Henri's French Onion Soup - Variations & Questions

Made Henri's French Onion Soup today.

Started by using JoanN's oven method for carmelizing the onions, using fresh thyme and fresh bay leaves, salt and a bit of splenda (in lieu of sugar, not sure if the sugar was for sweetness or browning - anyone know?). Ovened for 120 minutes, tossing every 30. Onions came out quite dark i.e. way more browned than walnut (I think, what the heck colour is walnut anyway? the skin? the shell? the flesh?)

Moved onions into soup pot in which I had browned a bit of butter. Let it it fond then tossed twice by which time I was bored, and the onions looked dark enough to me.

Added the flour -- what does this step do? it's only 1 tablespoon

Added 8ish cups of liquid -- 4 were beef stock, 2 were mushroom liquid and the rest water.

Boiled then simmered. Tossed in the gyruere rinds, a bit more thyme and a couple more fresh bay leaves.

Tasted it -- nasty! bland, brown liquid . . . dispair sets in.

30 minutes later, okay, it tastes a bit better.

Toss in a couple organic mushroom boillion cubes and some salt. Getting better. Add dry sherry.

It all came together the last 30 minutes (5 of the simmering, and the 10 following the addition of the sherry and the 15 in the oven with the cheese and bread). Phew!

In the end, it tasted amazing . . . not very sweet at all (which is how I like it). Not very much liquid at all -- I generally like it more solid than watery but this was insane, we could eat it with a fork.

Next time, I will add beer instead of water -- any thoughts on what type of beer? and more liquid by 1/3.

200 minutes from raw onions to full tummy.