French Onion Soup

Combining Julia Child and Cook's Illustrated recipes for French Onion Soup we come up with a version all our own.  Julia suggests 1 1/2 pounds of onions. Cooks' Illustrated, 4 pounds. We went with the 4 pounds. Julia suggests beef stock and white wine. Having been on a search for the best tasting French Onion Soup some years ago, we had decided those made with chicken broth more tasty. Thus, I went with chicken stock. It took longer than the 40 minutes to caramelize, but it was worth the wait. Once the onions caramelized, in went the stock and spices (thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper) to simmer for another hour. I had toasted some bread slices. After floating them on top and topping with shredded gruyère cheese I broiled the bowls. Gruyère cheese has a distinctive smell when broiled that the children thought repulsive. The next time, I think I will take the baking to melt the cheese option.