Einkorn Bread Stuffed with Caramelized Onions, Herbs & Cheese

This Einkorn Bread Stuffed with Caramelized Onions, Herbs & Cheese tastes and smells heavenly. The caramelized onions impart a sweet flavor.

It’s been a while since I’ve baked with Einkorn. When I experimented with a couple of breads recently, they didn’t turn out so I put the flour aside and started working with different types of flour.

I didn’t want to forget the lessons I learned in Tuscany about using Einkorn so I got it back out and used it to make this Caramelized Onion, Herbs, and Cheese Braid.

Einkorn is weaker than bread flour so the shaping of the braid is not as tight or defined as you might get with white flour. Plus, the fact that I kind of goofed when I overlapped the braids didn’t help matters. Even so, I’m very pleased with the way it turned out and that it turned out at all.  The flavor and texture are wonderful.

This mock braided bread is the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes (or BBBs). Katie, of Thyme for Cooking chose this one. I knew it was going to be good when I looked at the ingredients in the filling: Dijon mustard, rosemary, sugar, asiago cheese, and red onions.  Divine!

My kitchen smelled heavenly while I was sautéing the caramelized onions. I love the smell of rosemary and when you combine it with sugar and red onions, it imparts a delicious and sweet aroma. I could’ve eaten the cooked onions without putting them in the bread, they were that good. I did test them, but I refrained from devouring them before the dough was ready.

I liked this bread.  The flavor of the onions and the bread is wonderful. My taste tester liked it as well.

Einkorn Bread Stuffed with Caramelized Onions, Herbs & Cheese

Total time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/8 cup milk
• 2-3 T olive oil, plus additional for greasing bowl *
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups AP Einkorn flour, plus add’l for sprinkling*
• 1 cup wholegrain Einkorn pastry flour *
• 3/4 tsp.  salt
• 1 –2 tsp. Herbes de Provence

* If you use regular all-purpose flour, you probably won’t need as much flour. When baking with Einkorn, you either need to decrease the amount of water or increase the flour.  I increased the amount of flour and reduced the amount of oil used. 

Filling:

• 1 1/2 tsp. butter
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 medium red onions, chopped (~ 1 3/4 cups)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, or to taste
• 1 tbsp. Dijon-style mustard, or to taste
• 1 1/2 cups shredded asiago cheese
• 1 large egg white, beaten

Instructions:

Dough:

• In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in water.
• Sprinkle in yeast; let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy.
• Whisk in milk, egg, egg yolk, oil, Herbs and salt.
• Add the Einkorn pastry flour and half of the all-purpose Einkorn flour and stir to make a soft dough.
• Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead for 5-10 minutes, adding enough of the remaining flour to make the dough smooth and elastic.
• Place in oiled bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm draft-free place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Filling:

• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat butter with oil over medium heat.
• Add onions and sugar and cook until tender.
• Reduce heat, add rosemary and continue to cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes longer.
• Let cool to room temperature.

To shape:

• Grease baking sheet or line with parchment paper; punch down dough.
• Turn out onto lightly floured surface.
• Roll out into 12- x 11-inch (30 x 27 cm) rectangle.
• Transfer to prepared pan.
• Spread mustard lengthwise in 3-inch (8 cm) strip down center of rectangle.
• Top with onion mixture.
• Sprinkle with 3/4 of the cheese.
• Using sharp knife and starting at 1 corner of dough, make diagonal cuts 1 inch apart almost to filling to form strips along 1 long side of dough. Repeat on other side, cutting diagonal strips in opposite direction.
• Alternating strips from each side, fold strips over filling to resemble braid, overlapping ends by 1 inch and brushing with some of the egg (or egg white) to seal.
• Cover with towel; let rise in warm place for 30 to 40 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

My overlapping strips were longer than they needed to be because the Einkorn was soft and stretchy which made it a bit tricky to work with.  I’m glad I used Einkorn because the flavor of the bread is great!

To bake:

• Brush top with egg (or egg white).**
• Bake in center of 350°F (180°C) oven for 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.
• Sprinkle remaining cheese down center of braid; return to oven for 5 minutes.
• Serve warm or let cool completely on rack. (Make-ahead: Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day; rewarm in oven before serving.).

** I didn’t want to waste the leftover egg white so I used it instead of getting another egg. If you want a darker crust, feel free to use a whole egg for the egg wash.

 

 

Check out the breads from the other creative Babes:

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day – Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth
• Bread Experience – Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms – Pat/Elle
• girlichef – Heather
• Life’s a Feast – Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies – Natashya
• Lucullian Delights – Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien – Lien
• Thyme for Cooking – Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Here’s how:

Make the Caramelized, Onion & Cheese Stuffed Bread, then email your link to Katie, the kitchen of the month (or email your photo and a bit about your experience if you don’t have a blog).  Refer to Katie’s post for the details.  Once you’ve posted, you’ll receive a Buddy badge for baking along, then watch for a roundup of all of the BBBuddies posts a few days after the close of submissions.

I hope you’ll join us this month!

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy