Blooming Onion Bread

Everyone has seen this bread somewhere before, I'm pretty sure.


Unless you live under a rock.


Or don't have Pinterest.


In that case, I'm so glad I get to introduce you to the awesomeness of Blooming Onion Bread!



I made my first loaf last year, and was so in love with it that I made it two more times that weekend.

It's not calorie friendly like that. Just FYI.

So make sure you have helpers to eat it with you.



It is literally one of the simplest and yummiest things to make.

Here is what you need:

One round loaf of "artisan" bread
(I got mine from Publix in the bakery section, but if you are ambitious and want to make your own bread too, here is an awesome recipe from Lick the Bowl Good, just omit the everything seasoning. Or keep it. It'll probably taste fantastic! I may need to try that next time...)

Cheese! You need about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of your favorite cheese. My recommendations are Monteray and Provolone.
Note: a block of cheese that you can slice and cut into little hunks, is significantly easier than the shredded kind.

Scallions. 3 whole scallions if you want it "oniony". Just 1 scallion if you want it more on the subtle side. Personally I go for 3.

Butter! You will need one stick of butter. You may not use it all, so don't panic at a whole stick. But you want to have it handy and prepped just in case.

Aluminum foil.

A cookie sheet.

An oven.

Ta da! You are now ready to assemble!

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

First, cut your bread up. You want to slice it across in thick slices - maybe around 2 inches thick (we are not going for sandwich slices here!). It's very important to note, do not slice all the way through the crust! You want to leave the bottom intact. So don't cut all the way through to the bottom.

Then do the same thing going across the other way on the bread. Use your hand to try and hold the bread together as if you hadn't just cut it the other way. But don't cut your hand! This is a little trickier. Some pieces of the bread may tear. That's ok. Just stuff em back in where they belong and keep going.

Put the bread on a piece of aluminum foil that is long enough that it will wrap up over the top of the bread and cover it.

Go ahead and test to make sure it covers it now.
Covered?
Good.
Now uncover it.

Move the aluminum foil and bread onto a cookie sheet (much easier to do it now than later).

Next, you want to melt your butter in a small bowl or dish. I just microwaved mine for about 30 seconds and we were good to go.

Slice up your scallions. Dump them into the butter. Let that soak while you do the cheese.

Slice up your cheese to use. You should have lots of bread "sticks" now out of your bread, just stuff the cheese around each "stick" trying to get the cheese as close to the crust as you can!

(this is where I learned that sliced cheese = better than shredded cheese) 

Then drizzle your scallion butter mix over the whole thing.

Wrap the foil up over your bread again to cover it.

(I did not check that my foil covered it first. Don't be like me.) 

Stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Pull it out and uncover just the top of it. Stick it back in the oven for another 5 minutes so the cheese on top browns just a little.

Remove from oven. Try not to burn your hands while eating it.

Yum!
Hopefully you like it as much as I do!

P.S. This is my first "scheduled" post!
Note: which didn't actually post when it was scheduled. Guess I still have to figure that out!