French Onion Soup

This recipe is kind of high maintenance and a bit time consuming. (Those onions take awhile to slice and caramelize!) So I wouldn't get into it if you don't have a few hours to kill.


Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 quarts beef broth
1 baguette, sliced (or any type of French or Italian loaf)
1/2 pound sliced Gruyere cheese


Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 30-40 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Layer the slices with the Gruyere and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top. Or if you prefer, you can just leave them out of the soup and eat them with.

Alternative method: If you have oven safe crocks, ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.