Serves: 6
Cost: ~€0.90
Preparation and cooking time: ~1 hour
Calories: ~300 per serving
I’m not actually sure exactly how focaccia is prepared, although from the Wikipedia article it would appear that I wasn’t actually that far off. As a result, I could probably just call this focaccia, but “fakeaccia” sounds more fun! This was originally born out of a dismal failure that I made in the kitchen. I like to make a load of bread dough in bulk – usually about 3kg – divide it into ~9 pieces and then freeze them individually, ready for use. The thing you have to bear in mind with freezing dough is that some yeast does die as a result of the freezing process, and as a result you need to add a bit more to compensate for this. On this one particular occasion I added what I thought was the same amount as I usually add, but the final baked bread was very yeasty and the texture wasn’t that special.
I really didn’t want to waste my work and it just so happened that I had made some caramelised onions just a few days before which were sitting there. I liberally applied olive oil to the base of my trusty oven tray, squished out the dough, dotted it with onions, drizzled on some more olive oil and herbs and let it rise for a bit before slinging it in the oven and hoping for the best.
The results were better than I could have ever imagined and yeah, I know – it is basically just a focaccia, but it’s really damn good. I purposely didn’t quite finish the onions in my last post as much as I normally do. This way they come out from the oven still sticky and sweet, and not charcoal. I also like to drizzle on my chilli oil which I posted some time ago as it gives a lovely little kick.
I’ve posted bread recipes many times here before so I won’t be posting another one again. Suffice to say, you can pretty much use any bread dough, and you’ll need about 300-350g of the stuff. White bread is best in my opinion, and if you’re after a recipe, I’d recommend this one or this one. Enjoy the bread folks – I’ll be back in a few days with something else and maybe some photos too (that entirely depends on whether I remember to take my camera to the place I’m going to in a few days!).
Caramelised Onion “Fakeaccia”
Ingredients
- ~350g Bread Dough (such as this or this)
- ~3 or 4tbsps Caramelised Onions
- ~2tbsps Olive Oil
- ~1tbsp Chilli-infused Oil
- Herbs to sprinkle on top (I used Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius, and then brush a baking tray liberally with olive oil. Press the bread dough out to a thickness of about 1cm. Place dots of caramelised onions all over the dough and then using your fingers, “jab” the onions into the dough, creating little indentations, and spreading the onions out over the surface. Sprinkle with herbs and drizzle on the rest of the olive oil and chilli-infused oil. Cover with a clean cloth and set aside in a warm place and allow to rise for about 45 minutes.
- Bake the dough in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until it has started to turn golden brown on top, before removing and allowing to cool slightly in the tin.
- Cut the bread into wedges or squares and enjoy! 🙂
Hotly Spiced says
This looks lovely, Charles. I can imagine coming in from a cold, wet night and being presented with this straight from the oven. It would be wonderful. There’s nothing better than freshly baked bread and caramelised onions xx
Charles says
Hi Charlie – I love it… especially when it’s slightly greasy and crispy from the olive oil drizzled on the top before baking… mmm! 🙂
A_Boleyn says
Some pretty great flavours there, Charles, but how can you go wrong with bread and onions? 🙂 Looking forward to future news/posts.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention my best wishes for William’s good health. Not feeling well sucks when you’re a little guy.
Charles says
Thanks A_ :). It’s hard when you’re a new parent… seem to spend half the time googling various things he does or which happen to make sure it’s “normal”.
Kitchen Belleicious says
oh it looks delicious and i am so happy to see you back:)
Charles says
Thanks KB – it’s good to be back again!
Eva Taylor says
This is the second focaccia recipe I’ve seen today, and boy does your version make me want to bake one! I adore the caramelized onion on top, very classy. Now my recipe starts with a sponge, which gives it a slight chewy but also thickish crust. I may have to bake one of these for my nephew and his girlfriend on Thursday! I know they’ll appreciate it.
Now that is rather interesting that freezing the dough kills the yeast; I’ve frozen many a dough and have seen it actually rise in the freezer until it solidifies and still rise when I defrost it. Possibly the difference is that I defrost in the fridge (top rack) and once entirely defrosted I move it to room temperature—less shock, perhaps? I have a Naan dough in the freezer now, I’ll keep an eye on it when I defrost it.
Charles says
Hi Eva – I must admit your comment made me chuckle. I read “sponge” and immediately thought of my grubby old dish sponge in the kitchen sink (which then motivated me to chuck it out and get a fresh one out of the cupboard :p), but then I realised that maybe you didn’t mean that kind of sponge at all… did you? Perhaps you’d be so kind as to enlighten me?
