Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche

For a huge cheesy and flavorful loaf of bread, try this roasted onion and asiago miche. 

This is an extra large loaf of bread that is loaded with three types of onions along with a generous amount of asiago cheese. It's also topped with lots more cheese along with roasted onions. 

This bread is called a miche, which is a French term for a large sourdough multi-grain loaf, meant to keep a family fed for up to a week, until they could access the village oven again. Perhaps the best known is the Poilane-Style Miche, from the famous Paris bakery. It's the loaf featured on the cover of Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

In this case, the only flour in this bread is bread flour, but the loaf is still huge and hearty. 

Bread Bakers Apprentice (BBA) Challenge:

Back in 2012, I participated in the BBA Challenge, where I baked every single bread in the book, Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter  Reinhart. It was originally published in 2001 with a revised edition in 2016, the fifteenth anniverary. 

The book is pretty much an essential resource for aspiring bakers to learn the fundamentals of baking bread. It's good for both beginning and experienced bread bakers. The first 100 pages are all about the basics, including shaping the loaves. After that, there are 165 pages with 39 different bread recipes from brioche to rye, to sandwich bread, and sourdough, in A to Z order, plus two bonus recipes at the end. 

I baked every single bread in the book. I've never baked an entire cookbook before and I'll probably never do it again, but I am proud that I did. It's always good to flex new muscles. I feel like I earned my journeyman status in the art of bread baking.

Procedure to Make this Asiago and Onion Miche:

Let's talk about this bread. Days to make? Three (don't worry, there's lots of down time here). Worth it? Yes. This bread is crazy good. I remember when I first baked it I thought that it was just a giant hunk of bread gorgeousness. 

The original recipe makes two large loaves. I've cut it in half for you here. On day one, make a "sponge," a combination of sourdough starter, water, and flour. 

On day two, roast the onions, mix the dough, let it rise, shape the loaf, and chill the dough overnight. 

I let the dough rise in the refrigerator in a banneton covered in oiled plastic wrap and it rose quite a bit. 

On baking day, do a final rise, dimple the top of the loaf with your fingertips, top the loaf with more asiago cheese, the roasted onions, and bake.

Note: For the final rise, I turned the dough out onto a pie plate lined with parchment paper while it rested for two hours so that the dough would not spread. I then topped it with the cheese and onions and transferred the loaf, parchment and all, onto a baking stone. 

Be sure to gently pinch any large bubbles on the surface of the dough before baking. 

While I used asiago cheese (try it on asiago cheese bagels, for example), you can use a cheese such as Gruyére, Swiss, Mozzarella, or Cheddar. 

I'm so happy I remade this bread. It's sooooo good! You can use it for garlic bread, toast, and sandwiches. You can dip it in your favorite soups and stews too. Be sure to have a couple of fresh slices on the day that it's made. You'll swoon. 

Alphabet Challenge: 

We are cooking and baking our way through the alphabet this year, and this week's letter is O, as in onions, Oreo, oats, oranges, olives, oysters, and Ozark: 

• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Firecracker Oatmeal Peanut Butter Blossoms 
• Culinary Cam: How to Shuck Oysters and a Few Serving Ideas 
• Palatable Pastime: Olive Cream Cheese Bites
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Orange Chili Pulled Pork 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Oreo Mousse Cake
• Magical Ingredients: Oreo Paratha 
•  A Messy Kitchen: Ozark Pudding
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche 
• Food Lust People Love: Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Whole Orange Cake 

Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche

Yield: 32 Slices

Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories

Prep time: 1 HourCook time: 1 HourInactive time: 27 HourTotal time: 29 Hour

For a huge cheesy and flavorful loaf of bread, try this roasted onion and asiago miche.

Ingredients

Sponge

• 28 grams (1 ounce/2 tablespoons) of 100% hydration sourdough starter
• 113 grams (4 ounces/1/2 cup) of room temperature water
• 159 grams (5.6 ounces/1 1/4 cups) of unbleached bread flour

For the Roasted Onions

• 113 grams (4 ounces/1 medium) of onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• Pinch of ground black paper
• Pinch of salt

Final Dough

• 453 grams (16 ounces/3 1/2 cups) of unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
• 255 grams (9 ounces/1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of lukewarm water (90 to 100 degrees F)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 227 grams (8 ounces/1 1/2 cups) grated Asiago cheese.
• 28 grams (1 ounce/1/4 cup) of chopped chives, or more to taste
• 28 grams (1 ounce/1/4 cup) of sliced scallions, or more to taste

Instructions

Day One: Make the Sponge

1. Mix the sourdough starter, water, and flour until incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment for 8 hours at room temperature. Refrigerate until the next day.

Day Two:

1. Remove the sponge from the refrigerator and allow it to sit for about an hour.
2. Roast the onions: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and line a sheet pan with parchment. Mix the onions with the olive oil and spread them out over the sheet pan. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Bake the onions, stirring every five minutes, until golden brown. Cool and refrigerate.
3. Make the dough: Combine the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and sponge and mix until the dough forms a ball. Let it sit for five minutes, add the olive oil and salt, and mix until all of the ingredients are just combined. Add half of the cheese, all of the chives, and all of the scallions.
4. Knead the dough on a lightly floured counter/bench by hand for about four minutes. Add more flour as needed to make a tacky but not sticky dough. Place the dough into an oiled dough rising bucket or bowl, spray the top of the dough with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for for two to three hours, until doubled.
5. Dust a 9 inch bowl or banneton with rice flour.
6. Gently transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter being careful not to degas the dough. Gently shape the dough into a boule and place in the banneton seam side up. Spray with oil, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and place the pan in the refrigerator overnight.

Day Three:

1. Line a pie pan with parchment paper, spray the paper with spray oil.
2. Remove the banneton from the refrigerator about two hours before baking, turn it out onto the parchment lined pie pan, cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise for about two hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and place a steam pan on the bottom rack, and another rack right above it. If you have one, place a baking stone on the second rack.
4. Brush the top of the dough with olive oil and dimple the loaf with your fingertips by pressing almost through to the bottom of the loaf.
5. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and the roasted onion pieces. Allow the loaf to sit for about a half an hour. Boil one cup of water and prepare a spray bottle for the steam oven.
6. Place a pizza peel or baking sheet under the parchment and slide the loaf, parchment included, onto the baking stone (or if you don't have a stone leave it on the baking sheet and place it on the oven rack), add the boiling water to the steam pan, and close the oven. Spray the oven with water three times, every 30 seconds. Lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees F and bake the bread for 20 minutes. Rotate the loaf 180 degrees and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 195 to 200 degrees F. If it is browning too fast, tent with foil and continue baking.
7. Move the finished loaf to a rack and cool for at least an hour.
8. Slice and serve.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

109

Fat (grams)

3 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

1 g

Carbs (grams)

15 g

Fiber (grams)

1 g

Net carbs

14 g

Sugar (grams)

0 g

Protein (grams)

5 g

Cholesterol (grams)

5 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2012/12/roasted-onion-and-asiago-miche-mission.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

asiago, sourdough

Bread

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @karenskitchenstories.com on instagram and hashtag it #karenskitchenstories