French Onion Soup Dumplings Au Gratin with Black Garlic and Horseradish

Directions

1. French Onion Soup Gelatin/ Red Brick Onions
2. On high heat, heat the broth and reduce by 3/4. Reduce heat to a medium simmer and stir in 1 packet of gelatin until dissolved. Transfer to a thin baking sheet with at least 1 inch edges or longer pyrex dish and place in refrigerator for around 1 hr or more until solidified. Natural instinct would be to freeze the broth but we want the soup to be hot and cook quickly. Freezing it would make the broth too cold and risk too much incorporation of the liquid into the filling. Furthermore, if you scraped frozen filling to a room temperature filling, the dough would become too liquidy when forming the dumplings.
3. Make 1/2 recipe of red brick onions. A much smaller amount will suffice in this case due to the fact we are using the onions in minimal amounts. Set aside after cooking.

1. Cheese Sauce
2. Make your rue. This involves combining equal amounts of butter and flour (1 oz. flour to 2 Tbsp butter yields equal weight). Melt the butter and slowly incorporate the flour on medium to low heat. Once incorporated, add the milk in 1/2 cup increments. Heat on medium heat and stir until thickened. Reduce heat and and stir in the Gruyere and Swiss cheeses. Add salt and lots of cracked black pepper.
3. Using a small rolling pin, thin out the edges of the dumpling wrapper to leave the center thicker to support the soup. Add a very small amount of the cheese and the onions (Note: the bulk of the filling should be the gelatin so when your guests break open the dumplings, the soup comes out. If you overfill with the cheese and onions, the dumplings will taste great but the filling will absorb too much of the soup for the visual and texture difference we are hoping to achieve.
4. Crimp the dumpling into pleats until closed (plenty of youtube videos to show you how to do this) and twist at the top to seal.
5. Place the dumplings into a lined bamboo steamer. Add 2-3 inches of water to a stovetop pan and heat on high until the water is boiling and giving off steam. Add the bamboo steamer to the pan. The dumplings should steam in roughly 5-6 minutes. You know when the dumplings are done when the dumpling wrappers appear translucent and you can see the dark broth beneath.
6. Add a sliver of black garlic to the top of each dumpling and serve in the steaming basket. To give a more complex flavor that emits a little bit of heat, I like to shave a small amount of fresh horseradish on top. Serve immediately.