You alright Joe?

I’ve been feeling a bit rough the last couple weeks. Breaduary, though, has been a bit of a saviour. So here comes the 3rd addition of this bready adventure. Pictured in this post is a Walnut, Cheddar and Stilton loaf, but really, this recipe comes alive when you add in whatever combination of nuts and cheese you have at home.

You know Breaduary is actually takin off a bit on Instagram, there are some really cool bakers that have been doing it along with me, and there’s a handful of other bakers that saw our invitation to get involved…and they did! Been posting their contributions with #breaduary.

I feel like we should introduce ourselves again for newcomers to Cake On My Face. My name’s Caitlin, I’m a student in Glasgow. Joe, the one I’m chatting to in this post, is my brother. He’s a published poet currently working in London. Have a lil look at my About page for a bit more info on Joe’s poetry.

Ok. Bread! Really, this loaf is for Dad. He kept asking me for a walnut loaf and he always seems to have 4 Tesco three cheese bloomers on the go at once so I thought I combine the two. This recipe is adapted from Paul Hollywood’s cheese loaf and Dan Leopards Walnut Loaf. I’ve designed it to be able to incorporate any combination of nuts and cheese, so go wild. Red Leicester, Jarlsberg, Cheddar, Stilton all work really well. Maybe leave out the cottage cheese? Really, any nuts work in this. For those that are allergic to nuts whack in some (very very expensive) pine nuts. Pine nuts are Kernels NOT nuts. Give it a google.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 7g (1 sachet) dried yeast
• 7g salt
• 25g unsalted butter, softened
• 320ml warm water (you may not need all of this)
• 100g walnuts, chopped roughly into decent sized chunks (you can use any nuts here. Hazelnuts, cashews and pine nuts work well)
• 80g, cheddar cheese, crumbled
• 50g blue cheese, like stilton, crumbled (substitute the cheddar and/or stilton with any cheese you like. For this bread you want 130g cheese in total)
• Oil, any kind, to knead

Method

Combine the flour and yeast in a bowl. Add in the salt, butter and mix again. Pour in 300ml of the water. Give everything a mix with a spoon, forming a shaggy ball of dough. If there is still some dry flour in the bowl, gradually add more water from the remaining 20ml until all flour is hydrated. This dough drinks up water with a passion, so don’t don’t be afraid to add water until it’s a little on the sticky side. The water will incorporate as you knead and you’ll end with a lovely soft bread.

Tip the dough onto a lightly oiled work surface. Knead for about 10 mins until the dough is smooth, elastic and tacky (so, not very sticky). Knead any way you like: roll, fold, pummel, squash. Just really get it moving. When the dough is kneaded whack it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel or cling film and set it in a warm place to prove (rise) until it’s doubled in size. This will take about an hour.

When the dough has risen, tip out into a worksurface, flatten out and tip over half of the nuts and cheese. Fold the dough around the nuts and cheese, so you have a little parcel. Flatten this again and tip the other half of the nuts and cheese over the flattened parcel. Press the inclusions into the dough with your palms and then give the dough a short knead for as long as it takes for the nuts and cheese to be incorporated into the dough. It will feel like there is too much nuts and cheese, but it will eventually incorporate together. Some little bits may just not want to stay in the dough, let them stay out.

Flatten out the nutty cheesy dough into a wide rectangle, and roll it up tightly into a sausage. With the seam of the dough sausage on the work surface, tuck in the ends gently to seal them together. Roll the dough a couple of times with your hands on the ends of the susage to tapper the ends slightly, light an elongated lemon. This is only to make the dough into a pleasing shape, you don’t have to do it if your happy with the sausage shape.

Put the shaped loaf, seam side down, on a lightly flour baking tray. Cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave in the warm spot until doubled in size again (about 45 mins). Pre heat the oven to 220 / 200 (fan oven).

Dust the dough with flour and scour it with a very sharp knife, making criss-cross cuts across the top of the loaf. Bake for 35 – 40 mins until it is the colour you like. Allow the bread to cool down a bit before cutting into it.

Have a good bread! The last bread of Breaduary is out next week, and she is a fruity one, yummmm. Speak then xx