Bacon, Caramelized onion and gruyere Focaccia

I think I live a hectic life for almost 3 weeks (and it will continue until the kids go back to school, haha).

Anyway, it’s not in a bad way, cooking, baking and playing with kids and spending time with my family is what I like.
Yesterday, my sister said that my nephew want to eat savory bread, well he really love pizza ^^, but making pizza mean I need a lot of ingredients and sauce so I chose the easier choice, haha. Actually they are close to each other but Focaccia is a bit thicker (and you don’t need sauce for it too).
Because I have to do something else too, I use the bread machine to knead this bread, but you can use your lovely hand to knead it too. For me, I love the bread machine, esp. its dough function, because it helps a lot when I don’t have time. It will knead the dough and let it rise then all I have to do is shape the dough let it rise again and bake it.
This Focaccia is very good on it own, serving it with cool drink while chatting is the best suggestion from me, haha.

Bacon, Caramelized onion and gruyere Focaccia

Makes 25x 35cm flat bread

Foccacia
470g ………………………… All purpose flour
6g …………………………….. Instant yeast
6g …………………………….. Salt
10g …………………………… Dark brown sugar
80g …………………………… Olive oil
250ml ……………………….. Water
Topping
………………………………….. Olive oil, for drizzle on top of the bread
300g …………………………. Bacon, chopped
2 ……………………………….. Onion, thinly slice
2tsp …………………………… Balsamic vinegar
125g …………………………… Gruyere cheese, shredded
…………………………………… Pinch of salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients into the bread machine, select the dough function and let the machine process.
Note: Kneading by hand
Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt together in a bowl, whisk to combine. Form a well in the center; pour in the water and olive oil.

Begin to mix with hand until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes (or 100 time), until smooth and no longer sticky.

Place dough in oiled bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and put in a warm place free of drafts for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Dough should be doubled in bulk.

While waiting for the dough to rise, cook the bacon and onion.
Put the chopped bacon in the pan with 1/4cup of water, put the pan over medium heat, cook until the water evaporate and the bacon become slightly crisp (don’t let them become too dry, you will bake them again). Take the bacon out of the pan, put the onion into the pan and lower the heat, pour the Balsamic vinegar into the pan and cook until the onion caramelize, then season with salt and pepper.
Remove the Caramelized onion from the heat and let it cool.

When the dough is ready, remove from the bowl and use you finger to spread the dough onto a lined baking sheet about 25x 35cm, cover with damp tea towel and let it rise for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 220°C.

About 10 minutes before baking, press fingertips all over dough, forming indentations, and drizzle olive oil over dough. Sprinkle bacon and Caramelized onion evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with Gruyere cheese

Bake about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown, remove to wire racks to cool.

Bacon, Caramelized onion and gruyere Focaccia