Every so often, I have to fight tooth and nail to get a recipe up on here. Don’t know if you can tell, but Beau has probably one of the strongest personalities imaginable and while it’s oh-my-god-so-cute most of the time, sometimes I feel like I’m living and working with Miranda Priestly.

Even that paragraph. He just tried to nix it over my shoulder, but I’m gonna keep going because I think you deserve to know just how close we came to not sharing this amazing carb attack with you all: it's got freaking blue cheese, apples, and caramelized onions, AND it's focaccia. I'm dying. And just to spoil the ending for you real quick, we’re all happy.

The first thing you need to know is that I am absolutely not the baker of this little home cook team situation we’ve got. I’ve got barely any experience with baking at all, while I swear Beau’s DNA awarded him a full culinary chemistry textbook in his brain at birth. So when I said I wanted to take lead on a baking recipe, I think he was already a little skeptical. Ever terrible at receiving the slightest bit of even-just-implied criticism, I clearly clapped back with something bratty like “Well, I’ll just make it and then we’ll see.”

Just to like fully illustrate how terrible I am at taking criticism, let me tell you about my preschool mid-term exams. That already sounds way more serious than it was; basically our teachers graded us on a scale of “Excellent” to “Unsatisfactory” on things like “plays well with others,” “follows instructions,” and “good napper,” all of which I got perfect marks on. What I didn’t get a perfect mark on, and really the only perfect mark I didn’t get, was skipping. Yes, skipping, as in the weird method of childhood run-jumping where you land on the same foot you lifted off from and then quick ball change to the other. My mom read my report card to me and let me know that my skipping was marked as “Needs Improvement.”

I immediately tore the report card out of her hands and demanded, “What’s wrong with my skipping?” I made my mom watch me “skip” around the house and pick it apart for me. (As it turns out, I really wasn’t doing it right at all and was actually performing some kind of weird gallop situation that no child should ever do if they don’t want to be cast as the villain in a horror movie.)

I still sadly behave this same way in the face of criticism, so when Beau was like, “You can’t put bleu cheese in a focaccia,” I was like, “What’s wrong with my bleu cheese? Nothing’s wrong, you're a tyrant I'll prove it to you,” and he was like, “Damn, calm down about the cheese, sis,” and I was like “We’re going to the grocery right now.” Anyway, thankfully, I actually was right this time and this shit is amazing.

So I basically piggy backed on Beau’s basic focaccia recipe that he used about a year ago in our Strawberry, Basil, and Goat Cheese Focaccia, and just switched out the toppings, which gave us the other brilliant idea that, hey, this is a super adaptable recipe, and you can basically put whatever the hell you want in this as long as it’s not super weird. If it does turn out super weird, though, you’ll get a “Needs Improvement.” Don’t sweat it, though, you can bounce back from them with years of practice!

Stuffed Focaccia
stuffed with bleu cheese, honey, apples, carmelized onions, and thyme
Makes 1 thick 9x9 loaf

2.5 cups all purpose flour
2 t kosher salt, separated in two
2 T honey
¼ oz pkg yeast
1 cup warm water
¼ cup plus 6 T olive oil, divided
½ medium apple, sliced thin
2 t thyme
2 T crumbled bleu cheese
1 medium white onion, sliced into rings
1 T butter

Whisk yeast and 1 tablespoon of the honey into the warm water and set aside. Let sit for 5 - 10 minutes, until it begins bubbling.
While the yeast is proofing, whisk together the flour and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set aside until the yeast mixture is ready.
Once the yeast mixture is bubbling, whisk the 1/4 cup of olive oil into it.
Add the yeast mix to the flour and, using the dough hook attachment, being mixing until well combined.
Once the dough has come together turn the speed to medium high and knead for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. It's still going to be pretty messy and sticky, don't freak out.
Coat two medium bowls with 1/2 T olive oil each.
Use another 1/2 T olive oil to coat your hands.
Using your hands, separate the dough into two equal sized-balls and place each half into its own greased bowl.
Cover the bowls with a kitchen rag or plastic wrap and let sit for one hour, until doubled in size.
While dough is rising, heat butter and 1T olive oil in a sautee pan over low heat. Once butter has melted, add onion rings and mix until they’re fully coated in butter and oil. Caramelize onions by letting cook roughly 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Remove from heat.
Once dough has doubled in size, grease a 9x9" square pan with 1/2 T olive oil.
Press one dough ball into the pan.
Place most of the sliced apples on top of this dough (About ⅔ of the slices, saving the rest for the top of the next layer.) Cover with about ⅔ of the caramelized onions (should be about ½ cup), 1 teaspoon thyme, and 1 tablespoon crumbled bleu cheese. Drizzle with ½ tablespoon honey.
Press the other half of the dough on top of the first half, sandwiching the ingredients between the two dough halves.
Spread the top dough out to make sure that all of the filling is covered.
Use your fingers to make small indentations in the top of the focaccia.
Let the focaccia sit in the pan for about 30 minutes until it has risen a little more. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450* F.
Top the focaccia with remaining apples, thyme, bleu cheese, caramelized onions, and ½ tablespoon honey.
Drizzle remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil on top and sprinkle with remaining 1 teaspoon of kosher salt.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until slightly browned.
Serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil.

More Carbs YAAAAAAS