Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Focaccia
Nothing beats the freshness of homemade Focaccia, and it’s one of the easiest breads you can make yourself! This one is topped with caramelized onions and shredded gruyere cheese for delicious flavor.
If you think making bread at home is too advanced, then Focaccia is the first bread you should try. It’s so easy, and so good.
Focaccia is a flat baked Italian bread that’s kind of similar to pizza, only way fluffier and with more flavor.
It’s very common to throw a variety of ingredients on there, from herbs to olives to cheese, but I find myself going for caramelized onions and gruyere the majority of the time because gruyere monster is still very much a part of my inner self.
Now, the focaccia comes with a little bit of a warning…do you remember the first time you made cupcakes or buttercream at home, and you realized that buttercream frosting is mostly gobs of sugared-up butter?
It’s an alarming experience, isn’t it?
The same thing happened when I first made focaccia at home. Foccacia is a very oily bread. And the first time I made it, I thought “hm…this has too much oil, I’m going to cut the oil in half.”
I ended up with a really dry, stiff focaccia. And a lot of it too.
With that said, don’t cut back on the olive oil here, it won’t yield good results. Focaccia is an olive oil heavy bread, that’s just who it is, that’s its identity.
How to Make Focaccia:
To make it, you make a standard bread dough, then spread it out with your fingers onto a sheet pan:
In order to get a bumpy end result with lots of hills and valleys, you will want to poke holes with your fingers, like this:
Top the focaccia with some caramelized onions:
Then, go to town with the gruyere, and grate plenty all over the top.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes until puffed.
Then, devour.
More Favorite Bread Recipes:
Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Focaccia
Ingredients
- 2 tsp quick rise yeast
- 1 cup warm water 110 degrees F
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- 17.5 oz flour, by weight (3.5 cups, measured)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil divided
- 1/2 softball sized yellow onion
- 2 oz gruyere cheese add more if you like
- salt and pepper for sprinkling
Instructions
- Place the yeast, water, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and let it sit for 5 minutes until foamy. Add in the flour, salt, and 1/4 cup olive oil and mix it up by hand or with the paddle attachment. Attach the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes on medium low. Cover the bowl and let the foccacia rise for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, chop the onion and cook it in 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until translucent and then slightly caramelized.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Spread the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil all over a sheet pan, and add the focaccia dough. Stretch the dough to the sides with your hands, poking little holes with your fingers. Add the caramelized onion evenly over the top, as well as the gruyere. Finish it off with a sprinkling of coarse sea salt and cracked black pepper, and bake for 15 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
41 Comments on “Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Focaccia”
Love, love the new look! Your logo is great, too. Also: this bread? Delicious. Basically an awesome post.
Hi Meg, Thank you!!! It’s always great to hear from you!
Liking the new design, it looks fresh and clean. I did changed my layout as well several days ago.
Thanks Raymund! I’m off to check out your new design too =)
That focaccia sure looks delicious. know what you mean by the amount of olive oil called for, but that’s what makes it a focaccia.
I love focaccia! seeing yours makes me want to bake some right now!
I love to eat & make foccacia but I just don’t do it very often because I would eat the whole thing (which wouldn’t be good for my blood sugar levels) … bread and pasta are my downfall.
Yes, I agree it’s definitely a once in a while treat!
Wow – both look amazing! Where to start…the logo, lay out, colors? Perfect! The Foccacia? Perfect, too!
I never could access your website until today. Congrats. Great site.
Oh dear, that’s not good! Have you seen my posts on Facebook or something and the links didn’t work (some people had mentioned that)? Just trying to gather up a little more information on this! Thanks for letting me know!!!
Love the new site, Joanne! It’s so clean and bright. Really makes your photos pop. Great recipe, too!
Thanks Tommy! I’m glad my pink spatula is not scaring the men away LOL.
I tried the same thing once and the bread wouldn’t even come out of the pan! It was just plain awful. Now I’ve learned to love it just the way it is!
Hi Jen, Eek! That’s no fun when the pan steals half the food. At least olive oil is healthy? LOL.
Joanne:
Sounds so good!
Have a Joyful Day :~D
Charlie
Hi Charlie, Thank you! You have a great day too =)
One can never go wrong with homemade foccacia, especially with a little caramelized onions and gruyere on it!
Thanks Jed!
I love the new looks!!! Thanks for improving your beautiful blog =)
Thanks so much Gaby!!! I’m so glad you like the changes.
Blog looks great, girl! This looks easy and lovely and delicious, yummmm
Thank you Mallory! How is your Etsy business doing? I need to send you an email!
It’s going really well! We just had our cookies appear in yesterday’s episode of the Martha Stewart Show all about Etsy shops. Super exciting! Looking forward to hearing from ya.
Joanne, this looks utterly delicious! Incidentally, I made a foccacia with red onions, goats cheese and blue grapes yesterday, and the onions turned a little dark in the oven, whereas yours still look perfectly light-coloured after baking…
Hi Kiki, I LOVE the sound of your foccacia. Goat cheese and red onions…YUM! And what are these blue grapes you talk about? Like regular supermarket grapes or are these some special heirloom variety?
The grapes I used were regular (seedless) supermarket blue grapes, added to the foccacia after baking. If you want to take a look at the whole thing, you can do so at my other blog (it’s written in German, though!). http://kikiskuechenleben.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/herzhaft-sussliches-fladenbrot/
Awesome Kiki! Thank goodness for google translator =)
CONGRATULATIONS…!!!
Your blog looks amazing, very professional, very inspiring. The improvement you made is wonderful, I like it very much, like your foccacia, just delicious.
Thank you Nydia!!! I’m so glad you like it!
The redesign looks fantastic, Joanne! So glad to see it launched, and it’s very you. 🙂
And that focaccia…mmmm. I will take a pan of that for lunch today, please!
Thank you Jess! Can’t wait until we’re reunited for one of our cooking days!