Pure Hunger

Every once in a while I get a genius idea. The kind that really excites me and motivates me out of bed in the morning and straight into the kitchen. This bread was one of those incredible ideas. It was much needed, as my motivation to cook has been less than zero. An addition of a little boy to our family about a month ago combined with a decrease in produce from the community garden as the season comes to a close has left me feeling the cooking blues. It was only after staring into our freezer that I realized I frozen pizza dough and fresh bacon from a local pig farmer. When I need inspiration I usually choose one or two ingredients I already have in my house or an item that is on sale at the co-op and start searching my cookbooks and cooking blogs to find a way to incorporate this ingredient into an adventure.

Ingredients

I used half of this dough for two of us.

Dough
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Tbsp sugar or honey
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup room-temperature water

Toppings
1 stick fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 small onion, caramelized
1 tsp olive oil

I knew I wanted to make this sandwich with the bacon and it was possible I could use the pizza dough as the bread, in a crispy focaccia way. The only way I stay inspired to cook is when I am willing to take risks and fail miserably. Using pizza dough to make focaccia is definitely a risk and bread is an area in which I am no expert. I can proudly claim, however, this was incredibly easy and tasted unbelievable. If you make the dough ahead of time and freeze extra, this takes less than 30 minutes.

Caramelizing onions is a simple process. It helps if you cook a fatty meat first, such as bacon. Keep the bacon fat in the pan, turn the heat to medium low and add the chopped onions, salt and pepper and cook until softened and transparent (about 10 minutes). If you do not use meat or choose to avoid the bacon fat then use a cooking oil or butter and make sure the onions stay well oiled as they can easily dry out.

Mix dough ingredients as directed in this post. If you have dough in the freezer, take out the night before or about 8 hours before baking and place in refrigerator. Remove dough from fridge 2 hours before baking to allow dough to rise. Dough will not rise much so don’t be alarmed.  Preheat oven to 425 after dough as risen for two hours. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread dough out in rectangle by hand, pulling on sides carefully until about 1 foot long and 6 inches wide. Top with rosemary, sea salt, onions and olive oil and let sit for about 10 minutes. Place in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until top is golden brown. This dough will not rise much while cooking due to the whole wheat flour. You can substitute white flour for the whole recipe and will end up with a fluffier foccacia.

After removing from oven I cut the bread into four squares and used two for the top and bottom of the BLT. It was delicious, but don’t trust me, try it for yourself.