Bake Easy Cheesy Bread!
Want to be the world’s most popular mom and wife? Cheesy Bread! Want to have your grown kids flocking to your house, hanging out in the kitchen with you, and spending extra time at your kitchen table? Cheesy Bread! Those of us who are are empty-nest moms never stop missing those days when our kitchen was filled with kids and food.
This week I discovered a new way to make memories in my kitchen with my family. Make fresh homemade bread! The grown-up kids and their father will smell that fresh baked bread before they even get past the front door! You’ll hear “oohs” and “ahs” and “wow, Mom, this is so good!” again!
But wait — before you stop reading because you think baking bread is too much work, or you think you need to buy a bread machine — THIS IS SO EASY! A fool proof recipe that requires no kneading! In fact, I would say that this Cheesy Bread is as easy as a batch of cookies! Just mix up the dough, let it rise for 2 hours, then stow it away in the fridge until you’re ready to bake — and the dough lasts up to 7 days!
King Arthur’s Recipe
I can’t take credit for the recipe — it was sent to me in a gift box from King Arthur Flour and Cabot Cooperative Creamery as part of the Cabot Cheese Blogger Board program. A cute cheese knife with cutting board, four flavors of Cabot cheddar cheese, a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, a plastic dough container, and a dough scraper — plus the RECIPE for this amazing bread. King Arthur and Cabot were hoping the blogger board members would try the bread and share on social media with the #CheesyBread hashtag — if you want to see what other bloggers did with it, just look on Instagram or Twitter for that hashtag. No-Knead Crusty White Bread is King Arthur’s Recipe of the Year for 2016 – and it’s no wonder that this recipe was honored!
Just place the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together — I put 3 cups lukewarm water and 1 1/2 tablespoons active yeast in the bowl first, then added 6 1/2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon salt. I should have used a bigger bowl, or moved the dough to a bigger bowl after mixing it.
This is what happened when I let the dough rise in the KitchenAid mixing bowl! Oops! Not big enough! Later I moved the dough to a large plastic bowl with a tight-fitting lid, and kept it in the fridge. Worked much better!
The dough falls after it rises, so it wasn’t that big of a problem. Still, the next time I’ll move the dough to the large bowl before I let it rise.
Add Cabot Cheddar Cheeses
Cabot sent four different cheeses to try. I started with the Everything Bagel Cheddar, and grated half the bar for my first loaf of bread. When I was ready to bake, I greased my hands, pulled off about 1/3 of the dough and placed it on a floured board. Then I rolled the dough around enough to get the cheese incorporated into the dough. Nothing fancy — just get the cheese into that dough one way or another. (later on I found it was easier to do this step in a medium sized mixing bowl — the cheese doesn’t fly all over the place that way)
Form the dough into the shape you want, making it flatter or rounder if you like. Place it onto a piece of parchment paper on a baking stone or only a lightly greased baking sheet. Sift a little flour over the top to keep it moist. Let it sit there for one to two hours, coming to room temperature and rising just a bit. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place your baking stone (if you are using one) on the middle rack, and put a shallow metal pan on the rack below it — you’ll need a cup of hot water to pour into that shallow pan when the bread goes into the oven.
When you are ready to bake the bread, use a sharp knife to slash the top of the bread 2 or 3 times — in an “X” pattern or any design you like — just be sure you cut 1/2 inch deep.
Place the bread into the oven, and carefully pour 1 cup of hot water into the shallow pan on the lower rack. Close the oven door quickly to keep the heat and steam in. Bakc the bread for 25-35 minutes (depending on how thick your bread loaf is) until it is a deep golden brown color.
Remove from the oven when it’s done, and cool on a metal rack.
Now stand back — because your kids and your husband will be running into the kitchen mometarily — and that bread will be gone in just a few minutes. If you need to keep any leftover bread, wrap it securely and store at room temperature for a few days. (But realistically it will be eaten before the second day.)
You can add almost anything you want to the dough along with the cheese. I used 1/2 jar of drained chopped pimentos with the Everything Bagel Cheddar for this Pimento Cheesy Bread. Try carmelized onions, sliced ripe olives, fresh herbs, dried tomatoes. Get creative!
Bake a loaf of Cheesy Bread to dress up some leftovers! We had our Pimento Cheesy Bread with leftover Braised Short Ribs.
One of my son’s wants to make the bread himself at his house — and I promised to share the recipe with him. Still, I think I’ll keep some dough in my fridge — it’s so easy to heat up the oven, mix in the cheese, and bake a fresh loaf! I’m looking forward to many happy family memories in my kitchen — and one day my baby grandson will be able to help GraMimi make bread too!
Disclosure: Many thanks to King Arthur Flour and Cabot Cooperative Creamery for the gift box of products and the recipe for the Cheesy No-Knead Crusy White Bread. You can find the recipe on King Arthur’s site here. All opinions and experiences are mine.
What kinds of cheese and add-ins will you be baking into your Easy Cheesy Bread?