I can’t say for sure that yeast dies during freezing. I know from my school Biology lessons that freezing live cultures doesn’t kill it (heating yes, freezing no), but before I embarked on my dough freezing adventures I read up about it a lot on some baking and bread-making forums and the general consensus there was that the yeast basically lost some of its efficacy during freezing because some died, hence the suggestion to add a bit extra. I think it also depends a lot on what type of yeast you use as well – quick action, dried yeast fares the worst I think. Regular dried yeast is ok, and fresh yeast freezes the best (or maybe it’s all the other way around?).
I too have noticed how it rises in the bags in the freezer… I wasn’t expecting that the first few times I made it. It even burst out of some of the bags, haha! 😀
Eva Taylor says
Hi Charles, I’d forgotten that I’d posted this recipe, the sponge is simply just very lose bread dough. http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/rosemary-focaccia-ligure/
Eva Taylor says
Loose not lose!
Charles says
Aaah, ok, that makes more sense that what my mind went to! 😀 Nice to know – I’d never heard that term before… thanks for the link 🙂
Eva Taylor says
It’s a lovely chewy dough, I’d love to hear what you think if you try it.
Pure Complex says
I am such an onion fan, that i was just excited to even see this recipe. I love this
Charles says
Thanks Kay 🙂
The Wife says
The bread that reduced a whole office to pleas for “more, more, more”! 😉
Charles says
Mmm – those first few batches were amazing weren’t they?! <3
It's an EU thing says
Great recipe, thanks for sharing! And love the ‘fake’ name hehe 😉
Barb @ Profiteroles & Ponytails says
I’m a carmelized onion junkie. I usually eat it with some other food on the side . . . so I know that I’d need to eat pretty much the entire loaf of fakeaccia. (Love that name — much more interesting than foccacia). Charles I’m always impressed by the fact that you make your own bread and buns etc. I really have to broaden my horizons and start baking some bread.
Charles says
Hi Barb – I’m always on the quest for the perfect bread… I find making bread so satisfying, and once you have the basic recipe down you can either modify it each time with flavours and herbs, or just tweak minor things every go to try and make it even better. I’m going to try and tackle baguettes one day… that can’t be sooooo hard… can it?
I hope you decide to have a shot at making some bread – you’ll really enjoy it, and speaking of which, I’m in the process of making a batch of bagels right now. It’s a bit late here (1130pm) and I should be going to bed but I wanted to make a nice surprise for my wife tomorrow morning when she wakes up 🙂
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
I love your “fakeaccia” – caramelized onions make the best topping! 🙂
Charles says
Thanks Laura – couldn’t agree more! The chilli oil was especially yummy on this too!
fati's recipes says
Fakeaccia, aye? I don’t know what sounds more tempting. The idea of making a fakeaccia, or the caramelised onions on it! Yum!
Charles says
Hi Fati 🙂 It’s a winning combo for me 😉
Nazneen | Coffee and Crumpets says
There isn’t anything fake about his! Looks fabulous., love caramelised onions especially on bread. Our Whole Foods here has something similar but they throw on fig jam and Brie, OMG…it is heaven.
Nice to see you back Charles. Hope the baby is well.
Nazneen
Charles says
Hi Nazneen – fig jam and brie, oh my! That sounds awesome too… will remember that!
William’s doing well thank you! He had a bout of bronchitis but is back to his bouncy self now 🙂
mjskit says
Holy Cow Charles! No way you should call this a fake! What a great save of what you “thought” was not quite right batch of bread dough. Love the use of your caramelized onions and the drizzle of chilli oil was perfection! I’d probably eat this whole Fakeaccia in one sitting. I do the same this with my pizza doughs – make more than I need and freeze. I actually love the way the frozen dough doesn’t rise as much, because I have some thin crust pizzas that I make so it’s perfect!
Charles says
Hi MJ – the sad thing is, all the versions I’ve made since (ie: using “good” dough have never been as good, ha! Who’d have thought that crappy dough made the best result in this case. I still love it, but the first batch I made really had the edge on all the others! 🙂
Sissi says
Charles, not only does it look like a real focaccia to me, but also much better than what is sold as focaccia! It actually reminds me now of pissaladière a bit. I made it once and it was heavenly… Well everything tastes better with caramelised onions, doesn’t it? Not to mention the chili oil… (I also have it all the time: the liquid part of my Taberu Rayu). Your future trip sounds very mysterious… I’m looking forward to read about it and see the photos.
Charles says
Thanks Sissi – it’s so strange… the first batch I made with the “bad” dough was so incredibly good. I’ve never been able to get it quite as good again. It’s still tasty of course, but it’s so ironic that the fail-dough ended up producing the very best “fake-accia” 😀
Kristy says
I would love some of this for lunch today! I can just smell and taste it. There’s nothing like a good focaccia. I do actually prefer mine without tomatoes as well, so this is right up my alley. The dash of chili oil has to be terrific with it too. I so admire your bread baking. I gave up on it. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it though. (In fact I’m sure I will…just not yet.) Have a great time on your adventure. I’ll be looking forward to the pictures!
