Cheesy Focaccia with Onions and Poblano Peppers

This homemade cheesy focaccia is stuffed full of finely minced red onion and poblano pepper with even more rings of red onion and poblano pepper on top. It's also topped with lots and lots of cheddar cheese, plus some flaky salt and cracked black pepper for a bit of a kick.

Sliced into thin strips, this cheesy onion and pepper focaccia is the perfect appetizer or side dish, though it can also be cut into squares and used for sandwiches.

This cheesy homemade focaccia recipe has a super squishy, airy crumb with a crispy bottom and crisp golden brown top. It's so easy to make, I just know you're going to love it!

I used my popular overnight focaccia recipe as a base for this focaccia with cheese, onions, and poblano peppers, and there are lots more tips in that post about the dough and folding process. I definitely recommend heading over there if you want more details!

Other than adding tons of cheese, onions, and peppers, I've adjusted the amount of water in this version to account for the addition of the moisture from the vegetables, but otherwise they're pretty much the same.

Ingredient notes

Here's what you'll need to make this overnight onion and pepper focaccia. (Not pictured: warm water.) See recipe card for quantities.

Poblano peppers - Remove the seeds and ribs for a less spicy focaccia. Leave the ribs and seeds on for more heat. You'll need one poblano to mince and one poblano to cut into thin rings.

Red onion - This recipe makes use of one small red onion. Half of it will be minced and added to the dough, the other half will be cut into rings for the topping.

Cheddar cheese - I used a blend of white and yellow sharp cheddars here. You can use your favorite cheddar blend or just pick one cheddar and run with it.

Incorporate peppers and onions during the folds

To make this homemade focaccia recipe, start by mixing the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Then, pour the warm water and olive oil into the center of the bowl and mix until you have a cohesive, wet, shaggy dough with no dry bits.

I use a dough whisk to mix the dough, but a spatula will work just fine too. Gather the dough loosely in the middle of the bowl. Cover, and let it rest for five minutes.

After the dough has rested for five minutes, do the first set of folds. This is a no-knead focaccia, so the dough just needs two quick and easy sets of folds to build strength and structure so it rises the way we want it to in the pan.

You're going to use the folding process to incorporate the minced peppers and onions so they end up dispersed throughout the dough.

Before doing the second set of folds, sprinkle half the minced peppers and onions over the surface of the dough. Use wet hands to grab the top edge of the dough. Stretch it away from you, then fold it down over itself. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Repeat two more times all the way around the dough. This will seal most of the minced peppers and onions inside the dough.

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then repeat this folding process with the remaining minced peppers and onions so that they're all incorporated and tucked inside the dough.

Gently slide the focaccia dough out of the bowl and into the middle of the baking dish. If any of the edges come untucked, that's okay. Gently lift the dough to tuck them back under.

Cover the focaccia and let rise at room temperature for 8-12 hours. It's ready when it has filled out the corners of the pan and is looking quite bubbly and airy on top.

About an hour before you plan to bake the focaccia, preheat the oven. Thirty minutes prior to baking, dimple and top the focaccia.

Drizzle the top of the focaccia with two tablespoons olive oil, then top it with thinly sliced onion and pepper rings. Rub oil on your finger tips and gently dimple the dough, pressing your fingers all the way down until you hit the bottom of the pan.

Then top it with shredded cheddar cheese, flaky salt, and (optional) cracked black pepper.

Place the focaccia with cheese pan back near the oven so that the heat gives the yeast one final boost of activity. This will help the dough bubble up around the toppings and hold them in place.

Substitutions and variations

• Extra spicy pepper and onion focaccia - If you want an extra spicy focaccia, leave the seeds in the minced poblano, and use a chili pepper infused olive oil for dimpling and finishing your focaccia. You could also sub in hotter peppers like jalapeños or habaneros in place of poblanos.
• Extra mild pepper and onion focaccia - Use bell peppers or mini sweet peppers instead of poblanos. Skip the cracked black pepper when topping.
• Vegan - Use vegan cheese or omit the cheese entirely.
• Red onion - If you don't like red onion, you can swap it for whatever type of onion you do like.

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• Don't over-dimple this onion and pepper focaccia. I know it's a really fun part of the process and very tempting to keep poking, but you don't want to knock too much air out of it!
• If the cheese looks like it's starting to burn or brown more than you like, tent it with foil for the final 5 minutes of baking, but you should be fine!
• Make it mini: Divide the recipe in half and bake it in a square or round 8 or 9" pan. The baking time and temperature don't change at all. For a truly mini focaccia, use my small batch loaf pan focaccia, and fold in the peppers and onions in batches after the first resting period. You'll only need about 1-2 tablespoons each minced peppers and onions for the dough.
• Focaccia topping food safety: For a cheesy focaccia loaded up with lots of poblano peppers and onions like this, you'll want to wrap and freeze it, or wrap and refrigerate it rather than leaving it to sit out, especially if you're planning to eat it over several days. The fridge isn't the ideal place for bread (colder temperatures speed up staling), but roasted veggies, onions, and cheese shouldn't sit out at room temperature for long periods of time either.
• I used the cast iron Challenger Bread Pan when photographing this focaccia but it will also work in a regular metal rectangular baking pan like this 9x13" USA Pan cake pan.

📖 Recipe