Bloomin’ Onion Bread and Dinner for 8

My monthly Dinner for 8 group got together this past weekend and of course, my contribution was bread. I asked the hostess what type of bread she wanted me to bring, and she said “anything with cheese in it.”

When she said cheese, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I had seen some Bloomin’ Onion Bread a few weeks ago and thought it was the neatest thing. I was just waiting for the opportunity to make it. This was it!

The hostess set such a beautiful table and put the bread right in the middle. We ate it with our fingers. This was a pretty casual group, but I think the next time I make this bread, I’ll cut it differently so the pieces are a little bit easier to pull off.

I used this Classic Sourdough Bread to make the Bloomin’ Onion Bread. You can use store bought sourdough bread if you must, but that takes some of the fun out of it if you ask me. Plus, this is a blog about bread so using store bought bread just wouldn’t do.

A funny thing happened along the way …

On Saturday, the day of the event, everything was going along just fine. The dough needed to proof for several hours in the proofing basket so I ran a few errands and got some pine straw to put down in my backyard.

That’s when the fun began. I have a husky-mix dog named Charlie that likes to help me with the yard work. At least I think that’s what he thinks he’s doing. He probably thinks it’s time to play. Anyway, the dough was still proofing so I threw a couple of bales of the pine straw over the back fence. Charlie got excited and grabbed one of the bales by the twine and ran off with it. Yes, he is that strong!  He shook it until all the pine straw was loose. Charlie had seen me remove the twine from the bales before so I guess that’s what he was doing. He’s really smart. Too smart for my own good I always say.

This is Charlie … he had me at hello!

While Charlie was running around the back yard with the pine straw, I was hollering at him to put it down, but to no avail. So I ran in the backyard to save the pine straw and my sanity. I started picking up the pine straw that was strewn all over the yard. I picked up some from under the deck and turned around to take it over to where I wanted to use it. About that time, I ran smack dab into the side of the deck. It almost knocked me out. I didn’t know what hit me, but man it hurt. I managed to finish what I was doing then went inside to get some ice. I was sure I was going to have a black eye.  I ended up with a nice welt under my left eyebrow, but no black eye. Thank goodness.

Although my head and my eye were pretty sore, I was able to finish the bread and make it to the dinner party.  The bruise is hidden under my bangs so if I hadn’t shared my story, no one would even know, but now everyone knows.

 

Bloomin’ Onion Bread

I got the idea for this bread from Christy from The Girl Who Ate Everything, who got the idea from Anne from The Changing Table and she told 2 friends and she told 2 more friends and so on and so forth. No, I have not totally lost my mind, but if you don’t know what I’m talking about or haven’t seen that commercial, then all I can say is that you had to be there…

Makes: 1 Large Loaf

Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything and The Changing Table

Ingredients:

• 1 unsliced loaf sourdough bread
• 12-16 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup finely diced green onion
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bread lengthwise and widthwise without cutting through the bottom crust. This can be a little tricky going the second way but the bread is very forgiving.

Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Insert cheese slices between cuts. I only had about 8 oz of cheese.  It probably could’ve used more.

Combine butter, onion, and poppy seeds. Drizzle over bread.

Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Unwrap the bread and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

The dinner party was a lot of fun and the Bloomin’ Onion Bread turned out to be a big hit! We enjoyed it with different kinds of soup. We topped off the evening with a game and some delicious cake. Yum!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the weekly roundup.

 

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy