Five o'clock World - Hungarian Onion Bread

Is it just me, or did the CDC really take the Zombie Apocalypse more seriously than Ebola?  How did we end up with an Ebola patient riding the New York City subway?  Why are doctors and nurses NOT following the rules?  Why did it take so long to establish the rules? 

Up every morning just to keep a job
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob
Sounds of the city pounding in my brain
While another day goes down the drain (yeah yeah)

Right now I am very glad that I haven't taken the subway since 2002. Sending prayers to all my New York peeps.  This is no joke.

But its a five o'clock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And theres a five o'clock me inside my clothes
Thinking that the world looks fine, yeah
(yodeling)

Fine enough to bake bread?  Because we are running low, and there's no desire to move out of my comfort zone to drive to Publix.  Well, yes - with the move to Kissimmee, I not only don't take the subway anymore, I don't even have to take my car if I'm feeling energetic enough for a short walk to the office.  Since I always take my car (who walks to work in Florida?) I am definitely home early enough to throw a few things into the bread machine.

There are few things as comforting to the senses as freshly-baked bread, and while kneading the dough by hand is a wonderful therapeutic experience, it is generally not something one commits to at the end of a busy workday.  As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew it was the one for tonight - anything with "Hungarian" in the title always piques my interest.

Hungarian Onion Bread

These amounts are for a machine with a large capacity, however, it only takes 3 cups of flour and would probably work in a medium capacity machine as well.  Add these to the machine in the order given, unless your model gives other instructions as to when to add liquid or yeast.

3/4 cup water, warm from the tap

2 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 generous teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 generous teaspoon Hungarian paprika, sweet or half sweet

1 teaspoon dried dill weed

3 cups bread flour

1 packet Rapid Rise Yeast

After the flour is added, make a well, careful not to break through to the liquid below, and add the yeast.  Set your machine for Basic (or White) and start the machine.  After it has kneaded for a few minutes, check the dough.  If it is dry or crumbly, drizzle in a small amount of additional water, let it knead a few more minutes and check again for dryness.  The dough should form a well-rounded ball with a mostly smooth exterior, but it is by no means a "wet" dough, so work any additional water in slowly.  One that is done, you can walk away and the machine will do the rest of the work.

Remove the bread pan to a rack and let it cool upright for 5 minutes, then turn out the bread and let it finish cooling on the rack.  The loaf turned out fairly short, and I was sure it was going to be doughy inside.  But, on the contrary, it sliced beautifully and had obviously baked up perfectly.

This toasts up nicely, and works for breakfast or any other meal.  I sliced it on the thin side, toasted and buttered it.  Delicious.  The flavors of the onion and spices are very subtle, but we liked it like that.

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