Garlic Cheese Bread

Hello all!  I was thinking the other day about what I was going to cook next... I thought and I thought. Then I thought about an amazing roll recipe that a good friend gave to me. But I wanted to add something new to it, so, I turned it into a loaf of bread and added garlic and cheese. What could be better I ask you!?! Nothing!!!

First you start by making the dough.

     Here are the ingredients:
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 C flour
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C softened butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1/2 C very warm water
1/2 C very warm milk
1 egg

  Mix 2 cups of the flour,

  the sugar,

  
the softened butter,

     the salt,

     and the yeast.

     Stir all those ingredients together.

Now, add in your very warm water...

  ... your very warm milk...

   ... and crack in your egg.

   Stir that together.

   Then stir in 1 cup of flour.

   Take your remaining flour and mix it in with your hands. Knead dough for five minutes.

    Shape your dough into a ball.

    Grease your bowl with olive oil and return dough to bowl.

    Cover and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about one hour.

     While you are waiting for your dough to rise make your garlic spread. I made two to try. One was cream cheese based and the other was olive oil based. Here are the recipes (each recipe makes enough spread for two loaves of bread).  -  

   4 cloves garlic (minced)
   2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
   2 tablespoons olive oil
   1/8 teaspoon salt
   1/4 teaspoon dried basil
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   4 cloves garlic (minced)
   1/4 teaspoon dried basil
   1/8 teaspoon salt
   1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
   1/4 C cream cheese
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    Starting with the olive oil based spread -

       Mince garlic.

    Add in parmesan cheese.

    Add basil.

   Add salt.

   Whisk in olive oil.

    For the cream cheese spread -

      Mince your garlic.

    Add in cream cheese.

   Add in parmesan cheese.

   Add in the salt.

     And last but not least add in the basil.

    Mix it all together.

   Now grate your cheese... I grated about 1 C of monterey jack cheese but you could use mozzarella or any other cheese you think would be nice.

    When the hour is up and the dough is doubled in size it is time to punch it down.

    Separate the dough into two balls.

    Take one of the balls of dough and separate that into three balls.

    Turn those three balls into ropes...

    Braid the three ropes together to form a loaf.

    Repeat this process with the other ball of dough.


  Now put your spread onto your loaves.

 The above two are the olive oil based spread.

The above photo is of the cream cheese spread.

    The next step is to put your cheese on top. So put about a 1/2 cup on each loaf.

 

    Cover once more and leave to rise until doubled in size again.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F 

   When doubled in size put the loaves in the oven and cook for fifteen minutes or until golden brown...

  And there you have it! In all its cheese-y goodness...

Enjoy!   Lane Elizabeth

{All the photos are credit to my wonderful sister! Check her out over at Zelda's Zoom}