Everything tastes better with cheese, and bread is no exception. [...]]]>
I am continually amazed by how many variations and adaptations of bread exist. You can add pretty much anything to bread and it will taste amazing. Pick your favorite fruit, vegetable, or beverage. I guarantee there’s a bread recipe out there for it.

Everything tastes better with cheese, and bread is no exception. Cheddar combines with chives and beer to create a wonderfully flavorful bread. The chives add a subtle onion flavor, and the beer complements the cheese.

The flavor of the month is boozy! When I saw this beer at the store, I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a recipe. I think perhaps the label drew me in. The “Simpler Times” logo is great branding. Don’t we all want to just slow down and relax every once in a while?

The six-packs of beer were part of a Trader Joe’s display including a beer bread mix. A mix? But I want to make my bread the old-fashioned way! So I picked up a six-pack (at the mighty fine price of $2.99) and went home to find a suitable recipe.

I found it in one of the cookbooks I received for Christmas. Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day takes artisan bread recipes and breaks them down into manageable chunks of time that can fit into most of our schedules.

Let’s get started! For this particular bread, the dough is mixed and kneaded before being placed in the fridge to rise for up to 4 days. This is what my dough looked like after kneading:

And after rising in the fridge overnight:

The loaves are so simple to shape. Once the dough has risen, you just roll it out into a rectangle. Then sprinkle some cheese over the top and roll it up!

Place it into the pan to rise once more.

Here’s where I got distracted and forgot to poke the loaves to prevent air from building up inside the loaf. Since the cheese is rolled up inside, air can get trapped in there and cause a cheese explosion in the oven! Some of the cheese from my loaves ended up dripping down the side a bit, and it left a large gaping hole in the bread.

The huge bubble made the loaf a little bit difficult to slice, but it’s very tasty!

The original recipe calls for bread flour, but since I only had 2 cups of bread flour left I made up the difference with white whole wheat flour. The bread came out delicious, and perhaps it’s even healthier this way!

Beer Cheese Bread
Adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day
Yield: 2 loaves

2 cups bread flour
4 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 cup lukewarm beer
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 small bunch fresh chives, optional (I used approximately 0.6 ounces)
7 ounces shredded cheese (I used Kerrygold Reserve cheddar)

The day before you want to bake the bread:

In a large bowl, whisk the flours and salt together. In a separate bowl, dissolve the honey into the lukewarm beer. Add the buttermilk and yeast to the beer, whisking until combined.

Pour the liquid mixture and the melted butter into the flour mixture. Mix by hand with a large spoon for about 2 minutes, or mix with the paddle attachment of your mixer on low speed.

Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes. Continue to mix by hand, or with the dough hook attachment, for another 3 minutes. If the dough is too dry, add some more beer, one tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too wet, add some more flour, 1/4 cup at a time. My dough seemed a little dry, and I ended up using an additional 2 tablespoons of beer. The dough should be soft and tacky, but not sticky. Add the chives and mix gently for an additional minute or so until incorporated.

Knead the dough in the bowl for a minute or two, and then form the dough into a large ball. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl or rising bucket that is big enough to allow the dough to double in size. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight (you can leave it in the fridge for up to 4 days).

Alternatively, if you want to bake the bread the same day, you can just let it rise at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes (until it doubles in size).

If you’ve refrigerated the dough, remove it from the fridge about 2 hours before you’d like to bake it. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Lightly flour your work surface and roll one piece of the dough into a rectangle 8 inches by 12 inches. Sprinkle 1/2 of the shredded cheese over the dough. Starting with the short end of the dough, roll it up like a rug. Pinch the seam closed with your fingertips, sealing the cheese inside. Pinch the ends closed as well. Repeat with the second half of the dough.

Place the dough, seam side down, into two greased 4 1/2 inch by 8 inch loaf pans. Alternatively, you can slice the rolled up dough into 1 1/2 inch thick slices to make rolls (and place in greased round pans instead of loaf pans). Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes, or until it rises 1 inch above the rim of the pans. My dough took about 2 hours to rise.

During the last 30 minutes of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°. Before placing the pans in the oven, poke the loaves a few times with a toothpick or skewer. This will allow air to escape and prevent the cheese from exploding through the crust while baking. Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, then bake for an additional 30 minutes. When done, the crust will be a deep golden brown. For rolls, bake for a total of 20-25 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pans immediately and cool on a cooling rack.