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Crusty Onion Bread

This recipe is like a little, rustic onion pizza. It's super delicious. I first came across this trying to pull together a dinner party. I wanted something with big flavor to keep my guests happy while waiting for me to finish up dinner. I wanted something that would pair up nicely with beer and still be good for the wine drinkers. And this worked nicely.

I wanted something that would pair up nicely with beer and still be good for the wine drinkers. And this worked nicely.

Procedure

The first thing is to make the dough. It's an easy recipe, that does include yeast, so give yourself time to let the dough rise. Start out by puttin ght eyeast into a little warm water; about 1 cup. Let that stand for 5 to ten minutes and then add 1/4 cup olive oil. Next mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Dump in the yeast mixture and wor it together with a spoon. Once everything has come together throw the dough onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough for a few minutes until it feels firm and elastic. Coat a large bowl with a little olive oil (it could be the same bowl you mixed everything in) and put the dough in the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and set the bowl someplace warm and dark. I usually stix rising dough into my oven, just don't forget its there when you start to preheat. Let the dough rise for an hour.

While that's rising make the onion topping. Basically you are just sweating the onions down until they are carmelized and exceedingly soft. Heat up a big-ass frying pan and put in about a 1/4 cup olive oil. Throw in the onions followed by the rosemary sprig, and the basalmic vinegar. Cover the whole thing and let the onions sweat for about 45 minutes over medium heat. Come back and stir them every ten minutes or so to make sure they cook evenly and nothing sticks to the bottom.

The next step is to steam off a bunch of the moisture and liquid that should have formed in the bottom of your pan. Let the onions continue to cook with the cover removed. You can crank up the heat a bit to move the process along. It will probably take about 30 minutes to really thicken the onions. They should achive a nice brown color. You can keep them on the heat until you like the color and aroma.

As soon as the onions are done, remove them from the frying pan and let them cool.

Take the dough out of the oven. Now you can preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Roll out the dough into a big rectangle, maybe 18 inches by about 12 inches. I usually just force it to be the same size as the back of my largest cookie sheet. It should be that size because you'll end up baking the bread on the cookie sheet. Once you are done rolling out the dough put the cookie sheet in your oven upside down on the highest rack to preheat. If you have baking stones forget that last step; just use your baking stones.

Use a second, inverted cookie sheet to prepare the dough. This will help you slide the whole thing in to the oven when its ready to cook. Sprinkle the top of the cookie sheet with a good hadful of cornmeal. The cornmeal will act as a lubricant so the dough will slide off later. Then place the dough ontop of the cookie sheet that has been coated with cornmeal.

Next smear the rolled out dough with the achovy paste on one side. Go as thick or thin as you like. If you want the end result to be salty add plenty of anchovy paste. If you'd prefer the sweetness of the onion then use less. Leave a little boarder around the edge of the dough that is clean - no anchovy paste and no onions - to form a crust.

Put the onion mixture on top of the anchovy paste in a thin even coat. Cover the entire area you coated with anchovy paste. Next sprinkle the olives around (or if you are particular about these things place them where you want them). Next lay the anchovies on top of the onion mix.

The hardest part - transfer the wet dough with all it's toppings to the oven without dropping it on the floor or folding over an edge. If you prep'ed your cookie sheet with plenty of cornmeal it should go well. You'll need a spatula or bakers knife to slide under the dough to help it on its way. The best way to do this, I think, is to open the oven and pull out the top rack with the hot cookie sheet on it. Then stick the cookie sheet with the dough into the oven. Tilt the cookie sheet to a pretty high angle and use the spatula to get the dough to slide. Once the end of the dough has made contact with the hot cookie sheet (or baking stones) gently pull the cookie sheet our, while continueing to use a spatula to help the dough slide. When the cookie sheet comes out the last of the dough should be resting on the hot cookie shhet. Push the oven rack back in and close the oven door.

Give it 15 to 20 minutes and you're done.

Tricks

Salt is the biggest danger here. Between the anchovy paste, olives, and anchovies you can end up with something so salty it ain't appetizing. The goal is to balance the sweet of the onion with the saltiness of the anchovies. To do that make sure you taste all of your ingredients ahead of time so you know how salty they are.

Basalmic vinegar has a fair amount of sugar in it. With this recipe you can use the baslamic to make the onions taste sweeter and counter act overly salty olives or anchovies.

Ingredients

Conversions to European measurements can be found here!

For 6 people

Dough

Onion Topping