Grapes, Goat cheese and Red Onion with Fennel Focaccia

Sweet purple grapes, fresh red onion, and tangy goat cheese on a chewy light fennel focaccia.

After sharing a pair of peach pizzas last Friday, and a raspberry pizza the Friday before, I thought I should move back to vegetable pizzas for my Friday Night Pizza Night posts.  After all, I've got a sweet potato dough and a roasted pumpkin dough that I want to share with you.

However, I don't want this focaccia to drop off my radar.

I had a very productive period making and poorly photographing--but not writing up headnotes for--a pile of tasty recipes, and I thought I'd get them all written up over the summer.

Didn't happen.

I don't want everything to slip through the cracks, or rather fall off the stacks of recipe notes on my work table or dissolve into rows of scrolled-past photos in my ever-expanding photo library.  I don't want to start posting every day, either.  Three days a week is working for me (is it working for you?  too much? I should do a survey sometime.  After I've gotten all those blogs written up I'll ponder it).

I'm going to share a third fruity Friday Night Pizza Night (that's a link to my board of the same name on Pinterest) and then switch over to vegetables next week.  The chicken, peach, Hatch chile, spinach, red onion BBQ pizza will have to wait until next summer, as will the cantaloupe and prosciutto.  Something to look forward to, my spouse always says.

This focaccia uses fennel seeds in the dough.  I bought a bag of them because Alyssa's Skinny Italian Wedding Soup With Kale recipe over at Everyday Maven sounded good, and I figured the seeds could be useful to have on hand.  I'm glad I did--I now use fennel seeds in sourdough bread, Italian sausage, and spaghetti sauce.  Fennel seeds (for me at least) are versatile and not a seldom-used spice around here (I'm talking about you, sumac-for-fattoush and dill-seed-for-pickles).

This is not my first focaccia rodeo, though apparently all of the focaccias I've been making, photographing (and not writing up blog posts about) have yet to grace the screen.  So I'm going to refer you to my Arugula Pesto Focaccia with Artichokes, Feta, Goat Cheese and Green Olives if you want a thorough write up about what to do with your focaccia dough to turn it into focaccia, or why you should listen to my spouse and try focaccia.

NOTE: This recipe is not gluten free as written, because I used bread and whole wheat flours. To adapt this recipe for a gluten free diet please substitute the gluten free flour blend of your choice, or make your own--here are some options:
http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free-flour-mix-white/
http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free-flour-mix-whole-grain/
Check labels to confirm that your other ingredients are also gluten free. Good sources for determining gluten free products can be found here:
http://knowgluten.me/2012/03/31/other-names-for-gluten/
http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free/
http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

Grapes, Goat cheese and Red Onion with Fennel Focaccia

For the focaccia dough--recipe from The Best Pizza Is Made at Home (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm water

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour

1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) bread flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 Tablespoon fennel seed

10 grinds pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

For the topping
olive oil, for brushing the dough and oiling the skillet
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped grapes
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
kosher salt

In a large bowl (I use my stand mixer) combine the yeast and water.  Let that sit a few minutes while you gather the other ingredients, then dump the rest on top.  Mix at low speed until the dough starts to come together, then stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Mix again at medium speed until the dough is a smooth ball, another 5 minutes or so.  Refer to my Pizza Primer post for photo collages of what the dough should be looking like at various stages.  

Transfer dough to an oiled 12 inch cast iron skillet (other possible containers include a deep dish pizza pan or cake pan, but I have neither of those big enough) and press it out to the sides of the skillet.  Cover with a dish towel and let rest on the counter.  Meantime, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you read my pizza recipes every week and don't have a pizza stone, don't despair, because I'm not going to harangue you about it this week.  After a 30 minute rest/rise, dimple the surface of the dough with your fingers and brush the top with olive oil.  Scatter the onion in the dimples, and press it down into the dough a bit.  Do the same with the grapes, but pressing the goat cheese gets sort of gooey, so you can skip that part.  Just scatter the goat cheese, ok?  Sprinkle a pinch of salt across the dough.  Bake in the lower half of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool a few minutes, cut into wedges, and serve.

This post is shared on the From the Farm Blog Hop, the Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, What's Cookin' Wednesday,  Food on Friday and What's In The Box.