Bread, from the Queen of Cakes
If I'm going to do a Paul Hollywood recipe, it's only fair that I follow that up with one from Mary Berry. Mary was well-established as Britain's "home cook" and was both well-known and well-published before she became a judge on The Great British Bake-Off. Though she is known for cakes and desserts, Amber requested a "Great Harvest kine" cheese bread. Now Mary has a website but whoever designed it didn't put in a search function. So I googled cheese bread recipes by her and came up with several. I selected the Cheese and Herb.
Not a difficult recipe except I lacked a couple of ingredients. I substituted dried marjoram for dried rosemary and Gruyère cheese for sharp cheddar. I also did not have rapid rise yeast and used the usual instant.
If you don't have a digital kitchen scale, you soooo need to get one! You select the unit of measurement, place your container on the scale and then zero it out so you can accurately measure your ingredients. On the left is the grated Gruyère; I then zeroed out the scale and added an ounce of Parmesan, on the right. Ounces because of the US's steadfast refusal to go metric. They taught us metrics in science in the 8th grade in preparation. Never happened.
Everything but the milk went in for a gentle stir. I started it on the lowest setting which, conveniently enough, is called "Stir."
When you use the dough hook attachment, do not go above the 2 setting!
I started off on the Stir setting and slowly added the milk. Once the milk was incorporated, I brought the mixer up to 2. The dough is heavy because of the cheeses and since it seemed a bit dry as well, I added another couple of tablespoons of milk.
I was getting a little worried because the dough ball was not forming. I was tempted to take it out and do some kneading by hand by this is a very sticky dough and besides. Mary Berry's recipe. So with faith in that and a few more minutes, I was rewarded with the dough ball.
Into a preheated 450 oven for 10 minutes. The temperature was lowered to 400 for 20 more minutes. At the end of the initial 10 minutes, there was significant rise as well.
And there you go! Nice cheesy, golden brown crust on the outside...
Good aeration on the inside! Amber's going to have to let me know if it's a thumb's up or down on this one but for my part, still a 5 turtle rating!
Here are the promised links:
Mary Berry
Cheese and Herb Bread
Equipment recommendations:
KitchenAid Mixer
This is my 3rd KitchenAid and they are really, really good but they aren't cheap! If you want a dependable, heavy-duty mixer though...this is it!
Nutri Fit digital scale
Also great for weighing out your food portions.
Measuring spoons
These spoons can be used for dry or wet ingredients and their shape allows them to fit into spice jars.
Spice jars
Speaking of which, if you are looking to organize your spices into containers that are compact, seal tightly and allow you to easily spoon out portions, this is something you should look into!
There are slightly larger containers for things like baking soda and baking powder, too.
Not a difficult recipe except I lacked a couple of ingredients. I substituted dried marjoram for dried rosemary and Gruyère cheese for sharp cheddar. I also did not have rapid rise yeast and used the usual instant.
If you don't have a digital kitchen scale, you soooo need to get one! You select the unit of measurement, place your container on the scale and then zero it out so you can accurately measure your ingredients. On the left is the grated Gruyère; I then zeroed out the scale and added an ounce of Parmesan, on the right. Ounces because of the US's steadfast refusal to go metric. They taught us metrics in science in the 8th grade in preparation. Never happened.
This recipe called for a standing mixer so I brought out the big guns...with a dough hook!
When you use the dough hook attachment, do not go above the 2 setting!
I was getting a little worried because the dough ball was not forming. I was tempted to take it out and do some kneading by hand by this is a very sticky dough and besides. Mary Berry's recipe. So with faith in that and a few more minutes, I was rewarded with the dough ball.
The dough ball was left in the bowl and covered with some plastic wrap. After an hour or so, it had doubled in size so I tipped it onto a well-floured counter and started working it. It is a stickier dough but the flour and a good quartz countertop kept it from getting difficult--guess what the countertops in my soon-to-be-renovated kitchen are going to be? :-) Can't wait, too. The previous countertops were tile. With grout.
After about 5 minutes, the dough was placed on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, covered with plastic wrap and allowed to rest. It did not rise a lot during the recommended time period of 20-25 minutes and now that I think about it, I believe the fast action yeast would have made the difference here. The weight of the cheese retards the rise and fast action would have given some extra oomph.
The dough was brushed with some beaten egg and topped with more grated Gruyére.
And there you go! Nice cheesy, golden brown crust on the outside...
Good aeration on the inside! Amber's going to have to let me know if it's a thumb's up or down on this one but for my part, still a 5 turtle rating!
Mary Berry
Cheese and Herb Bread
Equipment recommendations:
KitchenAid Mixer
This is my 3rd KitchenAid and they are really, really good but they aren't cheap! If you want a dependable, heavy-duty mixer though...this is it!
Nutri Fit digital scale
Also great for weighing out your food portions.
Measuring spoons
These spoons can be used for dry or wet ingredients and their shape allows them to fit into spice jars.
Spice jars
Speaking of which, if you are looking to organize your spices into containers that are compact, seal tightly and allow you to easily spoon out portions, this is something you should look into!
There are slightly larger containers for things like baking soda and baking powder, too.
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