The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Caramelized Onion, Maple Bread

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Caramelized Onion, Maple Bread

 If you love onions this one is for you.  I had some leftover caramelized onions that my wife had cooked up so I decided to incorporate them into my next bread.  I thought adding some maple syrup would give this a nice overall sweetness and some Greek yogurt was added to soften the crumb.

I used a combination of medium rye, fresh whole wheat and French style flour from KAF.

The final result was an over the top onion tasting bread with a little extra kick of sweetness from the maple syrup.  I was disappointed with the crumb as it was much tighter than it should have been, but it still tastes just fine :).

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Formula

Caramelized Maple Onion Bread (%)

Caramelized Maple Onion Bread (weights)

Download the BreadStorm File Here.

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Levain Directions

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 8-12 hours or until the starter is nice and bubbly.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours with the water, yogurt and maple syrup together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt and starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces) and mix on low for 5 minutes.  Add the onions and mix for an additional minute.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.  (If you have a proofer you can set it to 80 degrees and follow above steps but you should be finished in 1 hour to 1.5 hours).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock. (I use a proofer set to 78-79 degrees and it usually takes 1 hour for initial proof and 1 hour for final proof after shaping).

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 500 degrees and after another 3 minutes lower it to 450 degrees.  Bake for 25-35 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

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A few more garden photos.

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Comments

Yippee's picture
Yippee

How lovely your garden is!  So is your bread, of course! Onion and durum are almost the trademarks of your breads.  Is the onion flavor of this bread  more pronounced than your onion rolls?  Sometimes it's disappointing that the flavor of certain ingredients doesn't come through, despite our expectations, but obviously not this bread! Could you share why you're adding the onion in the levain?  Could you also share the names of your flowers, especially the large pink one?  Is that Japanese maple in the background?  You've got cute yard decors, last time the piggy, now the snail, very lovely.  Thank you for sharing!

Happy Baking

Yippee

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Thanks so much Yippee!

The onion flavor is much more pronounced in this one since I added quite a bit.  Also, by adding the onion in the levain it also makes it even more flavorful with onions.  Give it a try and I think you will see/taste what I mean.

The big pink flower is a a variety of Peony.  The second flower photo is a variety of Spurge I believe.  The third is a Transendia and the last is a perennial geranium plant.

We do like our lawn and garden ornaments.  I usually like to include a few with the flower photos.  We do have quite the collection :).

Thanks again for your kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed my post.

Regards,
Ian

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

A generous amount of onion - beautiful loaves, Ian. So, the maple added sweetness, but when I've tried it, the maple flavor hasn't come through. Did you have better luck with that?

Oh, I think the second flower may be a lupine. Beautiful, regardless.

Cathy

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Appreciate your kind words.

The maple definitely added some extra sweetness on this one since I added a healthy amount.  Normally you don't taste it very much and I can say if I didn't tell you it was maple you probably would never guess but the underlying flavor is present.

You may be right about the lupine.  I have another lupine that is growing inside my maple tree.  I have to check on this one since the flower is much different.  We have so many different plants it's hard to keep up.  I had started cataloguing them a while ago but never kept up with it.

Look forward to seeing what comes out of your oven next.

Regards,
Ian

Isand66's picture
Isand66

The second flower is actually called Baptista.

Regards

Ian

PalwithnoovenP's picture
PalwithnoovenP

Beautiful bread and I'm sure it tastes great too. What is french style flour? It's always in your breads. Oh I'm missing the potato flour too. I'm curious too how did the maple flavor came through?

Beautiful garden and flowers as always. I love Peonies, they always project a delicate but strong pristine beauty. Do you have any fruit trees?

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Thanks for your kind words.

French style flour is from King Arthur Flour and contains a certain Ashe content mimicking I believe type 65 or 55 flour used in baguettes in France.

The maple flavor was definitely noticeable in this one since it was such a high amount.

Im not in a tropical climate so I only have a small cherry tree which usually ends up feeding the birds :).

Glad you liked the garden and the bread.

Regards

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

know you had something to do with it :-)  Maple goes with all kinds if stuff you wouldn't think to combine.  My daughter won't eat breakfast sausage without it even if there isn't a pancake in site.  Great on fires too.

The loaf puffed itself up well enough so I don't know why the crumb isn't as open as you think it should be - bread can be weird when to comes to holes and I am always surprised every time we cut into a loaf. Thsi none sure looks tasty enough.

Love the garden - just beautiful.  Set records here the last 2 days in the 115 F range.  Can't wait for monsoon to get here - Jeeze!!

Happy baking Ian and Lucy says tp give those furry ones a rub down

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Glad you liked the bread DA.  Not sure why it was not so open but it tasted just fine.  Garden is doing well.  Hopefully veggies will do better than last year.

Give Lucy a big hug from me and the doggies.

Stay cool!

CAphyl's picture
CAphyl

Ian:  Looks so tasty.  The flavors sound wonderful--anything with Greek yogurt, maple syrup and  caramelized onions has got to be good.  Crust is superb as well. The flowers in your garden are so beautiful as well.  Thanks for sharing. All the best, Phyllis

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Thanks Phyllis for your kind words.  I hope to see a post on what you've been up to soon.

Regards,
Ian

Ru007's picture
Ru007

As fellow fan of onions, i really like the sound of this one :)

Your loaf looks lovely. The crumb looks very soft, almost spongey.

Very nice bake!

Ru

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Appreciate your comments.  The crumb was very soft especially from all of the onions and yogurt and it also made great garlic bread for some ravioli and sauce my wife made the other night.

Regards,
Ian

Reynard's picture
Reynard

That crumb looks fine :-) Mind, a closer crumb is my personal preference as it makes for neater butties.

What kind of cherries do you have, Ian? I'm assuming a red or black eating variety given that the birds are too rude to leave you any. After having experienced the same thing, I now only have bigarreaus and morellos. The former only get targeted when they're very ripe and the latter get ignored.

It's looking like a pants year for apricots and figs here. I don't seem to have any apricots at all and I have the grand total of one fig. Am not holding my breath... Apples, plums, cherries and damsons are looking pretty good though.

Hope you and the furries are well. The girls have taken upon themselves to decimate the local shrew population - I've had six in two days...

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Thanks Reynard.  This one did make some good sandwiches.  The cherry tree I have is actually a hybrid that self pollinates.  It has the dark red cherries and white cherries but they either rot or the birds get them and the tree is sick so will probably have to replace it.

Good luck with your fruit trees and hello from my group of furry ones!

Regards,
Ian