Making bread is one of my favorite past-times, but I get stuck in a rut making the same thing. White bread. Wheat bread. Flour tortillas. Corn tortillas. A friend came to visit, so I decided to experiment.
Cheddar Pull Apart Loaf in a Dutch Oven
Cheddar Olive Pull Apart Loaf is based on an old recipe in my favorite bread book from the 1970’s. Easy to make, I baked it in a Dutch oven. The original recipe indicated the bread could be baked in a ring on parchment paper, but the Dutch oven loaf idea seemed so pretty. It turned out beautifully.
If I were to change this recipe at all, I would chop the olives in half, and not mince them. Also, I would add double the cheese for more cheesy goodness. But my friend and I were rearranging the photography studio during the rising time, and the double tasking made me nervous that my experiment would go awry. At the end of the day, all was well…A beautiful studio and a beautiful loaf of bread.
Experiment a little
Baking in a Dutch oven is a great skill to learn in your kitchen so that you can then try it over an open fire when you go camping. I didn’t use the lid when I baked this recipe as I thought the bread would rise too high. You can see that it did. But if you have a deeper Dutch oven than the one I used, try baking with the lid on. If you need to use the lid for outdoor baking, and think the dough will push against the lid, simply grease the lid and place it on the pot during the second rise time right before you bake. Your crusts will be dense, and your friends will be charmed with freshly baked bread.
We did just about everything possible to our Cheddar Olive Pull Apart Loaf during my friend’s visit…we made toast, we made sliders, and ate chunks of it warm with gobs of butter.
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