Cheese and Onion Bread

cheese and onion bread
This is easy bread that you can serve on its own. It's nice buttered, with some chopped apple, tomato and pickled onion alongside but it has its own savoury flavour that doesn't call for elaborate toppings.

You can rustle up an impressive artisan loaf as you get on with the rest of your morning. There, that's lunch sorted.

Cheese And Onion Bread

350g/12 oz/2⅓ cups strong plain flour
150g/5 oz/1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp instant dried yeast
2 tsp salt
Black pepper
1 medium sized onion
225g/8 oz/2 cups grated strong cheddar cheese
315ml/10 fl oz/1⅓ cups water

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and season generously with salt and pepper.

ingredients for cheese and onion bread

Finely chop the onion and roughly chop the cheese.  Stir the cheese and onion into the other ingredients.

Add the water, a little at a time, stirring until you have a firm, sticky mixture.  You may need to use slightly more or less water, depending on the particular type of flour you use.

homemade bread dough

Leave the dough to rise.  This can take several hours and you should wait until the dough has doubled in size.

bread dough rising

Knead the dough on a floured surface, forming it into a round loaf shape.

Place the loaf onto a greased baking tray and leave it to rise again for an hour or so.

When it is ready to bake, the dough will have a plump appearance and be springy to touch.

homemade bread

Bake at 230oC/450F for five minutes then 180oC/360F for a further 30 minutes. Tap the bottom of the loaf to check that it is properly cooked.  Fully cooked bread sounds hollow when you knock on it, although the density of moist onion and cheese in this dough does make it sound less hollow than my basic loaf.

how to made bread

Leave the loaf to cool on a wire rack before cutting it.

Want this recipe in a more convenient format? It's available in my ebook, available via the link in the sidebar.

4 comments:

  1. Hello I am trying this just now but got stuck at the part where you are supposed to knead it after the first proof? Its far too sticky! No idea how to knead something of this texture? Its sitting shaped as best I could into a loaf shape at the moment but doesnt seem to be rising at all. I will comment once its out of the oven! I used less water than in the recipe incase the mix was too wet, but it still is too wet (I think) x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh dear that doesn't sound quite right. At the mixing/kneading stage you can add extra flour if the dough is too sticky (or extra liquid if the dough is too stiff). Once you have a wet dough made, kneading and shaping are next to impossible. A little flour or oil on the hands and work surface can make it easier to handle but stretching and folding are not going to happen in the way that they would with a nice, clean dough. Wet dough results in a larger 'crumb' - a more open texture, bigger bubbles, so the results should be good although it won't hold its shape as effectively as firmer dough.
      I wonder why yours has ended up so wet? That hasn't been my experience with this recipe. I wonder how it will turn out? I'll look forward to hearing an update if possible! Fingers crossed!

      Delete
  2. Can anyone help? I have to make this at school on Thursday, I only have 1 hour!! Any ideas how I can prepare and bake all in 1 hour? Thanks in advance. Elizabeth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you the teacher or a student?
      As a teacher, I have managed to make bread with 11-year-olds in an hour by making a big batch of dough as a demonstration then giving them each a bit to knead and shape. Can you do bread-roll sized shapes instead of a whole big loaf? That gives you the advantage of them requiring less cooking time (say, 10 mins versus 35 - or less if you cut them smaller). Also, smaller rolls are more forgiving when it comes to proving time. A big loaf will split and crack if under-proved. Rolls do too, but somehow that isn't so bad! Does that help or have I got the wrong end of the stick?!
      Rx

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