Onion Stuffed Sheet Bread
It's onion time again.
Monday is once again Bern's famous Zibelemärit, or onion market. Farmers from all over Switzerland come and sell their oniony wares. So what better time than to make this delicious onion stuffed sheet bread.
The recipe comes from this small leaflet Sam picked up at the Coop.
Basically you make bread dough, fill it with caramelized onions and cheese, then bake it until everything is melted and gooey inside and chewy on the outside. It is delicious. The photos do not do it justice.
Bread
500 g flour
1 tsp salt
300 ml water, lukewarm
1 tsp sugar
20 g fresh yeast / 7 g dried yeast
Whisk together the flour and salt.
Whisk together the water, sugar, and yeast in a measuring cup.
If you are using a stand mixer with a dough hook, begin to mix the flour and pour in the water. Mix until you have a smooth uniform dough, about 15 minutes, adding a little more flour or water as necessary.
If you are mixing by hand, dump the flour onto your work surface and make a well in the middle, add the water to the well slowly, while mixing with your hands, until a dough forms. Knead this dough by hand until it is smooth and uniform, about 20-30 minutes.
Once the dough is mixed, let rise until doubled, about one to one and a half hours.
Onion Filling
knob of butter
300 g onions, sliced into rings or rainbows
splash balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
pinch salt
Melt a knob of butter over medium heat. When it starts to sizzle, add the onions.
Cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the onions are translucent, then add the sugar, vinegar, and pinch of salt.
Slightly turn up the heat, stay nearby, and keep stirring. If the onions start to stick to the bottom of the pan, lower the heat slightly and continue to stir. Keep cooking until all the liquid is dissolved and they turn dark and sticky, about 30 min.
Let cool.
Assembly and Baking
200 g hard cheese, grated
2 tbsp olive oil
handful rosemary, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Split the dough in two and roll out one half into a large rectangle, roughly the size of your baking sheet.
Place on baking sheet and cover with onions.
Top with grated cheese.
Roll out the second half of the dough and place on top.
Let rise for an additional ten minutes.
Using a sharp knife, cut about halfway into the top piece of dough to form 16 pieces. Do not cut all the way through the dough, this is just a guideline for cutting it once it has been baked.
Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top is brown and the cheese has melted.
If you don't have brown sugar, just use white.
Any kind of hard cheese will do—I used Gruyere, but any alp cheese, or even cheddar would work very well.
This could probably filled with innumerable things, just make sure you use cheese to hold the two layers together.
