Anadama Bread with Cheddar Cheese

This was the September bread for my father-in-law. I have Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book checked out from the library. Only a handful of recipes are 100% whole grain, but many of the others are interesting and worth an attempt with modifications to use more whole grains. This recipe is called Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese and recommends Tillamook mild cheddar cheese. What I had at home was not the famous Tillamook brand and it was medium, not mild. The recipe uses all purpose or bread flour for the flour. The measures are given in cups and not by weight. So there was a some room to make changes and also to test the 'right-feel-of-the-dough-consistency', that is supposed to come to a baker after baking bread for a while.

I made half the recipe, one 9 x 5 loaf pan worth. I decided to make a round loaf in the cast-iron combo cooker.

Ingredients

Cornmeal is cooked in water until bubbly and thickened. The cheese, honey and butter are stirred in and the mixture is allowed to cool. Yeast is dissolved in warm water. Flour and salt are mixed in the large bowl. For the 3 - 3¼ cups of bread flour, I used 180 g of whole wheat flour and 214 g of bread flour. (about 1½ cup each)

Ready for mixing

I let the dough rest for 5 minutes after getting the ingredients together before kneading for about 7-8 minutes. The dough was fairly easy to knead inspite of the gooey cheese mixture.

1:04 pm: Ready for first rise

2:06 pm: Well risen (touched the covering lid and flattened)

The recipe does not require a second rise, but I decided to do it.

2:07 pm: Ready for second rise.

The recipe suggests flattening the dough, spreading melted butter and then sprinkling some sweet paprika before rolling the dough jelly-roll style. This would result in a hairline-swirl in the crumb. I skipped this step.

2:36 pm: Shaped

3:08 pm: Proofed, slashed, ready for the oven

3:56 pm: Looking good

Sliced well with an even crumb

The bread
Mom and Dad (in-law) liked the bread. The flavor of the cheese was very subtle, in a good, not-over-powering, way. This surprised me because it seemed like a lot of cheese (1 C / 4 oz) to add to a loaf of bread.

Notes
Date: Sept 3, 2011
Recipe: Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour, cornmeal
Bread specific ingredients: Cheddar cheese,
Sweetener used: Honey
Liquid: Water

Comments: Using bread flour makes the bread making easier and fun because a good rise is almost guaranteed. It's definitely good to try again, but a similar recipe I made later (look out for that post soon), would be a better option for a bread with cheese. I don't have comments about how well this bread lasted, but I know the receivers thought it was delicious.

-RPH