I was really disappointed with this one just because I had high hopes and dreams for a cheesy herb bread. With that being said I feel like the bread itself was light and fluffy and I am a sucker for pull apart breads so I think a little tweaking and this could be a winner. I think that a little salt on the herb mixture would have gone a long way to improve this. The original recipe from Chew Town blog, uses grams and Celsius so I had to do some conversion so that might be why my timing was off but it seemed to work out in the end. It also uses ‘bread improver’ which I had never heard of and will have to find a couple more recipes that use it to see if I can tell a difference. I picked up a bag on Amazon for pretty cheap.
I started by mixing 4 cups of flour, 1/2 Tbsp of active dry yeast, 1/2 Tbsp of salt, 1/2 Tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of bread enhancer together. Then I added 3/4 cups of room temperature water to the bowl, mixing it well, then slowly adding the other 3/4 cup of water.
Pull the dough out of the bowl and place on a floured surface. Pour 1/2 Tbsp of olive on the dough and knead it in. As you knead the dough, continue adding flour as the dough gets sticky. Continue to knead until you get an elastic skin, about 5 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel to keep warm and allow to rise for about an hour and a half.
Punch the dough down and cut it in half. Roll out each half to about 20 inches by 10 inches, as best as a rectangle as you can get. Mine was more of an oval and it turned out fine! Melt about 2 Tbsp of butter and spread it on each half of the dough. Spread 3 cloves of chopped garlic (more or less to your taste), 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, 1/4 cup of chopped rosemary, and 1/4 cup of chopped basil. Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded Monterrey Jack cheese on each half.
Cut into rectangles about the height of your pan and stack pieces on top of each other. Carefully place them into 2 greased loaf pans and sprinkle all the good stuff that fell out on the top of the loaf. Cover the loaves with your plastic wrap and a towel and allow to rest for another 30 minutes.
The original recipe says that you can freeze the loaves now, I am testing that out so more to come. After your 30 minutes, remove the plastic wrap and bake until the tops are golden brown. I baked mine at 375 for 35 minutes and it came out a little darker than I think it should have, so next time I might try to cover it for the first half, I am not sure how that would play out but it’s worth giving it a try. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes and dig in.
Garlic Herb and Cheese Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
- 4 Cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
- 1/2 Tbsp Salt
- 1/2 Tbsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Bread Enhancer
- 1 1/2 Cup Water Room Temp.
- 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 1/4 Cup Parsley Chopped
- 1/4 Cup Basil Chopped
- 1/4 Cup Rosemary leaves Chopped
- 1 Tbsp Butter Meltted
- 2 Cup Monterrey Jack Shedded Cheese
Instructions
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Mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and bread enhancer together. Add half the water, stir, slowly add the other half of the water. Move dough to a floured surface.
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Top the dough with olive oil and start kneading. Add flour as dough becomes sticky. Continue kneading until an elastic skin forms, about 5 minutes. Return dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap and towel to say warm for 1 and a half hours.
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Punch dough down, cut in half and roll each half out to about 20x10 inches. Top with melted butter, garlic, herbs and cheese. Cut each rectangle into small rectangles a little smaller than the height and width of your pan. Stack pieces and layer them into 2 greased loaf pans. Allow to sit covered for 30 more minutes.
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Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes or until bread is golden brown on top, allow 10 minutes to cool before cutting into it.