. With instant yeast it should only take an hour.
- Punch down the dough lightly and press the dough evenly into a well greased 7x11 inch pan. Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes or until it is puffy and light. While the dough is rising in the pan, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. and cook the onions.
- In a large, lidded skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and brown sugar and cook with the lid on for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the lid and continue cooking until onions are browned, seasoning with the salt and pepper.
- After the dough has risen, oil your fingers and poke dimples aggressively all over the dough going almost to the bottom. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the focaccia dough letting it seep down into the holes.
- Spread onions evenly over the top. Sprinkle with hazelnuts and rosemary.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for about 28 to 30 minutes. Note: If you are used to baking focaccia at higher temperatures, this one bakes at a slightly lower temp (400) to keep the hazelnuts from burning and the onions from drying out too much.
Teresa Gubbins says
Holy heck, what an amazing recipe!