Hayley's Spicy Cheese Bread

Hayley’s Spicy Cheese Bread

I find making bread to be quite therapeutic. I like to do some of the kneading by hand, but I let my mixer take care of the hard bits for me. What I love most about baking bread myself is that I have total control over the flavor of the bread. Not to mention that I have fresh baked bread and my house smells pretty amazing for several hours.

I enjoy foods that are packed with flavor, and a good savory bread is right up there with some of my favorite bakes. Think of bread as a blank canvas that you can paint however you like. I've made this bread and added some herbs, such as basil, thyme, and oregano, as well. It's great to eat just on it's own. 

My bread should give you a nice crisp outside and a strong, thick, yet spongy inside for a perfect bite. This bread goes well with pasta for dinner because it  complements tomato sauce and provides a more robust flavor to a creamy pesto or Alfredo sauce. I also really enjoy using this bread for deli sandwiches. I put some turkey, roast beef, mustard, spicy mayo, and lettuce together and this bread is the savory delivery system of goodness. It's also good with a smear of hummus or a smear of butter as a little snack. 

I know this recipe takes several hours, but it makes quite a lot of bread and most of that time is spent just leaving the bread alone while it rises or bakes.

dough hooks for hand mixer

Tools

• Hand mixer or stand mixer with dough hook attachments
• Large bowl
• kitchen scale
• measuring spoons
• large bread pan or two 1 pound bread tins (I used a bunt pan once for a fancy design around the bread and it worked very well, so you can use whatever you have got around the house. Also, if you are familiar with baking bread, you can plait it. Additional images at the end of the post!)

Ingredients

• 500g strong bread flour (Plus more for flouring the surfaces & kneading)
• 10g instant yeast (about 1 & ½ packets)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil (Plus more for oiling the pan)
• 300 ml cool/cold water
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika*
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper*
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• 70g shredded cheddar cheese (about 1 cup) (or a blend works well too)

*The measurements of spices provided give the bread just a hint of spiciness (in my opinion). It’s just enough to give the bread a nice color and some flavor. If you like really spicy foods you can ¾ teaspoon of these ingredients, but I recommend trying it as-is first before you go experimenting with spicy flavors because a little goes a long way. I have baked this bread using ¾ teaspoon of smoked paprika and cayenne pepper before and it gives the bread a little more kick. Though chili powder is quite potent so you probably want to keep that at the recommended ½ teaspoon.

Notes about ingredients
Instead of plain olive oil, you can use flavored olive oil too. Once I used Persian Lime olive oil (I got mine from 41 Olive) and it provided nice flavors.

I have substituted chili lime seasoning from Trader Joe’s for the chili powder to provide a hint of lime. On it’s own it doesn’t come through too much, but with the lime olive oil I could taste just a hint of it, which I really enjoyed.

This is the yeast I use. Each packet has about 7g in them, so when I say it’s about 1 ½ packets in the ingredients this is what I am referring to.

70g of cheese will be decently dispersed, but if you are a cheese lover feel free to amp it up a bit and add about ½ cup more for a total of roughly 110g or 1 ½ cups.

Directions

1. Put the flour into a large bowl with the salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the opposite side. Putting the salt and yeast on opposite sides prevents them from reacting with each other before you are ready to knead. Add spices and olive oil. 
   
   
   
   
2. Using the dough hooks, turn the mixer on low to begin kneading the ingredients. Slowly add the water while the mixer brings everything together. Make sure if you are using a hand mixer to move it around the bowl so you get all the flour from the sides. If the dough looks too wet, add a little more flour to the dough to thicken it up. You can tell if the dough doesn’t start to take shape or if it sticks to the dough hooks too much.
3. Once the dough has come together, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 5 more minutes. (I’ve also been a bit lazy and continued to knead it right in the bowl. Just add a little flour to your hands and the dough and you should be fine.) 
   
4. Return the dough back in the bowl. Put the bowl in a large plastic bag and make sure it is secure so no air get to it (a clean, small trash bag works well to cover the entire bowl so no air gets to it). Leave the dough to prove for 1- 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size. Dough should be puffy and spring back when you poke it.
   
5. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and roll out into a small rectangle. Add about ½ of the cheese and fold over the dough. Knead the cheese in well by hand. Then, roll out into a rectangle again and add the rest of the cheese. Fold over the dough and knead the cheese in well by hand.
6. Lightly oil the baking pan you are going to use. Place the dough into the lightly oiled pan. Put the dough back into the plastic bag and let it prove for 1 hour. *If you plan to plait your bread, I’ve found that separating the dough into two provides you with two decently sized loaves. I’ve done a two strand plait and a three strand plait before, but you feel free to be as creative as you like! Also, when I plait my bread I just put it on a silpat with no oil. Not using a pan will also change the bake time. It will brown faster because the heat does not need to penetrate the pan before it gets to the bread. Keep an eye on it, but you can probably shave off about 5 minutes from your cooking time.

   

   After adding the cheese

   
   

   

   After the 2nd prove

7. Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit. Bake the bread for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375° Fahrenheit and bake for a further 40 minutes. Turn off oven but leave the bread in the oven for a further 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven and let it finish cooling on a wire rack. A plate will work fine if you don’t have a wire rack. Enjoy!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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(Left) 3 strand plait, (Right) 2 strand plait

This batch has thyme & basil added to it. YUM!

(Left) 1 pound tin, (Right) 2 strand plait