Hot Honey Mushroom Focaccia
This is installment II of a recent refrigerator party. With the mushrooms and pizza dough that I unearthed that day, I decided on hot honey mushroom focaccia.
Although you'll find others who odder a special dough for focaccia, I find that my favorite Portland Pie does work just fine if treated properly.
Once the dough is at room temperature, it's time to place it in a pan to rise a bit. It's important to generously brush some olive oil to coat the pan and then sprinkle some medium or course cornmeal on the pan. This helps to insure a nice crispy bottom to the crust.
Once the pan is coated and dusted, it's time to stretch the dough and arrange it in the pan. I work the dough with my hands until it's as close as possible to the size of the pan and then lay it in and gently press and stretch it to the edges while trying to keep it a uniform thickness.
The next step is to use your fingers or the handle end of a wooden spoon to make dimples all over the dough. This is followed with a generous brushing of olive oil over the entire surface. Once the dough is prepped, I lay a piece of wax paper on top and then cover it with a towel to keep the air off. I place it someplace where it will rise a bit, if it's winter, I may heat the oven to 100 degrees and after shutting it off, place the pan in there while I prepare the toppings.
While the prepared dough was resting and hopefully rising a bit, I caramelized some onions in butter and strained them from the skillet to cool. I rewarmed the skillet and added sliced mushrooms and scallions to saute a bit. When the onions were cool enough to handle, I distributed them evenly on the focaccia dough and then did the same with the mushroom scallion mixture.
I make my own hot honey (recipe coming soon) and drizzled some all over the mushrooms before adding Buratta cheese and the sliced green tops of the scallions.
THE RECIPE:
1 pizza dough at room temp
Olive oil for prepping the pan and brushing on the dough
2-3 T cornmeal for prepping the pan
4T salted butter
1 large sweet onion sliced thin
1-2 C sliced mushrooms (any variety will do)
5-6 scallions sliced with the green tops sliced and reserved
1/4 -1/2 C hot honey
1-2 C of your favorite cheese to dot the focaccia. I used Buratta with a sprinkle of Parmesan but, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Swiss or just about any combination would go nicely.
Brush olive oil on a 9X9" baking pan. (8X8' will work, but I wouldn't go larger for a single dough.
Sprinkle the cornmeal around the pan.
Carefully stretch and shape the pizza dough to fit in the pan.
Place the dough in the pan and pull or press the edges to the edges .doing your best to keep the dough an even thickness.
Using your fingers (my preponderance) or the end of a wooden spoon, make dimples all over the crust. (It's OK if you poke to the bottom as long as you let it rest and rise a bit because the holes will close up.)
Brush the dough with olive oil to coat the top completely, place a piece of wax or parchment paper gently on top and cover with a cloth. Set it aside or into a mildly warm oven to rise while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
In a large skillet with 4Tmelt the butter in a large skillet, add the sliced onions and cover.
Let the onions saute on super low heat until the reach a golden brown level of caramelization. Stir once of twice while they are cooking to keep them from sticking or burning.
While the onions are cooking, slice the mushrooms and scallions.
Reserve the green tops of the scallions and slice them for use later.
Cut, cube, shred, slice, or grate your selected cheese.
When the onions are caramelized, use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove them to a bowl to cool leaving any butter and justices in the skillet.
NOTE: I actually transferred the onions to a strainer to get as much liquid as possible out so the focaccia didn't get soggy. I then returned the liquid to the skillet to saute the mushrooms and scallions
Place the mushrooms and scallions in the skillet and saute until tender and aromatic.
Once the onions have cooled, it's time to assemble the focaccia.
When that time comes, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Distribute the caramelized onions evenly on the dough, and follow with the sauteed mushrooms and scallions.
Drizzle the hot honey all over the focaccia.
Add the cheese and sliced green scallion tops.
Bake for 20 minutes to start and check for doneness. Depending on the size of the pan, the type of cheese your use and how accurate your oven is it could take up to a half hour to bake to your desired doneness. After 20 minutes, I check every 4 or 5 minutes until its where I want it.
