Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Herb & Cheese Pull Apart Bread | We Knead to Bake #1

I love cheese on bread. Or rather cheese on anything. Especially love the combo of chili + cheese + bread. So when I opted to join We Knead To Bake , a monthly event by dear Aparna, I never thought I would be baking a cheese bread first. But I did and thoroughly enjoyed. In fact the whole family loved it and despite my New Year Resolution to control binging, I can't see myself away from this. I had followed the recipe to the 'T' except that I used pizza seasoning and replaced half of cheddar with pepper flavoured cheese cubes which made the bread more divine.




Ingredients:

Dough:
Warm Milk: 1/2 cup +3/4 cup + few tbsp for brushing

Sugar: 1 tsp
Instant Yeast: 2 tsp

All Purpose Flour: 2 3/4 cups to 3 cups
Salt: 1 tsp
Soft Butter: 25 gm
Garlic Paste: 1 tsp


Filling: 
Melted Butter: 2 tbsp
Spices/Seasoning: of your choice :almost 2 tsp
Grated Cheese : 1/2 cup


Preparation:
In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup milk with sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 5 minutes till it bubbles.

In another big bowl, mix together 2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour, salt ,garlic paste and soft butter. Add in the yeast mix and 3/4 cup milk and knead together adding more flour if needed to get a soft, elastic, pliable and non sticky dough.

Shape the dough into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl turning once to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit until doubled  for about 1-1.5 hours.

Deflate & turn out the dough gently onto a floured surface and pat it into a big square.Brush melted butter on the dough and then sprinkle herbs evenly followed by grated cheese. Gently press these toppings onto the dough using the rolling pin to ensure they don't fall off. 

Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips.Lay the strips one on top of the other with the topping upwards till you get a stack.

The strips needn't be perfect. You can place the side strips in the middle of the stack to make it look neater. Using a sharp knife,divide the stack into 6 equal pieces.

Grease and flour 9' x 5' loaf pan or appropriate baking dishes. I halved the dough and baked in a smaller pan on consecutive days.

Layer the slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin.Cover with a kitchen towel/ plastic wrap and let it sit until doubled for another hour or so.

Lightly brush the top of the dough with milk  and bake in a preheated oven at 180C/ 350F for about 30-40 minutes until the top is brown and bread done. 



Takeout and cool sometime in the loaf pan and then cool completely on the rack if you can wait till then. I devoured it within 20 minutes of taking out of the oven. Didn't wait for complete cooling. :) Mine turned out a smaller loaf, and perfect for snacking. Just pull and eat. Hmm the comfort of cheese+spice+bread... 


Obviously this goes to We Knead to Bake.


5 Comments:

Kitchen Chronicles said...

Hi, Sweatha after a long long time I visiting ur blog. Luved the bread very much. Mine instead of pull apart became a stick together bread. But the taste was great & children loved it a lot.

Priya Suresh said...

Pulling me to bake again a pull apart bread.

Swathi said...

Delicious cheese bread Sweatha I love breads.

Unknown said...

Loved baking this and yours is looking so perfect!!!
Sowmya
Ongoing Event - Breakfast
Ongoing Event - Tried and Tasted - Raks Kitchen

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

YOur bread looks great and I'm happy you liked this so much.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

/*TYNT script starts here */ /*TYNT ends */