The Caramelised Onion and Mature Cheddar Cheese Bloomer

Here is a bloomer, that I decided to flavour. Flavouring yeasted bread is pretty difficult because the flavourings can be too strong and freak out the yeast in funny ways, but this sort of worked – so happy days!

• 500g/1lb 2oz strong white flour, plus extra for kneading
• 10g/¼oz salt
• 1 x 7g sachet of instant yeast
• 320ml/11½oz cold water
• 40ml/2¾fl oz olive oil, plus extra for kneading
• extra oil and flour, for kneading

Sift flour in to a bowl and place yeast on one side and salt on the other. Get your dough hooks ready. Add the oil and 259mL of the water. (the extra water is there if you need it, but don’t feel obliged to use it!)

Using your dough hooks, knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. (I was advised that time for beginners!) I’m sure master bakers can get the right consistency in much less time!

Add some oil to the bowl and bring the dough together in to a smooth ball.

Read to prove.

Leave the dough to prove at room temperature, or a little above, for a couple hours or until it has tripled in size.

In the meantime prepare the flavours. I caramelized 2 onions in water and a tablespoon of brown sugar. I find onions are quite sweet themselves, so don’t need much extar sugar for caramelizing.

Roughly chop some extra mature cheddar cheese.

When the dough has tripled, grab it out of the bowl and  place the dough onto a floured surface. Knock the dough back by folding it in on itself repeatedly. Do this until all the air is knocked out and the dough is smooth.

Take the caramelized onions and pat dry, really dry, using kitchen towel. Too much moisture in the mix will not be nice and it’ll be difficult to incorporate the cheese and onions evenly then.

Then I rolled the dough out roughly and placed the flavours all over it.

Carefully and consistently mix the flavours in to the bread, making sure to evenly distribute them. Try to reform the bread in to a ballish shape to make the next step easier.

Shape the bread in to a long-ish oval. Leave to prove a second time, covering it in flour. The second proving should take another couple of hours until it has doubled in size.

Get a sharp knife (a sharper one than I used!) and cut several deep slices in to the surface of the dough, 2-3cm deep if possible.

Bake at 220 degrees celcius for 25 minutes (in a preheated oven). Then drop the heat to 200 degrees and continue baking for 15 minutes. Take out of oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Don’t cut in to it before it’s cooled. I was impatient the first time I made this. It needs the cooling time! It is worth the wait.

I seem to have lost a picture of the final product – it was eaten that fast! 😦 If I find one, I’ll pop it up!

Delicous Mozzarella and Smoked Ham Brioche-esque Couronne

Couronne I believe means crown and in this case just pertains to the shape of the loaf I have made. I was inspired by the well known baker from The Great British Bake Off – Paul Hollywood – and my recent surprise Thursday presents (these are just presents randomly given out on Thursdays):

I sieved 500g of strong white flour in to a large bowl and placed 10g of salt on one side of the bowl and 10g of fast action dried yeast on the other side of the bowl. I then warmed 200mL of milk and added to it 4 beaten eggs. I then chucked this warm milky-eggy mixture in to the yeast-flour-salt division bowl and got my hand held whisk with dough hooks going!

Dough hook galore until its very sticky and then slowly add 250g of butter in small chunks and keep dough-hooking for ~15minutes. This is taking the kneading away from you, although holding the whisk steady can be a pretty difficult task. The dough becomes a sort of wet-sticky-gluey consistency and that’s fine. 

Oil a tupperware container and pop the dough in it. Oil the lid as well and pop it on and leave it to prove for at least an hour. Quickly prep the fillings by tearing up some mozzarella (3 balls) and ~20 slices of parma ham (I used a cheaper smoked german ham – just as smokey and salty and delicious!)

After the hour is up, don’t knock back the dough, but just roll it out on a well floured surface in to a long rectangle.

Place your fillings on the top, I added some basil here for an extra something and roll the rectangle up, keeping the fillings nicely packed between layers of dough.

Cut the whole roll in half, down the middle. Then with the two open halved sections twist them around eachother, attach the end and it should form a nice ring.

Place on a baking tray and allow to prove for anything up to 2 hours (wrap the whole baking tray in a large plastic bag.

Paint with a beaten egg before you bake in a preheated oven (200 degrees celcius) for ~25 minutes. Although I left mine in for an extra five at the end.

Cut when warm for some nice oozing mozzarella or serve cold as well.