Onion Bread Recipe

This onion bread recipe creates a delicious sandwich bread with an amazing aroma! It is one of Bread Dad’s best-smelling… and tasting breads. Moreover, this is an easy onion bread to make because the bread loaf is made in a common 9 by 5 inch bread pan (and not in a Dutch oven or some kind of specialized pan).

Your family will love the taste of this onion bread… and you will love how you don’t need to buy expensive & semi-stale artisan bread from the supermarket! The recipe below shows you how to make the dough in your bread machine (or electric stand mixer), shape the dough by hand and then how to bake it in the oven.

Sliced Onion Bread

With this onion bread recipe, you will make the dough in your bread machine or electric stand mixer and bake the onion loaf in your oven. This recipe is an oven variation of Bread Dad’s popular Bread Machine Onion Bread.

Onion Bread in Bread Pan

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 Cups – Milk (warm) – 266 milliliters
• 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened) – 57 grams
• 3 1/2 Cups – Bread Flour – 420 grams
• 1 Tablespoon – White Granulated Sugar – 4 grams
• 1/3 Cup – Diced Onions (fried) – 46 grams – 1/3 cup of fried onions equals ROUGHLY 1 cup of raw diced onions (after sauteeing the diced onions in a little bit of oil).
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – 9 grams
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Instant Yeast (or Bread Machine Yeast) – 4.5 grams – Not active dry yeast.
• Optional – Right before baking the bread, brush an egg wash on the dough and sprinkle some dry onion flakes on the egg wash. See the tips section below for more information.

Servings – Roughly 18 Slices

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, cutting board, 9×5 metal bread pan, oven mitts, oven, wire cooling rack and a kneading machine to make the dough (either a bread machine or electric stand mixer with dough hook).

Diced & Fried Onions

Instructions

• Creating dough with bread machine
• Or Creating dough with electric stand mixer & dough hook
• Shaping dough & baking bread in oven

Instructions – Creating Dough with a Bread Machine

• Slice the onion into 1/4 inch “rings” and then dice the onion rings into 1/2 inch chunks (see picture on this page). Fry the onion chunks with a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan on low/medium heat. Fry the onions until they have softened and turned slightly brown. FYI – Drain off any excess liquid & oil after frying the onions (as you do not want to throw off the liquid-to-dry ratio of the ingredients when adding the onions to the bread pan).
• Unplug your bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine.
• Pour the milk into the bread pan and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast (bread machine yeast) in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together by the bread machine). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the “Dough” setting on your bread machine and then press the “Start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished making the bread dough, unplug the bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan (with the dough) from the bread machine.
• Now go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”. FYI – Ignore the instructions for the electric stand mixer below if you are using a bread machine to make your dough. Skip down to the preparing dough & baking the bread section.

Instructions – Creating Dough with an Electric Stand Mixer with Dough Hook

• Slice the onion into 1/4 inch “rings” and then dice the onion rings into 1/2 inch chunks (see picture on this page). Fry the onion chunks with a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan on low/medium heat. Fry the onions until they have softened and turned slightly brown. FYI – Drain off any excess liquid & oil after frying the onions (as you do not want to throw off the liquid-to-dry ratio of the ingredients when adding the onions to the bread pan).
• Unplug your electric stand mixer.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer.
• Insert a dough hook into the electric mixer.
• Pour the milk into the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients. Place the instant yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). Some bakers like to make a small indent on top of the flour to prevent the yeast from spilling into the liquids or mixing with the salt before the machine is turned on.
• Place the mixing bowl back into the electric stand mixer.
• Plug in the electric mixer and use a low speed (i.e. setting 2) to mix the dough. Mix & knead the dough for 7-10 minutes.
• Turn off the electric mixer and unplug machine.
• Remove the mixing bowl from the electric mixer. Pour the dough into a second large mixing bowl that has been lightly “greased” with olive oil, melted butter, cooking spray, etc.
• Optional – Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes until it doubles roughly in size. See tips below for more information.
• After the dough has risen, go to the instruction section below on “preparing the dough & baking the bread”.

