Cheddar and Black Pepper Bread

        date:

With pockets of melted cheese and a generous punch of coarsely ground pepper, this cheddar and black pepper bread has everything you love about quick cheese bread in a yeasted, rustic loaf.

cheddar pepper bread | cooklikeachampion.com

Bread is one of my favorite foods to bake. I love the process of it. Weighing the ingredients, shaping the dough, the smell of it as it bakes. In a year that has been full of unexpected changes, baking is one thing that still steadies me. Baking makes me happy. It always has. These days, especially, I’m all about available joy, and baking is one of the ways I find it.

The last almost year since our stay at home orders were first put in place has been the strangest passage of time I’ve experienced in entire my life. Time has felt simultaneously at a stand still and moving at warp speed. Our days look the same, day to day and week to week. But then I look at the kids and their outgrown clothes and shoes and am reminded that time is still moving even when it feels like the world stopped. I look at all the ways they’ve grown since this time last year. My four year old is reading, like really reading. My eight year old has handled frequently changing schedules, virtual school, and uncertainty with compassion and resilience.

I have mostly been baking my feelings from the last year, which, if you know me, is no surprise. (See: pizza wheels, chocolate muffins, and coffee cocoa cake.) Baking gives me the same feeling I get when doing certain workouts. I have to focus fully on it, so my mind doesn’t wander. Baking has always given me that feeling, which is why it’s always felt therapeutic to me.

This cheddar and black pepper bread is basically an elevated quick cheese bread. It’s a yeasted bread that yields a rustic and delicious loaf, perfect for everything from sandwiches to dunking in soups.

cheddar cheese pepper bread | cooklikeachampion.com
  • COOK TIME:
  • YIELD: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • For the sponge:

  • ⅔ cup (3⅔ ounces) bread flour

  • ½ cup (4 ounces) water, room temperature

  • ⅛ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

  • For the dough:

  • 2⅓ dough (12¾ ounces) bread flour

  • 1¼ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast

  • 1¼ teaspoons coarsely ground pepper

  • 1 cup (8 ounces) water, room temperature

  • 2 teaspoons salt

  • 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded, room temperature (2 cups)

NOTES:

Look for a cheddar aged for about one year. (Avoid cheddar aged for longer; it won’t melt well.) Use the large holes of a box grater to shred the cheddar. If you have a banneton, you can use that instead of the towel-lined colander. This recipe calls for using lava rocks, like the ones used in gas grills, in a foil pan to create steam in the oven. If you can’t find any, you can pour water into a cast iron skillet instead.

Directions
  • 1

    Start by making the sponge. Stir all ingredients in 4-cup liquid measuring cup with wooden spoon until well combined. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until sponge has risen and begins to collapse, about 6 hours. (The sponge can sit at room temperature for up to 24 hours.)

  • 2

    To make the dough, whisk flour, yeast, and ¾ teaspoon pepper together in bowl of stand mixer. Stir water into sponge with wooden spoon until well combined. Using a dough hook on low speed, slowly add sponge mixture to flour mixture and mix until a cohesive dough starts to form and no dry our remains, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed.

    Cover bowl tightly with plastic and let dough rest for 20 minutes.

  • 3

    Add salt to dough and knead on medium-low speed until dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides of bowl, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low, slowly add 1 cup cheddar, ¼ cup at a time, and mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to lightly greased large bowl or container, cover tightly with plastic, and let rise for 30 minutes.

  • 4

    Using a greased bowl scraper or your fingertips, fold dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 45 degrees and fold dough again; repeat turning bowl and folding dough 6 more times for a total of 8 folds. Cover tightly with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat folding and rising every 30 minutes, 3 more times. After fourth set of folds, cover bowl tightly with plastic and let dough rise until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1½ hours.

  • 5

    Mist the underside of large linen or cotton tea towel with water. Line a banneton or 5-quart colander with towel and dust evenly with flour. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter (side of dough that was against bowl should now be against counter). Press and stretch dough into 10-inch square, deflating any gas pockets larger than 1 inch.

  • 6

    Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheddar evenly over dough, leaving ½-inch border around edges. Roll dough away from you into snug cylinder. Pinch seam closed. Turn cylinder seam side up and roll away from you into a snug spiral, ending with tail end on bottom. Pinch side seams together to seal. Using your cupped hands, drag dough in small circles on counter until dough feels taut and round and all seams are secured on underside of loaf. (Some cheese may become exposed.)

  • 7

    Place loaf seam side up in prepared colander and pinch any remaining seams closed. Loosely fold edges of towel over loaf to enclose, then place colander in a large plastic bag. Tie, or fold under, open end of bag to fully enclose. Let rise until loaf increases in size by about half and dough springs back minimally when poked gently with your knuckle, 30 minutes to 1 hour (remove loaf from bag to test).

  • 8

    One hour before baking, adjust oven racks to lower-middle and lowest positions. Place baking stone on upper rack, place 2 disposable aluminum pie plates filled with 1 quart lava rocks each on lower rack, and heat oven to 450ºF. Alternatively, you can use a cast iron skillet.

    When it’s nearly time to bake, bring 1 cup water to boil. Remove colander from garbage bag, unfold edges of towel, and dust top of loaf with flour. (If any seams have reopened, pinch closed before dusting with our.) Lay 16 by 12-inch sheet of parchment paper on top of loaf. Using 1 hand to support parchment and loaf, invert loaf onto parchment and place on counter. Gently remove colander and towel. Transfer parchment with loaf to pizza peel.

  • 9

    Carefully pour ½ cup boiling water into 1 aluminum pie plate of preheated rocks (or the preheated skillet) and close oven door for 1 minute to create steam. Meanwhile, holding lame concave side up at 30-degree angle to loaf, make two 7-inch-long, ½-inch-deep slashes with swift, fluid motion along top of loaf to form cross. Sprinkle top of loaf with remaining ½ teaspoon pepper.

  • 10

    Working quickly, slide parchment with loaf onto baking stone and pour remaining ½ cup boiling water into second aluminum pie plate of preheated rocks. Bake until crust is dark brown and loaf registers 205º to 210ºF, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating loaf halfway through baking. Transfer loaf to wire rack, discard parchment, and let cool completely, about 3 hours, before serving.

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COMMENTS: ( 2 )

2 responses to “Cheddar and Black Pepper Bread”

  1. It is so so strange to look back on last year at this same time. If only we knew then what we know now. Bread baking, cooking have definitely been solaces this year. Love the flavor combo in this – 100% making this, maybe to go with some tomato soup?

    • Courtney says:

      It almost feels like a different lifetime, looking back at moments I didn’t know would be the last feelings of normalcy. Yes, this bread would be perfect with tomato soup!

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