Charles says
Hi Kristy – it’s such a shame you “gave up” on making bread… it’s an incredibly satisfying thing to do… I love it so much! I’ve even got a batch of bagels on right now as a nice surprise for my wife when she wakes up tomorrow :). Hope you guys are all well – have a great weekend!
The Squishy Monster says
I love the sweet touch of the onions with this bread. Looks fabulous to wake up to with a runny egg =)
Charles says
Hi Angie – runny egg and a bit of bacon maybe… yum! Nice idea 🙂
betsyb says
If this is what you get when you hope for the best and make Fakeaccia, then I’m going to be freezing some bread dough! I could eat that whole loaf, it looks that amazing. 🙂
Charles says
Hi Betsy – it was so tasty. Perfect with soup especially! 🙂
Jean | Delightful Repast says
Charles, welcome back to the blogosphere! I lovelovelove caramelized onions and have been making a lot of them recently for some reason. Haven’t put them on my focaccia yet though. Must remedy that! (Now do remember to pace yourself!)
Charles says
Thanks Jean! It’s a great addition to bread… totally recommend it 🙂
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
I can’t get enough of these if caramelized onions are on top of them! Very dangerously delicious! 🙂
Charles says
Hi Nami – I could eat those things with a spoon just on their own! Love the oily, crispy bread underneath too!
Chica Andaluza says
Charles, you’re on a roll! ove this recipe 🙂
Charles says
Thanks Chica 🙂
Kelly @ Inspired Edibles says
Hi Charles! It’s nice to see you back in the blogging community! Happy that you had a fun and restful time, just hanging. The boys and I watched a number of videos from your youtube channel the other day… we really enjoyed them and thought they quite professional looking too. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to get on for some time but you know how it goes, always something else to do… do you keep the camera on a tripod while filming for is there another party in the room? It’s very still and well done (the music on my end – may just be my computer – is a bit louder than your voice but that’s the only small issue I was having).
Anyhoot, I would eat a big square of this focaccia any day with your gorgeous caramelized onion… Baguette and focaccia are gifts to the Gods as far as I’m concerned! If I’m going to eat bread, that’s where I’m headed ;-).
Charles says
Thank you Kelly! I’m glad you enjoyed my videos… It’s funny (and embarrassing) to watch the really old ones I made. The quality… oh my God, it’s so bad, and yet the second or third one I ever made is also my most popular, lol! Did you notice I’ve had more than 100,000 views now?!
I do the videos in multiple stages. I record the cooking part first, with the camera on a tripod. Next I take all the different video files and put them together – add captions, the photos at the beginning and end, titles, credits etc, as well as trimming the video and speeding up sections if needed. I write a little “script” and record it separately and then add this to the video before finalizing it and saving it, and then finally I add the music on top of it and save it again before uploading it. It’s not the best way of doing it, but I only use Windows Movie Maker (lol). I’m sure there are better pieces of software out there but I can’t afford an expensive one and this one does the job 🙂
shuhan says
i trust you when you say it is really damn good. it does look just that– really dan good. never knew that was how foccacia was born. always interesting to learn abit of history!
Charles says
Thanks Shuhan 🙂 Not sure if that’s how foccacia was originally born though – probably just my version of it, but it was definitely very good! Would definitely recommend it if ever you have some botched bread dough! 🙂
GourmetGetaways says
Oh I just know how gorgeous your kitchen would have smelled as this was cooking, AMAZING! I love making this style of food, so delicious and homey 🙂
Charles says
Thanks GG – I loved the smell of the onions when I was making those, and the bread too was just a wonderful aroma!
Marina@Picnic at Marina says
Charles, that is an amazing flavor! I can really smell the bread, the caramelized onions, and all herbs! It’s a fragrant heaven if you ask me. 🙂
Charles says
Thanks Marina – it never lasts long at all once it’s fresh from the oven! 😀
Minnie@thelady8home says
Hey Charles, happy new year! I haven’t been here for a while, and I apoligize for that. But you have been busy! Nothing like that delicious looking bread in this freezing icy conditions that I find myself in. Nothing fake about this bread for sure!
Charles says
Hi Minnie – happy new year to you too! The bread is a perfect pair with some soup… a great little duo after a day out in the cold 🙂
Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb says
Hey that’s an excellent idea and it does look and sound like a Foccacia bread but Fakeaccia is of course a better creative name. I like the idea of this, its pretty quick to prepare if you have made some simple bread dough. I was thinking of making bread every day in the morning but somehow I am not getting the time to even plan it properly. I thought I d prefer to make the same dough every day but change it into different bread types, such as your Fakeaccia! Nice idea and thank you for sharing this Charles! =D
Sawsan@chef in disguise says
Foccacia or Fakeacia it is still amazing Charles
It has been really cold and grey here today and I wish I had some of this bread along side some soup!