Cheese Bread

Photo © Anne-Marie Minhall

The last Bank Holiday of summer.

The next one will be Christmas :-)

Three of us would be in work for Monday so, obviously, food plans were made.

I suggested cheese scones. Salty butter, too.

Some chutney or pickles might be nice with those, came another voice.

There were also murmurings of macarons & madeleines for a sweet treat.

Sunday arrives & I'm all ready to start baking.

Uh oh.

The only plain flour I have in is of the strong bread variety plus some organic stuff with spelt and seeds. Too heavy for a scone.

Change of plan. Bread making time.

Here's what I went with.

Oven at 200C/400F/Gas 6

200g Plain White Bread Flour

250g Spelt Flour

4tsps Baking Powder

85g Butter Cubed (nice & cold)

350ml Milk

150g Strong Mature Cheddar Grated (Or any other grown up cheese)

100g Emmental Grated

1tsp English Mustard Powder

1/2tsp Za'atar

1 Egg Beaten

Sift the flours & baking powder into a bowl plus a generous pinch of salt

Butter is in next and then rub in with your fingertips to make breadcrumb-like texture

Add the milk, stir, (wooden spoon is best), pop the cheese in plus the mustard powder & Za'atar

A soft dough is about to come together thanks to your gentle kneading

Shape the dough into a soft & rough round then place onto a floured baking tray

Sharp knife to hand to make deep cuts

Brush the beaten egg over the top plus any leftover cheese before the oven calls

Bake for 30 minutes

I warmed the bread through once at the office.

Then came the butter.

On the last Monday of August, we all agreed that more comfort food was on the horizon.

AMM