French Onion Flatbread

French onion flatbread

You just never know what will inspire you.... I was at the grocery store the other day and when I went to stock up on pizza dough. Yes I buy Portland Pie pre-made dough because it's as good as any I make and less time consuming - assuming I remember to thaw it. Anyway, Portland Pie has several varieties of which their beer and traditional are my favorites. On this trip I saw that they have a new variety 'French Onion' so I figured I'd give it a try.

I put the dough in my refrigerator and took a day to ponder how to use it. What I cam up with is this delicious caramelized onion concoction that includes some white wine, crumbled bacon, three cheeses, and some hot honey.

Normally, when I use this dough, I allow it to rise at least once for traditional pizza, and on occasion will roll it out and give it a second rise. Since I had flatbread on the brain, I didn't let the dough rise at all, I simply pressed it out into a prepared large rimmed baking sheet.

While is was caramelizing the onions, I sort of got distracted playing with the tuna I posted about last time and the onions started to burn and stick to the pan. I quickly lowered the heat and added some white wine to deglaze the pan and ultimately salvage the onions. Side note, I think they are the best caramelized onions I've ever made.

Once the dough was pressed into the pan, I started layering first the bacon, then parmesan cheese followed by some shredded Swiss. Then I distributed the onions on top followed by some crumbled Gorgonzola and a drizzle of hot honey. YUM!

Hot honey? Simple: put some of your favorite honey in an air-tight container, take some red pepper flakes and grind them in a mortar and pestle, put the pepper mash in the honey and stir it a bit. Then seal it up and be patient for a month or so. No measurements here, if you like it really hot add lots of pepper.

It's important to note that I used the toppings sparingly; if you overload it, the thin crust won't hold up against the weight of the toppings. This turned out so good that I decided not to serve it with that night's dinner. I cut the flatbread up into 2" squares and stored them in the fridge. I'll be reheating them in the oven as an appetizer for a small gathering we're hosting.

THE RECIPE:

Olive oil or cooking spray

1T corn meal

1 pizza dough - do not let rise

1/4C each crumbled bacon, and parmesan, shredded Swiss, crumbled Gorgonzola cheeses.

About 1/2 to 1C caramelized onions

1/4C hot honey

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Prepare the baking pan by either spraying or brushing with oil

Sprinkle the corn meal all over the pan

Stretch the pizza dough into a rectangle in your hands and when it gets bigger than you want to manage, lay it in the baking pan and press it out to the edges with your fingertips.

Sprinkle the bacon followed by the parmesan and Swiss

Carefully and evenly distribute the onions over the crust

Sprinkle the Gorgonzola

Drizzle the hot honey

Bake for 20 minutes.