This is pretty-much an invented recipe, brought about after various conversations, over pints of beer, with a friend who has worked as a baker. Developed over a few years it has hopefully been refined into something, which should come out of the oven each time in a fairly predictable, and repeatable way. A basic white bread dough is enriched and flavoured with oil, diced fresh onion and poppy seeds, plus dried herbs (oregano works well and is given in this recipe), to produce a very tasty, rich, filling bread, with a slight nutty flavour and which holds its moisture and freshness for a reasonable amount of time. As the flavour of the bread is mainly determined by the onion, poppy seed and dried herbs, it does not require more complicated techniques for increasing flavour, as some recipes, such as baguettes may require.

It works well as a sandwich bread, for strong flavoured fillings, especially mature cheeses like cheddar, and is equally delicious toasted with as much butter as one can safely deem acceptable. It also makes rather tasty and filling cheese on toast, toasted cheese or grilled sandwichs, and is an ideal bread for using to soak up soups, stews or anything else one has to hand.

As with all bread recipes, the timings, quantities of liquids, are estimates, ambient temperature, humidity etc., can affect both the amount of time it takes to rise, and also how much total liquid the recipe needs. Similarly the amount of water contained in the onion can vary and this can affect the overall hydration of the dough. All domestic ovens vary, but do ensure the oven has plenty of time to reach temperature before the bread goes in; This allows for a good oven spring; the period of increased yeast activity in the dough/loaf, brought about by the high oven temperature, which lasts until the yeast is killed in the oven's heat.

Makes one large (approx 800 Gram), or two smaller (400 Gram/1 LB) loafs. It is best cooked in a bread tin, which in terms of domestically commercially available tins, seem to vary widely in their sizing. I cook this in a tin which was advertised as being a '2KG split loaf tin'. With this quantity of dough, even when fully risen/cooked, the loaf only just about reaches the top of the sides of the tin. However, having tried the recipe to produce a higher quantity of dough, this actually produces less favourable results, as it is difficult to maintain an even consistency and texture to such a large loaf, in a domestic cooking situation

Ingredients

• 
  800 Grams strong Bread Flour
  
• 
  420 Grams Semi Skimmed Milk
  
• 
  one medium to large onion, diced finely and evenly
  
• 
  32 Grams Olive Oil
  
• 
  12 to 15 Grams Salt
  
• 
  3.5 to 4 Teaspoons dried active yeast
  
• 
  2.5 teaspoons poppy seed
  
• 
  2 teaspoons honey
  
• 
  1 teaspoon sugar
  

Method

• 
  measure out olive oil and milk, into a microwavable jug, heat to approx body temperature (37 to 40 degrees Celsius)
  
• 
  dissolve the sugar and honey into the oil/milk mix, then add the yeast and mix well
  
• 
  Leave the yeast to activate (10 to 20 minutes), and weigh out the other ingredients ready
  
• 
  mix the flour and yeast/milk/oil/sugar/honey solution, until it comes together then knead for five minutes
  
• 
  Leave the mixed, part kneaded dough in a large bowl, to autolyse for 3p to 45 minutes
  
• 
  Turn the autolysed dough out onto a clean worktop, and add the remaining ingredients (diced onion, poppy seed, herbs, etc)
  
• 
  start kneading the dough, and incorporating the onion etc., into the dough, once fully incorporated, then knead for ten minutes
  
• 
  Place dough into the bowl, and leave to rise for 45 minutes or so, until roughly doubled in size
  
• 
  turn dough out onto worktop, and briefly knead the dough, to even out the texture, and shape into a 'ball'
  
• 
  gradually roll, pull and shape the ball of dough out, into a long rectangle of a suitable size to fill the bread tin
  
• 
  Place in bread tin, and let rise for 45 minutes or until the dough is almost at the top of the tin
  
• 
  Immediately prior to baking, spray the surface of the loaf with water (or 'paint' with milk), add poppy seeds to the top, and then slice a line, down the long length of the loaf in the middle
  
• 
  Bake in a preheated hot oven, at between 190 and 220 degrees, for approximately 45 minutes
  
• 
  Turn out loaf, an dif required, return to oven, on a tray, to ensure the sides and base are fully cooked
  
• 
  If doing one large loaf, this will take upwards of over forty minutes to cool sufficiently to slice it, without risk of the loaf falling to pieces as you do so
  

Should inspiration run dry, now the loaf is cooked, and safely cooled on the cooling rack, it might be wise to make a soup to eat the bread with, leek and Stilton works particularly well. You will need an electric blender, of a suitable type/size, for blending this particular soup; aming for a fairly smooth consistancy, but with some texture from the vegetables, and then the teacture and flavour from the Stilton cheese itself, added after the cooking and blending of the vegetable quotient of the soup.

leek and Stilton soup

ingredients

• 
  1 leek, sliced and cleaned
  
• 
  one small onion diced
  
• 
  one medium potato washed peeled and diced
  
• 
  Vegetable stock (about a pint and half))
  
• 
  Stilton cheese (how ever much you like or dare)
  
• 
  2 or so cloves of garlic, chopped fine
  
• 
  butter
  
• 
  A few bits of fresh herbs, dried herbs, a bay leaf, or whatever else takes ones fancy
  

method

• 
  fry leek, onion and garlic in butter for ten minutes on low
  
• 
  add any herbs, the diced potato, garlic, some fresh ground black pepper, and stir, cooking for a minute or two
  
• 
  Throw in the stock, and simmer for about half an hour
  
• 
  take off the heat, and blend to desired consistancy, not totally smooth, then crumble in plenty of Stilton
  
• 
  Return to the heat, just long enough to melt the Stilton a bit, so it forms nice globules of cheese larva inside the cradle of the soups vegetable goodness
  

One word of warning, if you've done both the soup, and the bread, your probably now really very full up, and not feeling in the mood for doing the washing up