Cheddar and Mustard Loaf

 

I wanted to make some bread to have alongside a barbecue at home so had a look in my Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking. This is the book that came out to accompany the series before last that was won by Nancy.

There's a whole section on bread, and I hadn't made any of the recipes from the book, so decided to have a go at the cheddar and mustard loaf. It turned out really well, even though it was left to prove for a lot longer than intended as we went round to my mother-in-law's part way through and didn't get back until late!

To make one large loaf, you need:
150g mature Cheddar, grated
500g strong white bread flour
5g salt
7g fast-action dried yeast
2.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard
300ml lukewarm milk


Mix the cheese with 1 tbsp. of the flour in a small bowl - this will stop the cheese sticking together in clumps. Put aside until later.

Put the flower, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add the mustard and milk and mix together, either by hand or in the slowest setting in your mixer.

Either turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, or if you are using something like a Kitchenaid, continue to mix on the slowest speed setting for 3 minutes. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest for 5 minutes, then add the cheese and knead again for the same length of time.

Return the dough to the bowl if necessary and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise at normal room temperature for an hour until doubled in size (personally I'd advise a warm room or a warm place as I left mine at room temperature and it didn't increase in size that much).

Then roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle. Roll up from the short end and tuck the seam under. Place in a greased loaf tin- I couldn't find mine and my dough was far too long anyway so I put it on a flat baking tray.

Put a large plastic bag over the tin and secure the ends so the dough has space to rise inside the bag. Leave again at room temperature for an hour until doubled in size.

Towards the end of the rising time preheat the oven to 190C/ Gas 5. Brush milk over the top of the loaf and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

Cool on a rack before slicing. We had a lot more bread than we needed for our barbecue and it kept for several more days which was good. You can definitely taste the cheese and mustard in it!