Onion-poppyseed Bread

The past few weeks have been crazy for Mr. Bread Maiden and myself, going on a weeklong trip and then having visiting relatives. Our fridge has been empty and we have not had the time to prepare anything for lunches. I am just now beginning to make our daily bread to eat for breakfast, but using sourdough starter and the no-knead method adds an extra two days above baking the thing. Ugh!

I am a subscriber on The Fresh Loaf, and it's fun to watch different recipes and methods become "trendy" as people try to make them and add their observations and advice. One that's been popping up lately is this onion-poppyseed bread. I would probably have never come up with this combination myself, but it's really good! The raw union provides wonderful light sweetness as do the poppyseeds, which I've only really seen used in sweeter breads like lemon-poppyseed.

This was the first recipe I made when we came home from our trip because I wanted something delicious and fast! Anyway, my additions to this recipe were: use a medium-sized onion, and one more teaspoon of poppyseeds. Also, I put the loaf in a breadpan instead of baking it freeform.

* 1 small onion, finely chopped
* 2 tsp vegetable oil
* 2/3 cup warm water
* 1 tsp sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast
* 2 tsp poppy seeds
* 1-1/2 cups bread flour
* 1 egg white
* poppy seeds

1. Dissolve yeast in the water. Combine yeast mixture with oil, sugar, salt, yeast, and 3 tsp poppyseeds.



2. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time until a good consistency. Knead as best you can, although with all the onions I added, it was very mushy and unmanageable which is why I decided to use a breadpan.



3. Let rise once in an oiled bowl covered with seran wrap and then again in the buttered breadpan.



4. Preheat oven to 350 and allow pizza stone to heat up.

5. Gently whisk egg white and then brush onto the top of the bread. Sprinkle top with poppyseeds.



6. Place breadpan carefully onto the pizza stone. Bake for 40 minutes or until inside is about 200 degrees.

7. Remove loaf from pan and let cool before slicing. You will want to do this because the bread is very soft and crumbly at first and will fall apart easily.



I think I WAY over-greased the pan because the bread came out really oily.



But so delicious!