Caramelized Onion and Shallot Braided Bread with Gruyere Cheese and Herbes de Provence

Caramelized onion and shallot braided bread with Gruyere cheese and herbes de Provence. Seriously good bread.

This is a "mock" braid that can be filled with a number of sweet or savory flavors.

For this filling, I used a large red onion and six large shallots, along with dried herbes de Provence. The aroma from the herbes and the onions while they were cooking made me very happy.

If you don't  have herbes de Provence (typically a blend of tarragon, savory, sage, thyme, fennel, dill, chervil, marjoram, rosemary, and basil), you could substitute any number of fresh or dried herbs.

I spread some Dijon mustard down the center of dough, piled on the caramelized onions and shallots, and then topped the onions with about six ounces of Gruyere cheese. After wrapping the filling in the dough with a mock braid, I sprinkled a little more cheese and herbs down the center of the dough.

This bread is wonderful fresh from the oven with a salad and/or soup.

For a sweet version of this bread, be sure to try Lemon Braided Bread with Blackberries. 

To find other versions of this bread, as well as step-by-step photos for braiding the bread, check out Katie's post at Thyme for Cooking. 

She is the Kitchen of the Month for the Bread Baking Babes. On her post, there are links for multiple versions of this bread from the rest of the Bread Baking Babes. I'm baking along as a buddy, and this is my take on this wonderful bread.

Caramelized Onion and Shallot Braided Bread with Gruyere Cheese and Herbes de Provence

Ingredients

Dough

455 grams (3 1/2 C) unbleached all purpose flour

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 C water

1/4 C milk

1/4 C vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

Filling and Topping

1 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced

6 large shallots, thinly sliced

1 tsp sugar

1 T herbes de Provence, plus more for sprinkling (mine is from The Spice House)

6 ounces grated Gruyere cheese, plus another ounce for sprinkling

1 T Dijon mustard

1 egg, beaten with 1 T water

Instructions

1. Whisk the dry ingredients of the bread in the bowl of a stand mixer. 
2. Whisk the water, milk, eggs, and egg whites together in a bowl and add to the dry ingredients. 
3. Mix with the dough hook for about 10 minutes on medium low speed.
4. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled, about an hour.
5. While the dough is rising, prepare the onion filling. In a 12 inch skillet, melt the butter and olive oil. 
6. Add the onions, shallots, and sugar, and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the herbs and continue to cook, stirring regularly, for about 20 minutes more, until caramelized.
7. When the dough has doubled, place it on a piece of baking sheet sized piece of parchment paper. 
8. Roll it out to a 12 inch by 11 inch rectangle.
9. Spread the mustard lengthwise in the middle of the dough into a 3 inch line.
10. Spread the onion mixture over the mustard. 
11. Sprinkle the 6 ounces of cheese over the onion mixture. 
12. Using a sharp knife, make diagonal 1 inch cuts on both sides of the stripe of onion and cheese mixture. 
13. Lift the parchment with the loaf onto a baking sheet. 
14. Fold the ends over the filling, and then fold the strips over the filling, alternating from both sides, so that the top of the dough looks like a braid. 
15. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
16. Cover the loaf loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 30 to 40 minutes. 
17. Brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash.
18. Sprinkle the center of the braid with about an ounce of grated Gruyere.
19. Sprinkle the top of the cheese lightly with herbes de Provence. 
20. Bake the loaf for about 45 minutes, until nicely browned and the center registers about 190 degrees F. 
21. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm, or cool completely and wrap in foil to serve later.

Inspired by Canadian Living

Sharing with Yeastspotting. 

Golden Raisin and Fennel Sourdough Pocket Bread

These Golden Raisin and Fennel Sourdough Pocket Breads may look like muffins, but they are are actual sourdough breads baked in a muffin tin.

Cinnamon Apple Twist Bread

This cinnamon apple twist bread has these things going for it:

1. It's beautiful.
2. It's delicious.
3. It's impressive.
4. It's easy.
5. Your friends will admire you. 

What more do you need?

The dough is rolled up like cinnamon rolls, but instead of slicing the rolled up dough cross wise like the rolls, the dough is sliced lengthwise, and then braided, cut side up, to create this gorgeous swirly bread.

These loaves would be perfect for breakfast or brunch. You could also leave off the glaze if you want something a bit less sweet. I think it would be awesome as a hostess gift with the glaze on the side.

The apple filling calls for Intant ClearJel, which is a thickener that is great to use with fruit pie fillings. I happened to have it on hand (of course I did, because you never know, right?). f you don't have it, you can use flour, corn starch, or tapioca.

Cinnamon Apple Twist Bread

Dough

13 ounces pastry blend flour (or a blend of 65% all purpose and 35% cake flour)

1 1/2 ounces potato flour or potato flakes

3 T sugar

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 T slightly softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 C milk

Filling

1/2 C sugar

3 T Instant ClearJel or flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 C peeled and grated apple (about two large crisp apples), I used Braeburn

1 T lemon juice

Glaze 

2 ounces powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp boiled cider (optional)

1 T apple juice

Instructions

Dough

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all of the dry ingredients with a whisk. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix for about a minute until the dry ingredients are wet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. 
3. Knead the dough with the dough hook for 10 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky, so add a bit of water if the dough is too dry. 
4. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and spray the top with spray oil. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 90 to 120 minutes.

Filling

1. Mix the cinnamon, ClearJel or flour, and sugar in a medium bowl. 
2. Mix the apples and lemon in a small bowl. Toss them with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
3. Cover and set aside.

Assemble the Loaves

1. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press it down gently to deflate it. 
2. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and roll each into 10 by 12 inch rectangles. 
3. Spread the filling over each piece and roll, starting with the 12 inch side, into logs. 
4. Cut each log in half lengthwise, and keeping the cut side up, twist the two pieces like a braid, and press the ends together and tuck them under (see the loaf above). Repeat with the second log. 
5. Place the twists onto a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until puffy and nearly doubled, about an hour or two. 
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about an hour before glazing. 
7. Using a fork, drizzle the bread with the glaze. 

This recipe was slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour and is the recipe that the bakers of the Avid Bakers Challenge are making for October. 

Sunny Side Up Apricot Pastries with Homemade Puff Pastry

I approached these Apricot Pastries with caution. I did not want to get my hopes up because this recipe involved making my own puff pastry.

Apple and Ham Pizza

This apple and ham pizza absolutely made my day.  The combination of the apple, ham, and Havarti cheese is the perfect combination of savory and sweet, and the apples hold up well during the hot bake.

We had this pizza for dinner with a salad, and I had the lone leftover piece for breakfast the next day. I immediately made it again. So good.

The crust for this pizza is really versatile and easy to work with. The dough is mixed a day in advance and magically rises overnight. The dough recipe yields five pizzas. You refrigerate the dough after shaping it into dough balls, and you can make pizza over two to three days. Woo hoo! I used the rest of the dough to work on my pizza skills, including baking pizza on the barbecue. It was awesome. (I'm pretty sure I drove my friends on Instagram crazy with all of the pizza posts).

The outer crust gets all airy and bubbly, and the pizza is crispy throughout.

Will I make this again? Oh yeah.

Apple and Ham Pizza

Overnight Pizza Dough

1000 grams (7 3/4 C) white flour

3 C water at 90 to 95 degrees F

20 g (1 T + 3/4 tsp) fine sea salt

.8 g (scant 1/4 tsp) instant yeast

1. Hydrate the yeast in a small amount of the measured and heated water in a small container. 
2. In a very large bowl or 12 quart dough rising bucket, combine the flour and the rest of the water. Mix by hand until all of the flour is wet, cover, and let rest for 30 minutes. 
3. Scatter the salt over the top of the dough, and add the yeast mixture. Wipe out the container with a piece of the dough to get all of the dissolved yeast. 
4. Mix the dough by hand by pinching it and folding it alternatively, until the salt and yeast is fully incorporated, about 3 to 5 minutes. 
5. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough twice during the first hour (once after 30 minutes, and once after 60 minutes). 
6. After the last fold, spray the top of the dough with spray oil, cover the dough, and let it rise for about 12 hours at room temperature. 
7. When the dough is ready, gently ease it onto a floured work surface. Cut it into 5 equal pieces, about 340 grams each. 
8. Shape the pieces into balls and place them onto a floured baking sheet. Spray the tops with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 3 days. 

Apple and Ham Pizza

1 T olive oil plus more for the baking sheet

1/2 thinly sliced red onion

1 T fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

1 pizza dough ball

8 ounces grated Havarti cheese

1 thinly sliced crisp apple, peel on (I used Honeycrisp, but Braeburn would be great too)

4 ounces thinly sliced ham

1. Place a pizza stone in the middle of your oven and preheat it to its highest temperature.
2. Rub 1 T olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Toss the red onion with the thyme, 1 T olive oil, and salt and pepper. 
4. Place the pizza dough onto a floured work surface and press it down to form a disk. Flip it over, and continue to press it to stretch the dough. Pick it up, and stretch it with your hands. 
5. Place it over your hands, and work it around with your knuckles to continue to stretch the dough. 
6. Place the dough onto the oiled baking sheet. Press it into the oil to stretch to to about a 10 inch round. Take the cheese, and press it into the dough. As you add the cheese, the dough should eventually stretch into a 12 inch round. 
7. Add the onion mixture, top with the apples and the ham. 
8. Place the baking sheet on top of the baking stone and bake for about 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and continue baking for about 15 to 20 minutes more, until the crust is golden brown. 

The pizza dough recipe was adapted from Ken Forkish's book, Flour, Salt, Water, Yeast. The book is amazing. Trust me. You can also find the recipe here. 

Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple | Wok Wednesdays

This Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple dish was created by a chef who grew up with the plain Chinese Hakka style cooking but later learned to love the more spicy and tropical Malaysian style of cuisine. The creator of this recipe, Mei Chau, grew up in Malaysia after her family emigrated from China. She was in charge of making meals for her siblings. While she cooked in the plain Hakka style, she learned to love the spicy Malaysian style food when the family would go out to eat. She eventually moved to New York, where she started her own restaurant, blending the flavors of China, Malaysia, and France.

This dish is another amazing illustration of the Chinese diaspora from Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge.

The most difficult part of this recipe for this western girl was figuring out what squid to buy. I hit a Korean market first, and saw an amazing array of squid... huge squids... way bigger than called for in the recipe. I was ready to hit my Chinese market, but then decided to stop by a local fish restaurant that has an attached fish market. The price might have been higher, but they cleaned it, chopped it, and answered all of my questions.

The ingredients for this dish include squid, garlic, shallots, pineapple, tomatoes, hot sauce, sugar, salt, and scallions. That's it!

The recipe calls for just 8 ounces of squid, because more than that would cause it to create too much liquid and create a braise. I placed the pieces of squid between paper towels and refrigerated them to make sure they were dry enough for the stir-fry.

The other question mark is the hot sauce. Mei Chau likes to use Lingham's Chilli Sauce, which was not readily available to me. The book suggests Tabasco and sugar as a substitute. I subbed Sriracha sauce and was really happy with the results.

I am participating in Wok Wednesdays. We are stir-frying our way through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young. As participants, we don't post the recipe, but encourage you to get the book and support the author. It's worth it. I promise.

Pain Cordon de Bourgogne

Pain Cordon de Bourgogne is quite magical. A couple of pieces of the dough are twisted together, placed in the bottom of the banneton or brotform, and the shaped loaf is place on top of it. After the loaf is inverted and placed in the oven, the twisted dough "cordon" (cord) creates a natural place for the bread to split open without the need for slashing.