Roasted Garlic & Pepper Jack Cheese Bread

As most of you already know, I've been on a bit of a bread-baking kick. Pretty much anything with yeast and I've been baking it! I came across this recipe for cheese bread in my Joy of Cooking cookbook and I had some roasted garlic on hand and some left over pepper jack cheese from Tillamook Cheese Factory. So I tossed that in and it turned out to be an absolutely delicious recipe for bread.

Roasted Garlic & Pepper Jack Cheese Bread

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking, p 598

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 pkgs ( 1 1/2 tbsp) active dry yeast
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese (or any cheese you want)
• 1 head roasted garlic
• 5-6 cups all purpose flour
• parmesan cheese and red chili flakes for sprinkling

Method:

1. Heat milk until warm. Add sugar, butter and salt. Remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, combine the warm water and yeast and let stand about 5 minutes, or until dissolved. Stir in the milk mixture. Add the egg, cheese and garlic and beat until smooth.
3. Beat in 3 cups of the flour until well combined. Add 2-3 more cups of flour gradually until well combined and dough becomes to leave the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to well oiled bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
4. Grease 2 9x5 inch loaf pans. Punch down dough, divide it in half, and shape into 2 loaves. Place in the loaf pans and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 1 hour. Sprinkle loaves with shredded parmesan and some red chili flakes and bake in preheated oven at 375F for about 30 minutes. When the bread is done, the crust will be golden brown and the bottom of the loaf will sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to a rack to cool completely.

I hope you enjoy this bread as much as I did! Its soooo delicious I couldn't stop eating it. If you have a stand mixer this bread isn't much work because the machine will do the kneading for you - just bust out your dough hook and you're set! Happy Baking my Friends!