Cheese-topped Onion Soup

French Fridays er...Monday with Dorie

I hated missing French Friday this past week. Just hated it, but I had one of those weeks where I couldn't find the time to make this soup and I wanted the time to make it. Little did I know that I really needed the time. I have never made French Onion Soup at home, but it is my very favorite soup and it is always the soup of choice when we eat out. I have wanted to make Julia Child's French Onion soup forever, but I just haven't gotten around to it. That is why I really like French Fridays with Dorie - because I do get around to making some of those recipes that I have always wanted to try and I didn't want to miss out on this one.

So instead of making it by Friday, I made it on Saturday. When I read through the recipe, Dorie says that it would take 'an hour or more' to caramelize the onions. I have caramelized an onion or two before and, no sweat, but, I have never caramelized six LARGE onions before and didn't realize that on my stove it would take an eternity for my onions to achieve that lovely, caramel brown color. I started chopping and thinly slicing my onions at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening and put them on the lowest setting before warm on my stove and would come back and stir every so often. They just remained a pale white, and slowly turned to a muted color. John was a good sport (when isn't he?) and so I fixed him something else to eat. Four and a half hours later, my onions were just starting to get bits of caramelization going on the bottom of the dutch oven and slightly turning brown. By 11:00 I decided they were finally brown enough and added some flour and let it work in a little bit before adding some of the dry white wine. I used beef stock instead of the chicken stock in the recipe and the rest of the wine and let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so. At midnight, I was at the point that I just didn't care anymore, but I still went ahead and toasted my slices of baguette, added a teaspoon each of brandy to each soup bowl, ladled some soup over the brandy, topped the bowls of soup with the toasted slices and Gruyère and slid them under the broiler.

I was so tired by the time I took the soup out of the oven, that I had lost my appetite and really wasn't sure I liked the taste of the soup. John loved it and said it was much better than any french onion soup we have had in restaurants and he liked that it wasn't very salty. 

That Sunday afternoon, however, I reheated some of the soup, cut up some of the baguette into croutons and put them under the broiler to toast. I added them to the cup of soup and topped with some Gruyère and slid it under the broiler for a few minutes, sat down at the dining room table and tasted it again. It was heavenly! John was right - it tasted better than any onion soup I have ordered in a restaurant. The combination of the soup with the toasted croutons and the melted cheese was so very delicious. I don't know why it took so long for the onions to caramelize. Obviously, the lowest setting on my stove is really too low, so next time I will have to play around with the heat a little bit without burning the onions because I do want there to be a next time for making this. 

I can't wait to see the rest of the group's french onion soup over at French Fridays with Dorie.