Focaccia with onions

Monday, Feb. 04. 11:30 am. That was our Sunday lunch and supper. I wanted to make it little easier on myself, still bake something, but not a dessert so I would have had lunch covered as well. I like baking. It's a clean job, always smells good and you never know what's going to come out. Especially, when it comes to yeast recipes. There, you don't know if the dough is going to rise in the first place. But when it does...champagne for everybody!

I started making the foccacia at 10 am, just after breakfast. It was ready by 2 pm. That's the thing about yeast doughs. They take patience and that's a good quality to develop while you at it. Lazy Sunday, nothing to do but watching your focaccia to rise.

Consuming it, it's the best part though. It's one of the best things I have ever made. The dough baked beautifully. Thicker but lighter than pizza, not chewy. The onions came out moist and sweet. There is about 800 g (1.7 lbs) of the vegetable on top, no cheese, no spices just salt. The recipe called for tuna fish and red onions but I decided against it. My faccacia is a bit sweet from the onions, a bit salty from the dough. A complete satisfaction!

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano
time: 1/2 h preparation + 2 1/2 h waiting + 35 min baking = 3h 35min

ingredients
500 g (3 1/3 cups) flour
25 g (.9 oz) fresh yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
350 ml (1.5 cups) tepid water (30C/86F)
15 g (2 teaspoons) salt
4 Tablespoons olive oil + extra for finishing

600-800g (1.3-1.7lbs) onions
4 Tablespoons olive oil
salt

directions
In a small bowl, crumble the fresh yeast and dilute it with sugar and about 50 ml (4-5 Tablespoons) water (taken from the whole amount). In a jar, mix the rest of the water with salt and 4 Tbs. olive oil.

In a bowl of a standing mixer, sift the flour. With your hands, mix in the yeast mix. Pour in the water mix. Using a needle attachment, knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Place the dough, in the bowl covered with a cloth, in the oven (with the light on) for at least 2 hours, till it doubles or triples in size. Drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil. 

Prepare the onions. Cut them in thin slices and cook on a pan with 4 Tbs. olive oil and salt, about 5 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup of hot water after cooking, the onions will be moister on focaccia. Onions don't have to be neither cold nor hot before you put them on the dough. 

After the 2 hours, take the dough out of the oven and the bowl and transfer it onto the prepared baking sheet. Stretch it with your fingers dipped in oil till it almost covers the sheet. Let the dough rise for another 1/2 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F (fan forced function). 
Spread the onions evenly on top of dough. Place it in hot oven for 35-40 minutes. I switched the heating from top and bottom to only bottom for the last 15 minutes of the baking. The bottom of foccacia was perfect. And so was the rest.