Wow your style buds with this festive focaccia appetizer topped with candy caramelized onions, tart cranberries, and creamy brie. It can turn out to be your new favourite vacation starter!
Images Credit score:
Sally Vargas
A couple of years again, my dad arrived at my home a couple of days earlier than Thanksgiving suggesting we make focaccia topped with caramelized onions, cranberries, and brie. He’d gotten the thought from a footnote in a King Arthur Flour recipe and couldn’t get it out of his head.
We made it — a recipe meant to be an appetizer for a crowd — and devoured a lot of it that neither of us was very hungry for the principle course. There was one thing concerning the pops of tart cranberry with chewy, buttery cubes of brie and the wealthy caramelized onions piled on fluffy focaccia that made us preserve going again for “only one extra slice.”
This recipe has now turn out to be a vacation staple in our household, typically requested and fortunately made.
A New Vacation Household Favourite
My dad runs a bakery and I’m a recipe author, so in fact we couldn’t assist however give King Arthur Flour’s original recipe our personal tweaks and variations.
The dough is a riff on our recipe for No-Knead Pizza Dough made with barely extra water and a few olive oil for richness and taste. (It’s the vacations in spite of everything!)
We additionally trimmed down and streamlined the toppings. Three caramelized onions is greater than lots, and I like to complete them with just a little balsamic vinegar. I additionally skip King Arthur’s suggestion to toss the cranberries in sugar; after making an attempt it each methods, I don’t assume it makes sufficient of a distinction to justify the additional step.
The Finest Brie for This Recipe
Once I defined what I used to be making to the individual on the Complete Meals cheese counter, he pointed to a selected wedge referred to as Brie de Paris. “You need that one,” he mentioned, “It holds its form higher within the oven.” It labored like a attraction and held its form in chewy little cubes on prime of my focaccia.
This mentioned, I feel gooey puddles of brie would even be fantastic for this recipe. You actually can’t go incorrect, so should you don’t have a useful cheesemonger round who can level you to the melty or less-melty varieties, simply seize what’s there.
Cheese Rind On or Off?
I additionally go away the rind on my brie. It’s fussy to chop it off and I all the time really feel like I find yourself dropping an excessive amount of of the cheese itself together with the rind. Nonetheless, should you’re actually not a fan of cheese rinds, use a butter knife to scrape off as a lot of the rind as you’ll be able to with out dropping the cheese beneath.
Methods to Adapt this Recipe
- For those who don’t really feel as much as making the dough your self, substitute two kilos of store-bought pizza dough.
- As an alternative of the brie, attempt some other tender cheese, like camembert.
- Swap out the cranberries for some other tart berry. Raspberries could be scrumptious!
- A sprinkle of chopped walnuts or pecans excessive of this could add some good crunch!
Storing the Leftovers
Let any leftovers cool fully, then retailer in an hermetic container within the fridge for about 3 days. They make an important chilly breakfast or afternoon snack, or briefly reheat within the toaster oven.
Extra Favourite Vacation Appetizers
Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Cranberries, and Brie Recipe
Substances
For the focaccia:
- 4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instantaneous yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 3/4 cups (350g) lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup further virgin olive oil, plus extra for the pan
For the topping:
- 3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, for brushing on prime
- 10 ounces brie, lower into cubes (scrape rind off with a paring knife if desired, although it’s not obligatory)
- 1 1/2 cups contemporary or frozen cranberries
- 1 tablespoon chopped contemporary rosemary
Methodology
1 Make the focaccia dough: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, or in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine collectively all of the dough components till the flour is totally absorbed. You need not truly knead the dough, although I generally knead it a couple of instances within the bowl when mixing by hand to include the final of the flour.
Cowl and let it rise for 1-2 hours at room temperature. Use it straight away, or switch to the fridge in a single day.
2 Press out the focaccia dough: Movie a half-sheet pan or baking sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil and pat the dough out in order that it fills your entire pan. If it springs again, wait a couple of minutes after which proceed patting it out. Let the dough rise uncovered till puffy — about 1/2 hour for room temperature dough, or an hour for refrigerated dough.
3 Caramelize the onions: Heat 2 teaspoons butter or olive oil in a big skillet over medium warmth. Add the onions with 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook dinner, stirring sometimes, till deep brown. It will take 30 to 40 minutes. Stir within the vinegar and take away from warmth. Let the onions cool barely.
4 Preheat the oven to 425F.
5 High the focaccia: Uncover the dough, and brush the highest with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, paying particular consideration to the perimeters and corners. Gently dimple the highest of the focaccia throughout by urgent your fingertips about midway down into the dough.
Scatter the onions over prime. Dot the cubes of brie evenly over the onions, adopted by the cranberries. End by sprinkling the rosemary over prime together with as a lot black pepper as you want.
6 Bake: Bake for 20-25 minutes, till the cheese is melted and the underside of the crust is golden (raise it up with a spatula to verify). If the toppings begin to brown an excessive amount of earlier than the underside of the crust is golden, cowl the pan loosely with foil.
7 Serve! Cool briefly, then serve. Leftovers will preserve for about 3 days.
Hey! All pictures and content material are copyright protected. Please don’t use our pictures with out prior written permission. Thanks!
This publish might include hyperlinks to Amazon or different companions; your purchases through these hyperlinks can profit Merely Recipes.
Read more about our affiliate linking policy.
Emma Christensen
Emma Christensen is the Editor-in-Chief of Merely Recipes, and has over 10 years of expertise creating meals and content material for net and print. She was previously the recipe editor for The Kitchn and is the writer of three books on home-brewing, True Brews, Brew Better Beer, and Modern Cider. Emma is a graduate of The Cambridge College for Culinary Arts and Bryn Mawr Faculty. She lives in San Jose, California.