Instructions – Preparing the Dough & Baking the Bread

• Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto a large cutting board.
• Remove the dough from the bread pan or mixing bowl and place the dough on the cutting board.
• Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch high.
• Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”. FYI – Please see the short instructional videos in the tips section on how to shape the dough if you haven’t shaped bread dough before. It is easier to watch & learn from these short videos versus trying to explain the rolling technique step by step.
• Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
• Press down on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out towards the sides of the bread pan. This should result in little or no gaps between the dough and the bread pan. This helps the bread to turn into a nice loaf shape without any misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t much higher than the other).
• Optional – Lightly coat the top of dough with vegetable oil in order to prevent dough exterior from drying out.
• Loosely cover the top of the bread pan with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside for 60-90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 – 1.5 inches (2.5 – 3.8 cm) above the rim of the bread pan, the dough should be ready to be placed in the oven. FYI – You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. So don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while in the oven, you are more likely to see crust/seam cracks or “bursts” in the oven. In addition, the speed of the dough rise will vary in part based on the temperature of your kitchen (i.e. rise faster in the summer & slower in the winter).
• Preheat the oven to 350 F about 20 minutes before you plan to put the dough in the oven. FYI – I like to set my timer to go off 40 minutes after I place the dough in the bread pan. Given variability in the dough rising time, this can be a little early sometimes (but better to be a little early versus being late!).
• Optional – Before placing the bread pan in the oven, brush on an egg wash on top of the dough. Then sprinkle dry onion flakes on top of the egg wash in order to make a more “oniony” crust. FYI – The egg wash acts like a “glue” to hold the onion flakes.
• Place the bread pan in the (preheated) oven to bake at 350 F for 37-42 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot oven. Place the bread pan in the middle of the oven.
• Rotate the bread pan in the oven after 15-20 minutes (in order to ensure an even browning of the bread).
• After the 37-42 minute baking period has finished, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts.
• Remove the bread from bread pan and place the bread on a wire cooling rack. Wear oven mitts.
• Allow the bread to cool down on the wire cooling rack for 1-2 hours before cutting the bread.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common bread making problems.

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Helpful Tips

• The tips below are designed to help bread machine “novices” and those who haven’t touched their bread machine in years.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• As I stated at the top of the page, this recipe is an oven variation of Bread Dad’s popular Bread Machine Onion Bread.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Bread Recipes such as honey white bread, French bread and multigrain bread.

• You do not have to be super accurate with the fried onion measurement as the 1 cup of raw diced onions will shrink after frying. The raw onions come out roughly to around 1/3-1/2 of fried onions (after some of the moisture in the onions evaporates from the frying).
• Just make sure not to add extra liquid when adding the onions to the bread pan (such as the oil that you fried the onions with). You do not want to throw off the liquid-to-dry ratio in the recipe. Strain the fried onions or scoop them out with a slotted spoon or slotted spatula (spoons & spatulas with holes).
• Optional – If you like things extra oniony, you can add 1 tablespoon of onion powder to the recipe (when you are adding the dry ingredients to the bread pan).

• Visitors – What do you like to add to your onion bread to make it even better or special? Do you add extra onion powder? Onion flakes? Diced & fried garlic? Herbs? Please post your onion bread tips in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
• Optional – Right before placing the bread pan in the oven, you can brush an egg wash on the dough & sprinkle some dried onion flakes (minced onions) on top of the egg wash. This adds a nice crunch & onion flavor to the top of your bread. FYI – An egg wash often consists of one egg and one tablespoon of water being mixed together vigorously in order to create an edible “glue” for various toppings.
• Optional – If you want to add garlic to your onion bread, you should mince and FRY fresh garlic. The frying helps to eliminate the anti-microbial effect that garlic has on yeast (garlic can inhibit yeast growth). Do not use garlic powder because this is just dehydrated garlic and it has not been fried. Therefore, garlic powder can inhibit yeast growth and the bread may have trouble rising properly.
• As you know, onion bread is a bread with a fantastic aroma. If you want to make some other great-smelling breads, you might like to try my Olive Oil Rosemary Bread, Bread Machine Garlic Bread and Bread Machine Italian Herb Bread recipes.

