French Onion Soup

It looks like a bowl full of cheesy bread, but it's oh so much more. Under its cheesy top lies a delicious bowl of french onion soup. It is hard to resist its wonderfully sweet and complex flavor. It makes for a weird summer dish, but sometimes it's hard to resist a good soup!
Since I learned about this soup it has been one of my favorites. I first tried it from a recipe from Good Eats and had great success. I have since tried many recipes and none have quite matched Alton Brown's in flavor. Of course, his recipe is a little overcomplicated in parts (bouquet garni) and isn't vegetarian-friendly. With this in mind, let's dive right in!

The first step of French Onion Soup is onions. Lots and lots of onions. More onions than you can stand.

STILL MORE ONIONS!

GOOD. Now, pardoning my hyperbole, this is about enough onion to serve 6-8 people with normal to large appetites. Slice your onions into long strips (now might be a good time to brush up on your onion-cutting technique). Unless you're having a large event, I'd start with 5 large onions. Any kind of onion will work, though if you can get them, sweet onions are best. I buy huge bags of yellow onions at Costco because they're cheap ($4 for 10 pounds).

Now that your onions are prepared, it's time to begin cooking. In an ideal world, you would be best served to use something like an electric skillet to make this soup, like I did here:

I don't keep this electric skillet around, however. I'm much more likely to have a stock pot. Choose the widest pot you own for this. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in your pot on medium-low heat. Add a quarter of your onions and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Repeat until all your onions are in the skillet. Now, just walk away. The onions on the bottom may burn. That's okay. Don't stir for 20 minutes, then stir infrequently. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour, until the onions are a dark mahogany color.

Add Chardonnay to cover the onions, then turn the temperature to high. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the wine thickens.

Add 1 cup of apple cider and 4 cups of vegetable broth (I buy mine at Trader Joe's) and stir to combine. Add a bay leaf, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, and 1/4 tsp dried parsley. Simmer 15-20 minutes.

Find some bread large enough to fill the top of your favorite soup bowls. I tend to find that the bakery section is the best for my big bowls. Cut the bread 1/2" thick (the bakery may be able to do this for you) and "punch out" the rounds by flipping a bowl upside down and pressing down on the bread.

Broil the bread in the oven until it is golden brown. Remove from oven.

To finish the soup, season with salt and pepper to taste, followed by a splash of cognac or brandy. Stir and cook for a minute longer to mellow out the alcohol flavor.

Scoop soup into each bowl. Place the bread browned side down on the soup and grate a generous portion of Gruyere cheese on top evenly. (If desired, omit cheese to make this soup lactose-free!) Broil until cheese is lightly browned.

When you eat it, be sure to get a bite of bread in with every bite of soup! If your bowls are deep like mine, you might need to go back for extra bread.

If you'd like to see how it's done, please see the Good Eats section on this. Clearly this version has been heavily influenced by their recipe, and the video does a good job of making it clear.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from "French Onion Soup" from Alton Brown's Good Eats.