Oh this is one of those MUST TRY recipes. I am telling you, go and make this bread!! I am craving some of those nice fluffy chunks of cheesy herbed dough right now. This bread is irresistible. If you've ever had monkey bread this is kind of the same concept but savory instead of sweet. This is so easy to make too because all you do is chunk up the dough and throw it into the baking pan, no rolling dough out. Kids will have fun helping with this. I think it would make a great appetizer. I can picture sitting around with friends and pulling chunks of this pull apart dough off to pop in your mouth. We sat around our dinner table last night with the kids and did just that. It's was fun to eat. Here is what our loaf looked like when we were done. There was some taken from the back end too but you can't see it from this picture.
There is whole wheat flour mixed into this for some extra nutrition and character. Just another warning that this is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE so must make sure you have people to share it with.
GOLDEN CHEESE BREAD
Adapted from King Arthur Flour & Tracey's Culinary Adventures
Filling and Topping
1 1/3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 1/2 Tbsp butter melted
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the water, butter, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, dry milk, garlic powder, oregano, salt, onion powder and yeast. Mix until the ingredients come together and form a rough dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 7 minutes, or until the dough is soft and smooth. The dough will be tacky, that's fine.
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Add the dough to the bowl, turning to coat, then cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until very puffy (it may not be quite doubled in size).
Remove the dough from the bowl to a lightly greased work surface and press gently to deflate. Now, you want to divide the dough into about 64 small pieces of roughly the same size. Don't worry too much about making them perfect! I think the easiest way to do this is to grab a sharp knife or bench scraper and divide the dough ball in half. Then, working with one half at a time, divide each piece in half over and over until you have 32 pieces. You don't have to roll the final pieces into balls - whatever rough shape they have is fine.
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Add the dough to the bowl, turning to coat, then cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until very puffy (it may not be quite doubled in size).
Remove the dough from the bowl to a lightly greased work surface and press gently to deflate. Now, you want to divide the dough into about 64 small pieces of roughly the same size. Don't worry too much about making them perfect! I think the easiest way to do this is to grab a sharp knife or bench scraper and divide the dough ball in half. Then, working with one half at a time, divide each piece in half over and over until you have 32 pieces. You don't have to roll the final pieces into balls - whatever rough shape they have is fine.
Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the parchment with cooking spray too.
Put 16 pieces of dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Distribute 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese over the dough pieces then brush with some of the melted butter.
Now repeat: put 16 more pieces of dough on top of the first layer you created. Then distribute another 1/3 cup of shredded cheese, and brush with some more of the melted butter. You want to repeat two more times so you use all of the dough. When you finish the final layer, brush the dough with the butter.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and let the bread rise for about 30 to 60 minutes, or until it's just barely risen above the rim of the pan. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F. When bread is done rising bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown.
If the bread is browning too quickly on the top the recipe says you can tent with foil. I didn't have this problem but just check it after 20 minutes or so to make sure.
Remove the bread from the oven, and immediately loosen the edges with a table knife or heatproof spatula. Wait 2 minutes, and turn it out of the pan onto a baking sheet. Carefully turn it right side up, sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/3 cup cheese, and return it to the oven for about 2 minutes, just till the cheese softens and starts to melt.
Serve warm right out of the oven.
Post linked to What's on Your Plate over at Good Cheap Eats
that looks sooo nasty
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