Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche

You know that fall is approaching when you start baking. Lately the temperature in Chicago was more baking-friendly so I thought it was time for another BBA Challenge dust-off here with a delicious Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche.

This is a protein-intense bread, surely because of the cheese overdrive content but worth making it again… annually. No, really I would make it more often but it requires attention and time. I really liked the asiago cheese in it because it gives an assertive taste, but you can simply substitute it for any other cheese from that same family (like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano).

Twists

The recipe in the book will make two hefty loaves, but it can be easily cut on half if you only want one loaf. I did a couple twists in the recipe procedure since I found a more logical preparation order like:

• on DAY 1 the sponge didn’t need overnight refrigeration since it bubbled intensely after 8 hours. Possibly because of the 80°F temperature in the kitchen.
• I found it not necessary to roast the onions on DAY 1 since you’ll need them on DAY 3 when you’re actually going to bake the bread. Do the roasting on DAY 3.
• make sure that you are using a huge bowl to rise the dough if you are making the full recipe. The dough will rise into a huge blob and will overtake your kitchen.
• covering the top of the bread with aluminum foil is imperative, otherwise expect to have charred cheese and onions on top.

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Day One

I started earlyin the morning making the SPONGE with my almost 3 year old sourdough starter. I still need to find a pet name for it… Any suggestions?? Left the sponge for 8 hours to bubble while I gathered fresh chives from our herb garden, and went shopping for Dell Albe asiago cheese. Asiago is an aged cheese with an assertive taste similar to Parmesan but with a  smooth texture depending on how long is aged (sometimes can be a good substitute for Parmesan). It is originally made in the Alpine town Asiago in Italy (in the Veneto region).

Since after 8 hours my sponge was happy and bubbly, I continued that same day with the dough prepping which in the book is listed under “Day 2”. I didn’t leave the sponge in the fridge overnight so I had enough time to take care of this the very same day!

No big science here. Just mixed the dough ingredients until they were evenly distributed and hydrated, gave it a 5 minute rest then added half of the grated cheese, the chives and scallions and the oil.

Knead the dough for about 5-7 minutes until it was smooth and tacky but non sticky and passed the window-pane test (see explanation in my Roll Your Kaiser post)

Placed the dough in a big oil coated bowl, wrapped it in plastic and left it to ferment and raise for about 3 hours. The dough temperature was something around 70°F.

Wrapped up the DAY 1 (late at night) by transferring the immense risen dough on to a well flour-dusted counter and dividing it gently in two. You don’t need to divide it if you made only half of the recipe. I paid extra attention on dividing and forming the dough into two large boules with as less degassing as possible. You don’t want to loose precious CO2 that contributes to those holes in your bread! I placed the two boules on two parchment paper lined sheet pans, mist with oil and had them both in a large plastic bag into the fridge over night.

This is the point where I went to bed at about 11:50 pm!!

Day Two

Ready for a fresh start, I commenced with roasting of the onion which in the book happens on DAY ONE. I didn’t see any reason why not have it roasted on the day of the baking, in my case DAY 2.  All went well except that the roasted onion smell, wasn’t welcomed by my other family members who were waking up to it.

The book calls for roasting the onions in a 500°F, but I wasn’t ready to cook everyone else in the house on a hot summer day so I opted to saute the onions in a heavy skillet for about 15 minutes until I had a nice caramelized golden color.

Removed the two sheet pans from the fridge, and let them proof on the counter for about 1-½ hour before baking them in the oven. They looked smooth and beautiful to me!

Next, I brushed the top of the boules with olive oil and made a couple dimples by pressing on top of the boules with my fingers all over the surface creating nice little pockets for the cheese and roasted onions to come.

The leftover grated asiago cheese followed, then finished with the roasted onions on top

Next, I transferred the loaves onto the baking pan including their parchment paper. I found parchment paper to help immensely for transferring from a pizza peel to a sheet pan for all the breads I am baking. No more sticking failures as I used to have before when only using cornmeal or semolina flour.

Into the 500°F oven they went on the baking stone, and with a steam pan with hot water (hearth baking). For the first 3 minutes I sprayed the oven walls with water at 30 second intervals. This helped the loaves to rise aggressively and form the nice crumb. After about 7 minutes I reduced the oven to 450°F and baked the two loaves for about 25 minutes and rotating them 180° once for even browning. As mentioned above in my notes, after I had a nice golden browning on the top of the breads, I covered them briefly with aluminum foil to protect the roasted onions and cheese from charring. Ended up leaving the breads in the oven for another 10 minutes (after I turned the oven off) until the internal temperature registered 200°F.

The two loaves ended up on a birthday party we had that weekend, and they we gone in the first half hour with people asking for more. Now I understand why they didn’t touch the barbecued baby back ribs we had as the main course. Gosh, should have thought about it, dang it!