This one is from Laurence Simon. So finally you have a recipe that you can follow at home without purchasing a book from Amazon.
I followed Simon’s recipe more closely than I have any other recipe recently, even making several special trips to find date sugar. Sprouts didn’t have it. The Gateway Whole Foods didn’t have it. HEB, of course, doesn’t have it, even at Central Market.
(As a side note, I think the downtown Austin Whole Foods is the best place to go if you’re looking for unusual stuff. I griped previously about getting powdered goat’s milk; actually, both Sprouts and Whole Foods have it in large cans
Anyway, the only significant variation was that I used shredded Gruyère instead of Swiss or Emmenthaler. That’s what I had on hand, and I think that’s more traditional for French Onion soup. (Also, my machine
How did it come out? I’m going to put the rest of this behind a jump; those who are bored with my bread blogging are cordially invited to skip to the next post, or for that matter the previous post. If you don’t like this one, just wait; there will be another one coming along shortly.
Overall, pretty well shaped, and a nice even bottom portion.
The top crust is still a little rough, but I think it is an improvement over the last bread. I’m starting to think that you’re just not going to get a smooth even top crust baking in a machine; at some point, I may try using the machine for all but the final baking cycle, and doing the actual baking in an oven.
In terms of texture, there’s nothing wrong with it; smooth and even, no big holes or gaps.
How does it taste? Okay. I was expecting a much stronger French Onion taste and smell, something that tasted more like the Lipton that went into it. If I gave a slice of this bread to someone and didn’t tell them what it was, I’m not sure they would be able to tell it was an onion bread. It isn’t a bad bread; I like this recipe, but I was expecting a more aggressive taste than I got.
I’d give this a B+, “would make again”. When I do make it again, though, I’m thinking I might replace the green onions in this recipe with a couple of cups of caramelized onions to see if that makes a taste difference.
Next bread in the hopper is Sourdough Chervè Bread from Brody. I think I’m going to try to alternate Brody/Apter and Simon recipes, so next up after that will be a Simon recipe, maybe Shiner Bock Cheddar.