Cheddar and Onion Bread

The Bread of the Month for the Facebook Artisan Bread Group is Cheddar Bread.  It's from Peter Reinhart's "Artisan Breads Every Day" book.  It's a sourdough bread, full of onion and cheese.
It's one of the first breads I've made since I switched to a firm mother starter.

I made half a batch, because we don't want to eat 2 of the two-pound loaves.  I'm glad another group member suggested that.  I used sharp cheddar cheese and chopped up half an onion.
This dough is great because there's a 4 day window from when you make the dough or starter to when you have to bake it.

Rolling out the dough, putting sharp cheddar and onion on top.

I rolled it up and cut it into two loaves.

The loaves might be more evenly shaped if I had rolled out 2 rectangles separately, but I wanted to do other things today.

Loaves were sprayed with oil spray and covered with plastic for about 2 hours

Scoring the loaves

I baked for the minimum time and went to the computer room. 

I think the loaves baked really brown because of my long preheat.  I was thinking of baking a cake first.  I was preheating for that and saw the breads really needed to get into the oven soon.  The oven bakes much hotter for an hour preheat than a half hour.

The house smells wonderful--a great onion aroma.  The only problem is, I had planned to bake that cake today for my cake decorating class.  I don't want the cake to smell like onion!!!





One loaf is for me, because my hubby needs to eat soft foods after dental surgery.  I didn't want to miss out baking this bread with the group.  The other bread will go in the freezer for both of us to enjoy in a few weeks.