This bread is perfect served with many different things, toasted or not.
Ingredients:
500g strong white bread flour
15g of fresh or a 7g sachet of yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
300 ml of hand heat water
75g mature cheddar
A handful of mature cheddar to top
1 tsp dried chilli
Method:
If you are using a sachet of yeast, just mix the yeast into the flour in a bowl. However, if you are using fresh yeast, crumble the yeast into the flour and rub it in until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the salt and sugar to the bowl and mix again.
Pour 100ml of boiling water into a jug and add 200ml of cold water from the tap. Test the temperature and if it isn't hand temperature adjust it (pouring some out and adding more hot or cold).
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Mix with your hands until you have a slightly sticky dough.
Tip the dough out onto a clean, floured surface and knead (stretching it away and pulling it back towards you) for at least 5 minutes.
When the dough is smooth, put it back into the bowl and cover with a tea towel. Put it to one side and leave to rest for an hour ( it doesn't matter if it's left for longer).
After leaving it for an hour, pour it out onto a floured surface and knead in the chilli and cheese until it is evenly spread.
Make the dough into a ball (or whatever shape you want your bread to be) and put it onto an oiled tray, covering it with the tea towel again. Pre- heat the oven to gas mark 8.
After leaving your dough for half an hour, take the tea towel off and top with the handful of cheese. Put it into the oven for 15-20 minutes, when it comes out it should be golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it.
This bread is so delicious and the flavours go really well together. I really enjoy having this bread after it's cooked whilst it's still warm enough to melt butter- it is just perfect. It works well toasted too and can be served with things like scrambled eggs to add a little flavour.
The chilli in this bread may be spicy to some so put less in if you don't enjoy spice- you can also add more if you would prefer the bread spicy. Some people may prefer to use fresh chilli for this recipe and it also works really well. I've found that mature cheddar works best for this bread but if you'd prefer you can use a milder chesse- it will just taste less cheesy.
When adding the chilli and cheese to the bread, add it all at once to minimise the amount of extra kneading you will be doing. This means that the bread will be lighter as it will still have air in it from the last rise.
thank you for reading. I really hope you have fun trying this recipe. If you like this, why not check out some of my other recipes.
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