Onion Bread / Korean YangPaBbang

I loved the bread as soon as I saw it. I got it from Aeri's blog where she has a lot of Korean recipes. The appearance of this bread made me want to try it. I can never follow a recipe, even when it is my own, so I made a few variations. But the base concept and technique come from Aeri.

My daughter is in high school and has a huge workload. Some weeks she is so tired by Friday evening, she skips dinner, she falls asleep at 6 pm and wakes up the next morning. I can usually see it coming during the week. I try to have something appetizing ready for her on Friday afternoon so she does not go to bed hungry. This stuffed bread was one such meal. It was filling and tasty. She devoured it before going off to bed.

The original filling is not vegetarian. I substituted red bell pepper to give the filling some body. Add a little salt to the red pepper and allow it to sweat so the filling does not get soggy.

You will need
For the dough
2 tbsp. butter at room temperature
2 cups bread flour or whole wheat flour
1 scant tsp. instant yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup lukewarm milk

For the filling
1/4 cup low fat mozzarella cheese
1 red bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1/2 tsp. caynenne pepper powder
salt and black pepper to taste
10-15 leaves cilantro

Sift flour in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter and add the remaining ingredients. Form a soft dough. Knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Keep aside covered to let it double in volume. It could take an hour to 3 hours depending upon the temperature in your kitchen.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. Slice the red pepper in to 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle some salt and keep aside. Chop the onions and crumble or shred the mozzarella. Drain the sweating red bell peppers and combine all the ingredients for the filling.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare a loaf pan by rubbing a half teaspoon of oil along the bottom. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and transfer the risen dough to it. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin to a thick rectangle.

Place about 3/4th of the filling in the center of the rolled out dough.

Fold in both sides and seal the edges. Flip over and place in the prepared loaf pan. Keep aside covered for 20 minutes.

Add the remaining filling over the top of the loaf. Dice the cilantro leaves and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Switch off the oven and let the loaf stay inside for another 15 minutes.

Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool before slicing.

Enjoy!