335. Cheese and onion bread

time to bake
I haven’t baked a bread in a long time so decided must bake one before I forget how to knead the dough and bake a bread. Really does one forget certain skills? I don’t know, yes my language skills are bad so no wonder there are so many french verbs and words I have forgotten. During our visit to Montreal, reading the language everywhere was not so much a problem as speaking it. The right words would not come to my mind at the right moment. They had a knack of appearing in my mind when least wanted, like at night! However other skills like cooking, driving a car, teaching etc, I will not forget.Maybe it is because I really enjoy those skills.
Anyway,coming back to breads, I was tempted to bake one from my recipes already posted and then went through my “to try” list and thought, gosh I need to shorten this! I still haven’t managed to try all the recipes I have collected from magazines, newspapers and tv shows and here I keep on adding more! So I decided to bake a cheese and onion bread which would go well with the tomato carrot soup I was going to make for dinner.This recipe was from an old Bella magazine. As I always say,the bread tasted better the next day as I could actually taste the cheese and onion. However, just out of the oven the freshness of the loaf was delicious.
CHEESE AND ONION BREAD
1 Loaf
3-3¼ cups strong plain flour or bread flour or strong all purpose flour
¾ cup diced onion (about 1 large one)
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup diced cheese of your choice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm milk
2½ tsp dry instant active yeast
extra flour for dusting
extra oil for greasing
- Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium heat and saute the onion till it is slightly soft. Let it cool.
- Mix the flour, salt and sugar together.
- Add the yeast and form a dough using the warm milk.
- Using extra flour, knead the dough for nearly 10 minutes till it is smooth and silky. Check out the technique for kneading bread dough here.
- Add the cooked onion and knead it into the dough. Form a big ball and rub a bit of oil over it.
- Grease a big bowl with a bit of oil. Place the dough in the bowl.
- Cover it with a plastic sheet or cling film and put it in a warm place.
- Let the dough rise till it becomes double the size. This may take about 2 hours.
- Gently knead the dough again. Add the cheese cubes.
- Using oiled hands, shape the dough as you like. I used a round 9 inch cake tin. Grease the pan or tray and place the dough on it.
- Let it rise again for about an hour or so or till the dough is double size again.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Sprinkle a bit of water over the top of the dough or apply egg wash or milk.
- Place the dough in the hot oven to bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
- It is done when the top is golden brown and if tapped gently, it sounds hollow.
- Remove the bread from the pan or tray and let it cool on a wire rack.
- Egg wash is about 2 tbsp of water or milk mixed with an egg.
- I added a tsp of cumin seeds for extra flavour.
- You can use any cheese of your choice. I used mozzarella cheese.
- If you want a normal loaf shape, then use a 9×5 inch loaf tin.
- For a slightly chewy crust, sprinkle or brush water on top of the dough before baking.
- If you are using dry active yeast which is not the instant variety, remember to let it activate in the warm milk for about 10 minutes before adding to the flour.
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