Roasted Garlic, Potato and Caramelized Onion Focaccia

If you’re looking for a crowd pleasing brunch idea, this Roasted Garlic, Potato and Caramelized Onion Focaccia is it. The dough is made the day before, then rises in the fridge overnight to develop extra flavor. The focaccia is topped with a rosemary garlic olive oil, caramelized onion, potatoes, that get crispy in the oven, and cheese. Serve this for breakfast, brunch, or even as a dinner.

With Thanksgiving coming up, my mind is focused on Thanksgiving food. But, while Thanksgiving is mostly about the dinner feast, you don’t want to forget about breakfast or brunch, or the breakfast the day after, if guests stay over.

The holidays are special. It always brings family together, and gives everyone a good reason to cook something special or try cooking or baking something new. Bread in general seems intimidating. I’m not sure why, but in general a lot of people are intimidated by making bread. In reality, bread is actually quite easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for the bread to rise. Sometimes you can get a dud packet of yeast and it may be expired or just not work. Don’t give up! As long as you made sure the liquid in the recipe was the right temperature and not too hot, you most likely did not kill the yeast.

Focaccia bread is one of the easiest breads to make. It requires no shaping of the dough, well, other than stretching it to fit the sheet pan, and it’s packed with flavor.

The details

step 1:

The first step to make this focaccia bread is to mix the ingredients. Add the yeast and water (warmed to 110 degrees Fahrenheit – it can be a degree or two cooler or warmer, but no more) to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can mix it by hand. It just takes longer. The yeast used in this recipe is active dry yeast, which means that you need to allow the yeast time to activate. Whisk together the yeast and water and allow to sit for 5 minutes. The mixture should get frothy on the top. This indicates that the yeast is active. If it does not get frothy, the yeast may have been old, or may have been killed by too hot of water.

After allowing the yeast to activate, add in the flour, followed by the salt, then olive oil. Knead for 5 minutes, then allow dough to rest 30 minutes. Allowing the dough to rest for 30 minutes in between kneading times allows for the gluten strands to fully absorb all of the moisture and develop greater gluten structure. After the rest period, knead another 5 minutes.

Place the focaccia bread dough in a greased bowl. Spray the dough with nonstick cooking spray, then cover and place in fridge 12-24 hours.

step 2:

After the dough rises, take the dough out of the fridge and allow to come to warm for 30 minutes at room temp. This allows the dough to be stretched easier. Drizzle a 1/2 sheet pan with olive oil, then stretch the dough to roughly fit the size of the sheet pan. Cover and allow to rise 2 hours.

step 3:

While the focaccia bread dough rises, make the caramelized onions and roast the garlic.

Roast garlic – preheat oven to 400F. Cut a head of garlic in half, then drizzle exposed garlic with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Loosely wrap in aluminum foil, then bake for 30 minutes, or until garlic cloves can be pierced easily with a knife.

Caramelized Onions – Melt butter in a large skillet, then add thinly sliced onions. Cook onions over medium low heat, stirring frequently for 30-40 minutes. If the onions start to get too dark in spots, add a splash of water. The water will evaporate by the time the onions are done cooking. You may do this a couple times if needed. Add one of the 1/2 roasted garlic heads to onion at the end. Squeeze roasted garlic out of the shells and stir to combine with onions.

step 4:

Whisk together olive oil with chopped rosemary and one of the 1/2 garlic heads. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the shells. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the oil over dough. Use tips of fingers to make indents in dough.

Add onion and potatoes on dough. Brush remaining olive oil on top of potatoes. This helps them get crispy in oven. Sprinkle cheese over dough. You may use mozzarella or gruyere cheese.

step 5:

Bake in 425F preheated oven 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the bread to cool a few minutes before serving. The bread heats up great the next day, so you can make this in advance if needed.

If you make this focaccia, let me know what you think in the ratings and comments below! I love hearing your feedback. Also, find me on instagram and youtube for more fun behind the scenes and the full baking video for this focaccia recipe.

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