Blue cheese and red onion festive bread wreath

• Date: 19 December 2020
• Published date: 19 December 2020
• Author: Aoife Noonan
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

I love a cheeseboard at Christmas and this bake combines all of its best parts into a gorgeous festive treat. It has crusty bread, soft, creamy cheese and a tangy chutney too. I have adapted a basic, pillowy, white bread dough and added a quick, soft and jammy red onion marmalade and tangy blue cheese, and the end result is that beautiful combination all in one mouthful.

We have some wonderful blue cheese producers here but use any sharp, rich blue cheese you can get your hands on. The blue cheese melts into the dough once kneaded, resulting in a deeply cheese-flavoured bread with tiny nuggets peppered through.

The red onions are sliced and cooked gently until soft and translucent and, with a splash of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar added to caramelise...