For a reason that he himself can't explain, JK had been baking bread. He had baked every day last week, and on Friday, he asked me to bake cheddar cilantro bread with him. I've never tackled bread before, but I figured that it would be fun to learn.
For the most part, he was very faithful to this recipe. He was extremely excited about the first step: adding yeast to sugar and warm milk. "We're going to make some yeast very happy," he said cheerfully (he's a biologist - it figures this would be his favorite step). We set that aside and started making the other half of the dough: flour, salt, butter, and milk. When the yeast was done frothing up, we added that into the flour mixture.
Yeast mixture meets flour mixture.
Once that was evenly mixed, we kneaded the dough on a floured countertop. This is the part I was a little nervous about. JK mentioned how his bread had been coming out fluffy, and I didn't want to spoil that by overkneading and making the bread tough. JK also said that the best description he read about when to stop kneading dough is when it reaches the thickness of an earlobe. Once I was about that point, I had him approve of my work. We put it into an oiled bowl and let it rest for about an hour.
As it turns out, there is a lot of waiting in breadmaking.
Next came JK's second favorite part. "You literally just punch the dough," he told me. The purpose is to get rid of any air, but it was still fun - how often do you get to punch something soft and squishy like that?
Once we were done punching it, we rolled it out and spread a thin layer of melted butter on top (unfortunately, we didn't have a brush). JK spread the cheddar over the bread, which he previously mixed with oregano, garlic salt, and a liberal amount of cilantro. Then, he folded the bread in on itself and kneaded it a little to mix the cheddar throughout; he pshawed the cutting and stacking in the recipe.
He coated the exterior with more of the cheesy herb mix, and after it had rested again, we popped it into the oven for about forty minutes.
The lovely, cheesy result.
It turned out great! It was especially lovely warm, with the cheesy interior still gooey and warm. I would definitely love to make this bread again, and I hope JK will invite me to join him on more breadmaking adventures.
Until next time!
~Pink Heels
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