Smoked Cheddar & Queso Cheese Sourdough with Onions

I was reading someone elses post the other day and they commented that they were using a smoked flour for their next bake.  I love just about anything smoked...ribs, brisket, chicken...you name it as far as I'm concerned it tastes better after smoking with some wood.  Unfortunately the flour in question is only available in England and Amazon UK will not ship to the USA, so I figured the next best thing would be to add some smoked cheese to my next bake.  I did not know when I bought this smoked cheddar at the local Shoprite that it would be so good.  I could have eaten the whole block just by itself!  Anyway, I managed to save enough to add to the bread dough along with some Queso mexican cheese I had used in my last corn sourdough (unfortunately this one ended up as bird food due to its refusal to rise properly and my changing of its schedule).

I had a request from someone at work to add some carmelized onions and if you have read my blog you know you don't need to ask me twice to use onions in a bread.  I used my new shipment of flour from KAF including my favorite European Flour, Durum Flour and for some nutty flavor I added some wheat germ and cracked wheat.  I also added some potato flour for good measure along with my AP 65% hydration starter.

Starter

71 grams Seed (Mine is 65% AP Flour Starter)

227 grams AP Flour

151 grams Water (85 - 90 degrees F.)

Mix seed with water to break up for a few seconds and then mix in flour until the starter form a smooth dough consistency.  Put it in a lightly oiled bowl and loosely cover and leave at room temperature for at least 10 hours.  The starter should double in volume.  Put the starter in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 days or use it immediately.

Main Dough

Ingredients

425 grams Starter from above (all of the starter)

290 grams European Style Flour (KAF...you can substitute bread or AP flour or a combination of the two)

150 grams Durum Flour (make sure not to use Fancy Semolina as it is too gritty)

25 grams Potato Flour

40 grams Wheat Germ

40 grams Cracked Wheat

78 grams Carmelized Onions

60 grams Queso Cheese

40 grams Smoked Cheddar

8 grams Olive Oil

400 grams Water (85 - 90 degrees F.)

18 grams Sea Salt (or table salt)

Total Hydration (I included Wheat Germ and Cracked Wheat as flour which is not necessarily correct, but that's what I like to do): 71%

Procedure

On baking day, cut a medium size sweet onion into thin rings and sweat the onion in a frying pan with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil for 5 minutes or so until they are nice and soft and you have drawn most of the moisture out.  Set them aside in a bowl to cool to room temperature.

Next, mix  the flours, wheat germ and cracked wheat together with all the water except for 50 grams and let them autolyes for 30 minutes up to an hour.    Next add the levain, oil and the water with the salt and mixed on speed #1 for 2 minutes.  Now add the onions and mix for another 2 minutes until they are well incorporated.  Lastly add the cheese and mix for an additional  minute.  Remove the dough from your mixing bowl to your work surface.  If necessary you can lightly oil or flour your surface, but I didn't need to do this.  I then did a stretch and fold, rested the dough uncovered for 10 minutes.  I then did another stretch and fold, covered the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Repeat this S & F procedure one more time and let it rest another 10 minutes.  Do one last S & F  and put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl for 2 hours.  I then put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day when I returned from work I removed the dough from the refrigerator and  I let the dough sit out at room temperature for 2 hours.  After 2 hours I formed it into loaves and put them in floured bannetons and let them rise covered for 2 hours.  Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

I then baked on my oven stone with steam at 450 degrees until both loaves were golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 - 210 degrees F.

The loaves were oozing cheese and the whole house smelled like a grilled cheese sandwich....that's not a bad thing by the way!

The crust was perfect with a nice bloom and oozing cheese and the crumb wasn't too shabby either.  I think the combination of onions, cheese, and flours make this one a keeper.

This bread has been submitted to Yeast Spotting here at http://www.wildyeastblog.com/