Extra Mature Cheddar & Red Chilli Skillet Bread 🧀🌶🍞
Prep Time: 2 hours. Bake Time: 45 minutes. Serves: 6
Extra mature cheddar and red chilli skillet bread is a bread that really got us being creative with all these Christmas cheeses. Christmas is a time that we all love to buy these specialist cheeses for our cheese boards and instead of just eating it we wanted to bake some bread with it. We absolutely love anything cheddar and the stronger the better! For this bread we chose to use an extra mature cheddar as it really compliments the red chilli and the taste is just amazing! A bread that you can eat on it’s own, toast it and have it with butter or even make your festive sandwiches out of it. Another great thing is that you can have it with those yummy homemade soups- we love it with homemade tomato soup.
Ingredients:
-500g strong bread flour
-300g extra mature cheddar
-2 medium red chillies (1 and a half finely chopped and 1/2 cut into rings)
-1tbsp salt
-2tsp yeast
-1tbsp olive oil
-500ml warm water
-1tsp olive oil
-1tbsp mixed herbs (optional)
Method:
1. Start off by adding the flour and 225g of the cheese in a large bowl and add in the chopped chillies, salt and mix well.
2. Next in a separate bowl combine the yeast and the warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Then pour the flour mixture into the water mixture and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until you have a dough.
3. Now with the spatula you need to fold the dough from the edge to the middle, rotating the bowl as you go along. Just go around the bowl once and the folding will total a number of 10 times. Once you’ve done this, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to double in size for 1 hour.
4. Once your dough has doubled in size, repeat the same step as before and fold the dough from the edge to the centre while rotating the bowl. Then cover and leave the dough for another 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to gas mark 6/ 400F/ 200C and grease a large skillet pan with a little olive oil.
6. Now take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a clean floured surface for 1 minute then place on the skillet. Using a sharp knife carve an X at the top but don’t go too deep, brush the top with a little olive oil and then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese, the herbs and add the chilli rings. Then cover with foil and place in the oven to bake.
7. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, then remove the foil carefully and place back in the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Once the bread is baked let it cool, then remove from the skillet and enjoy how you wish.
This bread has so many options with the ways you can eat it, we guarantee you’ll want to make more- the flavour and texture is just addictive…
Find you’re cheddar half this Christmas and enjoy 😉