Savory Pear Flatbread with Gorgonzola for #twelveloaves

#TwelveLoaves -September: Hosted by moi. Welcome, fall baking! The month of August was all about baking with fresh, summer herbs. September is all about baking with PEARS! Whatever you bake, (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, braids, flatbreads, etc) have fun and let's have a delicious month of bread with Pears. Let's get baking! 

I love bread. I especially love unique savory bread. So, when this month's #twelveloaves popped up with 'pears' as our theme, I wracked my brain to come up with something unique and savory. Introducing my savory pear flatbread with gorgonzola. I'm also hosting this event; see all the pear-pairings after my recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 C warm water
• 1 T active dry yeast
• 1 T ginger syrup
• 5 C flour, plus additional for kneading
• 1 T freshly ground sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/2 C extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 C crumbled gorgonzola, divided into 1/2 C portions
• 4 fresh pears, cored and thinly sliced

Procedure

Combine the warm water, yeast and ginger syrup in a small bowl. Let the yeast bloom for 10-15 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and olive oil with the yeast mixture. Beat with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Continue to knead for 5 to 6 minutes until it becomes smooth and soft. Sprinkle with more flour if the dough is really sticky.

Coat the inside of the bowl lightly with olive oil and return the dough to the bowl and turn to coat. Cover it with a dish towel and put it in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, at least 1 hour.

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Turn the dough into the jelly roll pan. Drizzle some olive oil over the top.

Stretch the dough to fit the pan. Then press your fingers through the dough, making dimples all the way to the pan, all over the dough.

Put the dough in the warm place until it has doubled in size again, about 30 minutes. Shave gorgonzola over the top and lay thinly sliced pears over the cheese.

Let the dough rise for another 30 minutes. While the dough is rising a third time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Generously sprinkle the top of the focaccia with some sea salt and lightly drizzle a little more olive oil on top. Bake the dough until the top of the loaf is golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove the focaccia from the oven and let it cool before cutting and serving.

#TwelveLoaves September: Pears If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do! 

1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme! 

2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme. 

3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this September 2014, and posted on your blog by September 30, 2014.

#TwelveLoaves runs smoothly with the help of our bakers. #TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and run with the help of Heather of girlichef.

Check out the other great pear-pairings below.

Wowza. These gals can bake.

Asian Pear Bread by NinjaBaking

Pear and Almond Muffins by Basic N Delicious

Pear and Cherry Sourdough Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories

Pear and Walnut Sticky Buns by Kudos Kitchen by Renee

Pear, Banana, and Quinoa Muffins by Rhubarb and Honey

Pear Cranberry Sticky Buns by Cake Duchess

Pear Streusel Sweet Rolls by Try Anything Once Culinary

Raspberry Pear Pecan Quick Bread by A Baker's House

SavoryPear Flatbread with Gorgonzola by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Sour Cream Pear Bread by That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Spiced Buttermilk Poached Pear Bread by girlichef

Turkish Pear Coffee Bread by A Shaggy Dough Story

And here's where you can link in your Twelve Loaves pear bread...