ARTISAN BREAD

Yesterday morning I started to make an artisan bread. In one of my previous postings I gave the recipe that I follow from a Bonnie Stern cookbook. After letting the dough sit for 24 hours in a bowl covered by saran wrap and covered by a tea towel, I could start on the next step.

This morning I decided to add shredded cheddar cheese to the dough before you let it rise for two hours. I added about a cup to the dough. The recipe calls for the dough to sit on a well floured tea towel for two hours. You fold over the tea towel to cover the dough. Even though you cover the bottom of the tea towel with flour the dough can be sticky when lifting if off of the tea towel. My sister-in-law started to use parchment paper as the liner on top of the tea towel. She found it easier and the dough didn't stick in the same way to the parchment paper. I used this technique this morning and the process was less messy especially dealing with dough that can stick to a tea towel.

I provided several pictures in this posting. The top pictures are grated cheese and the dough in the heated dutch oven before it goes into the oven for baking. The bottom two pictures shows the finished product. I love the heel from the loaf of fresh homemade bread and that piece I cut off from the warm loaf was all mine. I didn't have to share it. I put a little bit of butter on the bread as nothing tastes as good as butter slightly melted on a piece of fresh cheese bread. Until next time....