Gorgonzola and Caramelized Onion Appetizer

Gorgonzola and Caramelized Onion Appetizer

original recipe from Betty Crocker

Crunchy baguette slices are topped with robust Gorgonzola and sweet caramelized onions.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

3 medium onions, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar
16 slices (1/2-inch-thick) baguette-style French bread (from 10-ounce loaf)
3 tablespoons crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

Directions
Melt butter in 7-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook onions, brown sugar and vinegar in butter 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are golden brown.

Set oven control to broil. Place baguette slices on ungreased cookie sheet. Broil with tops 4 to 6 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Spoon about 1 teaspoon caramelized onions evenly onto each baguette slice. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the cheese. Broil about 1 minute or until cheese is melted.

My Comments & Tips

• I chopped 3 medium onions and ended up with WAY more than 1 1/2 cups, I would say it was more like 3 cups. They did however reduce quite a bit in volume after cooking.
• I tripled the amount of brown sugar and balsamic vinegar because it just didn't look like enough while cooking.
• The onions took at least an hour to cook.  Having caramelized onions before I knew they should be cooked slowly, so I resisted the urge to increase the temperature.  Maybe it was my onions (I used sweet onions) but there seemed to be a lot of water released from them, and they didn't start to caramelize until that cooked off.  The last recipe I had for caramelized onions took about 3 hours, so this wasn't too bad.  The trick is to be patient, you don't want to saute them.
• I prepared these one day ahead and reheated them slowly on the stove.  They turned out fine.
• The recipe says to chop the onions. The onions in the picture on the website appeared to be sliced thinly, so I cut the onion in half and sliced it from there. Although the texture was fine, eating them was a little tricky! It was difficult to bite the baguette without the strings of onions falling off. Next time I will actually chop them in squares or at least smaller slices.
• I ended up with about 25 pieces, and still had about a 1/2 cup of onions left over. I'm looking forward to trying them on a homemade burger!
• I was able to assemble these about 15 minutes before broiling, I didn't want the bread to get soggy.
• These were also good at room temperature.