Today I present you a delicious focaccia with caramelized red onions from Tropea. If you prefer, you can skip caramelizing them to avoid using sugar or honey. A fantastic and easy-to-digest focaccia, soft like a cloud with high-hydration pizza dough, click on the link for more details. Water, flour, and a little yeast create the magic of a delicious focaccia in just a few steps, easy and quick to prepare with spoon dough, and there’s no need to work hard. Importantly, no heavy equipment like mixers is needed, just a bowl and a spoon. A light delight like pizza with Neapolitan pizza dough, always with a little fresh brewer’s yeast, or you can also use sourdough if you prefer. I topped the focaccia with red onions, but it can be topped in millions of different ways, with simple oil and oregano, with tomato, or even with other vegetables and cheese, or halfway through cooking like a pizza, for a thick and fluffy result like pizza alla pala. Alternatively, it can be topped after baking, with mortadella, ham, tomato, and mayonnaise, obviously homemade mayonnaise in 1 minute, or tuna, tomato, and mayonnaise. I would enjoy them all right now!!!
Try these focaccias too, they are fantastic.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 1 focaccia of 12 inches
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Red Onion Focaccia
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 – 2 g fresh brewer's yeast
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion from Tropea
- as needed olive oil
- dried oregano
- as needed salt
- as needed sugar
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Small bowl
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Baking pan
- 1 Oven
Steps to Prepare Red Onion Focaccia
In a large bowl, place 1-2 g of yeast with 1 cup of water, warm for faster rising or at room temperature or cold for longer rising. Stir with a spoon to dissolve the yeast.
Add about 2 1/2 cups of flour to the water with the yeast, and stir with the spoon until you get a cream. Work well, then stop, add the salt, and start mixing again.
Add all the remaining flour and continue to mix with the spoon until it is all incorporated. Work the mixture well with the spoon to make it elastic and soft when cooked. It’s very important to take breaks and then resume working, a simple operation that helps achieve the desired results.
After a short break, also add the oil and work quickly by hand, giving a dozen folds to incorporate the oil into the dough, then close it to form a ball and leave it in the bowl to rise covered with plastic wrap.
Let it rise from 4 to 24 hours, for fast or slow rising. The temperature at which the dough is left to rise is important, not so much the amount of yeast, but we can also increase the yeast up to 4 g for quick risings, no more is needed. If you leave the dough warm, in the oven with the light on and a cup of boiling water, 4-5 hours will be enough for proper rising, if instead left cool, always in a corner protected from drafts, it will take more hours, like 8-12 hours at room temperature around 59°F, if it’s colder it will take longer, or it can be done for 12 hours in the fridge and 12 outside.
When the dough has risen, take it out, give some folds on a surface, here the details for the reinforcement folds, then close it into a loaf and put it back in the bowl and leave it to rise for a couple of hours in a warm place. (You can also skip this step, substituting it with folds in a bowl every 20 minutes, at least 3 times, so it becomes more airy and light).
At this point, after the 2 hours, put plenty of olive oil in the baking pan. Pour the dough inside, and spread it to cover the surface. Let it rise again in the warmth, about an hour.
Slice a red onion, put it in a small bowl, season with a little olive oil, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoon of sugar, black pepper, and plenty of oregano, mix and let it marinate. If you want the onions more caramelized use a bit more sugar, or substitute with honey.
In a small bowl, put a little olive oil, a couple of tablespoons, and water, mix it and pour the content over the risen focaccia. With your hands, press the dough with your fingertips, distributing the seasoning over the entire surface and creating the classic dimples on the focaccia.
Now just distribute the marinated onions over the entire surface.
Bake in a preheated ventilated oven for about 13-15 minutes at 482°F.
Take out and enjoy our delicious focaccia with caramelized red onions from Tropea, a guaranteed delight. You can also prepare it without sugar and without honey, but I assure you it’s delicious.
A great variant is with added tuna, and if you want, also mozzarella.
It can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days, or frozen for longer, just heat it when needed, a few minutes at 320°F.
S
