Cheese & Onion loaf

This recipe transforms a very simple white-bread recipe - suitable even for a novice baker - into something more savoury and impressive. You can use any pairing of cheese and onion but Elisabeth reccomends a creamy, mild, salty blue cheese.

For the onions

1 large onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp oil
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, water or white wine

For the bread

500g stoneground strong white bread flour, preferably organic
7g fast yeast or 10g fresh yeast
320g warm water
10g salt
30g fat (olive, sunflower or rapeseed oil, or melted hard fat such as butter or lard)
100g mild blue cheese, crumbled

Method

1.  Begin by caramelising your onion. Fry it on a low-medium heat in the oil, adding the salt and sugar and stirring through. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 5-8 minutes, until browned, soft, sticky and sweet.
2.  Remove to a plate to cool, and then deglaze the pan with vinegar, water or white wine for a minute, pouring any juices and scraps of onion on to the plate.
3.  Put the flour in a large bowl, and then add all the other ingredients except the cheese and onion. Mix until the ingredients come together and then tip on to an unfloured work surface.
4. Knead for 8 minutes, stretching the dough and gathering it back, then add the cheese and onions and knead for 2 minutes to mix. Put back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm. Shower caps are ideal (and free in hotel rooms!). Leave aside for an hour.
5.  Line a 25cm x 13cm deep baking tin with butter. Lightly flour your work surface and then tip the dough on to it. Using your fingertips, shape the dough into a rectangle the same length as the tin, pushing about half the air out of the risen dough as you do this. Roll the dough into a sausage shape, then place in the tin. Cover for another 45 mins. Heat the oven to its hottest setting: 230-240C/450 475F.
6.  After 45 mins, use a sharp knife to slash a line in the top of the loaf, spray it with a few splashes of water and place in oven. After 10 minutes turn the oven down to 220C/425F and bake for another 20 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.