Onion and Rosemary Foccacia

I recently posted a recipe for champagne chicken, courtesy of The Rookie Chef. I knew I was going to need a chunk of bread to sop up all that sauce, so I turned to my trusty copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and found this recipe for foccaccia bread.

I already had a batch of olive oil dough on hand; I like to keep it around for when the urge to make pizza or a loaf of bread strikes. I added some rosemary to the bread to tie the flavors into the rosemary in the champagne cream sauce; this was the perfect accompaniment. It later went well with a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup on my first day back to work after a 2 week vacation.


Onion and Rosemary Foccacia
Source: Adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
1 pound of olive oil dough
1/2 medium onion (yellow or white), thinly sliced
2 tablespoons, extra virgin olive oil, plus one teaspoon for drizzling
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
course salt and ground pepper for sprinkling on top
oil to grease the cookie sheet

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees, with a metal broiler tray on the lowest shelf. You will be pouring water into this tray once the dough is in the oven, so give yourself some room between the broiler tray and the rack you cook your dough on.

Saute the onion slices in the olive oil until softened, but not browned. If you brown the onions they will burn in the oven.

Grease a cookie sheet with a little bit of olive oil, or line with a piece of parchment paper (I recommend this option: easier clean up and no worry about the bread sticking). Dust the dough with some flour (I also recommend dusting your hands with flour as this is a wet dough) and shape the dough into a ball by stretching it out.

Place the dough on the cookie sheet and spoon half of the onions onto the dough (spread them out in one layer). Fold the dough over itself, covering the onions, and reshape it so the onions are inside the dough.

Flatten the dough to 1/2"-3/4" of an inch thick. Spread the remaining onions over the top of the dough. Do not completely cover the surface of the dough or it won't brown correctly (you may have leftover onions). Sprinkle the surface with the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Lightly drizzle with the teaspoon olive oil.

Allow the foccacia to rest and rise, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven and pour 1 cup of hot water into the metal broiler tray. Quickly shut the oven door, trapping the steam in the oven. Do not open the oven door for at least the first 15 minutes, or the steam will escape, affecting the crust.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the foccacia is medium brown. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

This is a great bread for dipping in soups and sopping up sauces; I served it with champagne chicken and it was a perfect accompaniment to the creamy sauce.