Gratin of French Onion Soup

BY BILL ST. JOHN and CHEF JAMEY FADER

Makes 12-14 cups = 4 large or 6 medium servings

Ingredients

4 pounds (5 large) yellow onions
Marczyk’s Oleoestepa D.O. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, in 4 pieces
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup dry sherry (or 1/2 cup apple juice with splash of almond extract)
2 cups water
2 cups Pacific beef broth
4 cups Aneto low-sodium chicken broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied in kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Marczyk White Levain Bread, sliced or unsliced
1 pound Gruyère cheese, grated on the large holes of the cheese grater

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and slice onions 1/4-inch thick. Place in a large stove- and oven-proof Dutch oven that has been coated with the olive oil and into which you’ve tossed the pieces of butter. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and some black pepper and place in the oven for 1 hour, covered, rotating the pot at the 30-minute mark.

Uncover, stir, scraping the bottom of the pot, and heat in the oven for 2 more hours with the lid ajar, stirring every 45 minutes and scraping the bottom and the sides of the pot.

Uncover the pot and place it on the stove top over medium-high heat and cook the onions further for at least 20 minutes (turn the heat to medium if the onions begin to burn, even if slightly), stirring and scraping the sides and bottom of the pot, letting the liquid evaporate. Then, in 10-15 minute intervals and at least 3 times, deglaze the onions in the pot with 1/4 cup of the water, stirring and scraping well throughout, until the onions are rendered a thick mass that is tawny brown.

Stir in the sherry or apple juice and let it evaporate; then add the remainder of the water, the two broths, and the thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Stir well, raise the heat to high, and let the soup come to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, with the pot covered or ajar (to maintain just a simmer, not a bubbling boil).

Prepare the bread: Cut out rounds of sliced bread slightly larger than the diameter of the oven-proof bowls or crocks that you will use, also saving the cutaways. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, toast the rounds and the spare pieces, flipping them halfway through, until they are toasted to your liking. 

Assemble the crocks: Adjust an oven rack to the top position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place some of the spare pieces of bread at the bottom of each crock, then a very light sprinkling of cheese, then a few healthy forkfuls of onions and enough soup to nearly reach the rims of the crocks. Lay a bread round on each top, pushing it down a bit, then lavishly cover the round with grated cheese, even mounding it slightly.

Set the crocks on a rimmed baking sheet and heat in the oven until the cheese melts and bubbles, 10-12 minutes or so. Turn on the broiler and hit the tops of the crocks until the cheese is browned in spots. Serve piping hot.