Thursday, April 7, 2011

Cheddar Serrano Bread

I'm friends with some serious bread bakers.  They have a real brick oven, and have made hundreds of loaves for specialty shops.  When they found out I was interested in bread baking, they procured a banetton and a clay baking dish (cloche).  Then my dad rigged a handle on the cloche so I wouldn't burn myself lifting the hot dish out of the oven.  I wanted to find a great recipe to test out my new baking tools, and I definitely found it with this Cheddar Serrano bread.  I made one HUGE loaf with hit.  I think that the cheddar and peppers added great flavor, and the bread itself had a nice texture.  It stuck a little to the banetton, so I would recommend using a TON of flour.  This would also work well making free form loaves.

Recipe: Cheddar Serrano Bread (from Girlichef)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting workspace
big pinch of sea salt
4 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded and minced
6 oz extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in large bowl with water and sugar.  Stir and let sit 10 minutes, or until bloomed and creamy.

Mix in eggs and oil.  Toss cheese and serranos with flour and salt.  Mix into wet ingredients with wooden spoon.  Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, ~10-15 minutes.  (You can also use a stand mixer with a dough hook, which would take less time.)  Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic or a slightly damp towel.  Let rise until doubled in size, ~2 hours.  Punch down.

Form dough into a ball and put in a well floured banetton.  Let rise until doubled in size, ~90 minutes.  Preheat oven to 425 deg F in the last 30 minutes, with a pizza stone placed on the center rack.

Transfer to the oven and cover with a cloche, bake for ~30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.



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