Friday, May 23, 2014

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.