Bread With A Pound Of Cheese

Cheddar Bread

As I mentioned yesterday, a business associate asked me for a few of my bread recipes. I plan on dropping off a couple of my cookbooks to her next week. In the meantime, I said I'd post a few of them here.

This is a bread that was always a big hit whenever I'd serve it on my Wednesday night dinners. For years, I hosted a large dinner every Wednesday night, and I always included freshly baked bread. I received many compliments whenever I made this one.

Opening wine at one of my Wednesday night
dinners several years ago.

Do you eat much cheese? Cheese is one of my weaknesses. Yes, I know I have a lot of weaknesses, but it would be rude of you to point that out! Anyways, cheese is one of them. I think I eat pizza about twice a week. When I say I eat pizza, I usually mean a whole large pizza in one sitting. Ok, I need to be supervised, stop picking on me.

If you think about it, a little cheese makes just about anything better. I’ve always subscribed to the philosophy that if a little is good, than a lot is better. How about a whole pound or cheese for this bread! What? Is that wrong?

If you are having a large dinner, you won't have a lot of this leftover. If you do have some, it's not bad if you heat it up under the broiler to have with your breakfast. 

If this is too vegetarian for you, you could add a layer of thinly sliced salami on the cheese before you roll up the loaf.

1 batch of Norman’s Basic Bread dough

           (see my May 2nd post)

1 lb. of shredded cheddar cheese

Fresh ground black pepper

Sea salt

Preparation

Make up a batch of Norman’s Basic Bread dough and let it rise. Punch it down and knead it real good. Let it rise again for about a half hour and knead for a few minutes. 

Flour a clean surface of a counter and roll out the bread dough with a rolling pin. Turning it over several times, roll it out to about two to three feet by a little more than one foot oval. Keep flouring it as you turn it over so it doesn’t stick to the counter.

Spread the cheese out evenly over the dough, but leave the outer two inches uncovered. Grind some black pepper over the cheese. Fold the uncovered dough on the sides over onto the cheese to form a lip. Now, very gently, roll up the dough like a carpet.

Choose a large baking sheet with a lip on it (this will get a little messy as it bakes). Generously sprinkle it with corn meal. Now center the rolled up loaf of bread on to the sheet. Sprinkle the top with some sea salt. Let it rise for another twenty minutes. Bake at 400º for about 25 minutes until the loaf is golden brown.

Serving

Let the loaf sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. 

Serve this bread along with a meal of Roast Ham, Pea Soup, Scalloped Potatoes and some asparagus with a cheese sauce. Pour a bottle of chilled dry Riesling to top things off. If you are going to the trouble to make this bread, you might as well serve it with a good meal.