Optional – Dried Onion Flakes (Minced Onions)

• If you are having problems shaping your dough, you should watch the “how to” instructional videos below. These are links to bread dough shaping videos on Youtube.
• King Arthur Baking
• San Diego Artisan Bread School
• Father Dominic – a slightly different method versus the videos above
• Don’t worry if you are a beginner and the bread top comes out a little lopsided. The bread will still taste great. It takes a little while for new bakers to learn how to shape a bread consistently. 
• If you like, you can knead the dough by hand. However, kneading dough by hand for 10-15 minutes is too much work for me!!! I prefer the bread machine or electric stand mixer to do the hard stuff.
• If you want to make this onion bread completely in your bread machine, you should use the Basic Bread, 2 lb Loaf and Light Color Crust settings. Just be aware that you can not add the egg wash & onion flake topping on a bread machine-only loaf.

• How do you know when the dough has risen enough in the second rise (when the dough is in the bread pan)? After letting the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (and when it is roughly 1-1.1.5 inches above the 9×5 bread pan), you can try the “poke test“. Poke your finger into the dough (going in about an inch). If the poke hole rebounds immediately, you need to allow more time for the dough to rise further (it is “under proofed”). If the hole doesn’t come back at all, the dough has risen too much (it is “over proofed”). If the hole slowly fills over 2-3 seconds, the dough is at the right stage of proofing.
• Unfortunately, the temperature of your kitchen can make the timing for this perfect poke result hard to predict (because there is a faster dough rise in hot kitchens and a slower rise in cold kitchens). Experience with “proofing” will make this easier (but it can be a problem for beginning bakers).
• FYI – If the dough is “under proofed” (hasn’t risen enough) when you place it in the oven, the bread is more likely to burst/crack when baked in the oven (as the still rising dough will push against the hardening crust and “burst” at the seams of the crust). Bakers try to get around this issue via testing for the right “proofing” level (i.e. use the poke test), “scoring” breads (slicing the top of the dough so the cracks occur where you want them), adding moisture inside the oven (so the dough doesn’t harden as quickly), using a Dutch oven (in order to trap the dough moisture inside the dutch oven container & not spread out into the oven), etc.
• Don’t overproof the dough (let it rise too long). This occasionally happens when someone forgets about the rising dough and comes back hours later to check. Overproofed dough leads to deflated dough as well as flat and/or sunken bread tops. According to Wikipedia, “Overproofing occurs when a fermenting dough has rested too long. Its bubbles have grown so large that they have popped and tunneled, and dough baked at this point would result in a bread with poor structure.”
• If your dough is “over proofed”, you might like to read the King Arthur Baking article “How to save over-proofed dough” as it gives tips on how to save the dough.
• For more information on dough proofing, please read this MasterClass article “Baking 101: What Is Proofing?“.

• Use FRESH ingredients (i.e. flour) for the best results. Ingredients that have been sitting in the pantry for months can become stale or pick up weird smells & flavors.
• Try to keep your ingredients (i.e. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life. Airtight containers also help to prevent ingredients (i.e. flour and sugar) from absorbing moisture from the air. This extra moisture can throw off recipes (as it can disrupt the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio in the recipe) and shorten an ingredient’s shelf life. They also help to prevent exposure to pests, dust, etc.
• Do not use cold milk because that will inhibit the growth of the yeast. If you use cold milk, your bread may have trouble rising properly. The milk should be lukewarm in temperature. Of course, you should not make the milk too hot because the bread yeast can be killed by high temperatures.
• This bread recipe uses instant yeast or bread machine yeast. It is not based on using active dry yeast.
• Nevertheless, you can also use active dry yeast to make this bread but the active dry yeast must be pre-activated first. This tip is geared towards bakers who are experienced with using active dry yeast.
• Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.

• Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough. You will need to raise the temperature of your kitchen (if you like a cold house in the winter) or find a warm spot for the dough to rise. I often put my dough (covered of course) next to a heating vent in the winter to make sure it is getting enough heat.
• Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen.
• Kitchen humidity can also impact a recipe. A winter kitchen tends to be drier due to your heating system drying out the air. In contrast, a kitchen in the summer can be much more humid. This change in humidity impacts baking as flour can soak up humidity from the air. Therefore, you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid in the winter if the dough is looking too dry. Or you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of flour in the summer if the dough is looking too wet. If your kitchen is very dry or humid, you might have to add even a little more (but start with 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve the right consistency).
• Of course, excessive kitchen humidity or dryness can impact a recipe at any time during the year (not just in the summer & winter)!
• Other factors that can impact the rise of the dough include old or expired yeast, contaminated yeast (i.e. the yeast was left in an open jar & air moisture contaminated it), water that is too cold or too hot, using heavily chlorinated tap water, placing salt next to or on top of the yeast (salt can kill yeast or inhibit its growth), not covering the dough during the rising period (as the exterior of the dough can dry out & limit the ability to rise), etc.

• You should let your bread cool down for 1-2 hours on the wire cooling rack before you cut any slices (or the slices will be “gummy” and not taste as good as expected). Excess interior moisture is released (via steam) during the cooldown period.
• Moreover, if your bread is not completely cooled, you are more likely to squash & tear the bread when slicing the bread. Do not be tempted by the smell of delicious hot bread & cut too early… if you want nice slices! Let the bread completely cool.
• If you have not made bread in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast or instant yeast before making your bread. Old yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• Once you have opened the container that contains the yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).

• The flattening & shaping of the dough and the press down of the dough in the bread pan is the “punch down” phase.
• If you don’t do this punch down phase, your bread will have large air pockets (trapped bubbles produced by the yeast). Large air pockets are fine for ciabatta-type breads but not ideal for sandwich bread.
• This bread recipe calls for the use of a 9 x 5 inch bread pan. You can also use a 8.5 x 4.5 inch bread pan but the “crown” of the bread might come out too tall (or overflow) if your yeast is very active.
• To prevent your bread from sticking to the bread pan, you should consider using a nonstick bread pan or either “greasing” the bottom & sides of the pan with butter, vegetable oil, a cooking spray, etc.

• It takes roughly 15-20 minutes to preheat most ovens with some variability due to the size of the oven, planned baking temperature (hotter takes longer), etc.
• Optional – Use an oven thermometer as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality. Some ovens can be 25-50+ degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set with your oven dial. An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven.
• Optional – Use a digital bread thermometer to test if your bread is completely done. The interior temperature of the bread should be 190-200 degrees F. This inexpensive tool can save you from underbaked breads.
• Place the bread pan in the middle of your oven. If you place it on the top or bottom racks, the bread may be too near the oven’s heating element and can overbake.
• Make sure to level off the ingredients in your measuring spoons & cups. No “mountains” of ingredients in your spoons & cups!! If you add too much of an ingredient, you can have a baking problem. FYI – I like to level the ingredients in my measuring spoons & cups with the back of a butter knife.

• You can also use this homemade bread to make one of Bread Dad’s delicious & toasty panini recipes.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine, hot oven, hot bread pan, etc.
• For more easy bread ideas, please check out Bread Dad’s sections for Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Bread
2. Wikipedia, Bread Machine
3. Wikipedia, Onion

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2. Bread Machine Italian Herb Bread
3. Bread Machine Onion Bread
4. Buttermilk Bread
5. Extra Soft White Bread
6. Olive Oil Rosemary Bread

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