A humble loaf of homemade bread is delicious in its own right. But, if you’ve grown bored of the same flavors, it might be time to introduce another ingredient — say, an unlikely kitchen scrap — into the mix. From peels and rinds to leaves, stems, and everything in between, there is an abundance of tasty odds and ends that can be added to your next doughy recipe. Onion skins, however, remain unmatched in a made-from-scratch loaf.
Although you might be familiar with adding caramelized Vidalias or pickled pearls into bread dough, shifting the focus from the alliums’ sweetly pungent flesh and spotlighting its skins can prove beneficial for myriad reasons. Along with creatively combatting food waste, incorporating onion skins into dough can add dimension to an otherwise simple recipe. As a matter of fact, onion skins not only contribute notes of earthiness and umami typical of an onion, but they also impart a subtle smokiness. What’s more? The peels (especially from pink and purple-hued shallots) can even give the dough a bright pop of color.
Due to their brittleness, the good news is that onion skins won’t impact the texture of bread dough too drastically. That said, because this papery quality can make them less than pleasant to chew, onion skins must be repurposed slightly before ending up in a loaf, which brings us to our next topic: How to effortlessly integrate onion peels into any dough imaginable.
Working onion skins into bread dough
For the best flavors, always select clean onion skins. After tossing the dusty layers and giving the remaining peels a rinse, we recommend placing them on a sheet pan and baking them to remove residual moisture. As a word of advice, use low temperatures, as high heat can cause delicate onion skins to become burned and bitter. Once fully dry, remove the peels from the oven and let them cool. Then, either grind them into a powder using a mortar and pestle or pulverize the skins in a food processor.
Since the resulting onion skin powder will pack a smokey and savory punch, a spoonful is usually enough to sprinkle into dough. As for which recipes prove ideal for an onion-y revamp, anything from pillowy sandwich bread to crusty sourdough to crisp baguettes and fluffy focaccia can be improved with a dusting of the fragrant powder. Likewise, the ingredient fares just as well in more complex recipes. In fact, loaves of cheddar beer bread and doughs decorated with fresh herbs, buttery olives, or roasted vegetables all lend themselves perfectly to pairing with richly nuanced onion skins.
Naturally, there’s also no need to limit yourself to bread dough. Onion peels can add major gustatory depth to pizza dough, choux pastry, and even pie crust. No matter the recipe, onion skins are the ultimate savory kitchen scrap guaranteed to take doughy delights soaring to the next level!
