How to Make Cheese Bread — Simple and Delicious!
Do you love a dreamy cheesy bread with the cheese oozing out the sides, and the flavors of garlic and other fresh herbs all together with butter dripping over the top? Oooooh yeah, you'll love this. And isn't it fun to know now that traditional foods like cheese and butter are not only NOT bad for us, but they're actually GOOD for us? Especially if they're from pastured cows, they're loaded with beneficial vitamins and nutrients that build up our immune system and keep our good cholesterol where it should be, plus they help keep our weight stable since they satisfy us and fill us up. (Read more about healthy fats here.)
By the way, this recipe is not for those of you who are bread-sensitive or avoiding grains. If that's you, check out my grain-free / gluten-free posts here instead. (And also, I hope you know that most of you don't need to give up grains for life – read more about that here: GAPS Diet for Rookies.)
Cheesy Buttery Pull-Apart Herb Bread — How to Make Cheese Bread
This recipe starts out with our favorite homemade pizza crust, but for more nutritional benefits, you could also make this soaked pizza crust or this sourdough pizza crust. It makes 2 cheesy pull-apart bread bowls. See more pictures below recipe.
Ingredients
Bread Ingredients:
- 1 Tablespoon yeast
- 3 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup soft butter, pastured butter is best for the most nutrients
- 1/8 cup molasses
- 1/3 cup raw honey
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme or if using fresh, a small handful chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano or if using fresh, a small handful chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried parsley or if using fresh, a small handful chopped (reserve some for the top)
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 9 cups of your favorite flour (You could use organic unbleached white flour, organic whole grain flour, I love einkorn flour these days, or also spelt flour is good. Read here about why it's good to use more alternative grains in your kitchen.)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
The other ingredients:
- 32 ounces of your favorite cheese, cubed, raw cheeses are a great option!
- More chopped or dried parsley for the top
- More garlic powder or fresh garlic chopped
- About half cup of melted butter for the top — again, pastured butter is best for the most nutrients
- 1 cup or so of shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
Butter two pie pans well. Mix your pizza dough ingredients together, adding them in the order listed, because the flour prevents the salt from damaging the yeast. You may need more or less than 9 cups of flour — play with it until the consistency feels good — not too runny or too dry. Knead for about 10 minutes — this is part of the art of breadmaking, to knead the right amount of time, not too long or too short — it'll depend on if you're doing it by hand or with my favorite method: the Bosch mixer with the bread hooks. Let rise in a warm place ideally until it has almost doubled in size, but if you're using alternative grains it may not rise as high. If your dough ends up a little sticky to work with, which is better than too dry, just butter your hands, scoop it out the best you can, separate into two pieces (or two blobs depending your dough, mine is different every time), and place into your greased pans. Let rise again until it has risen up nicely into a round loaf.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350*, or until the top is golden brown. Let cool.
Set the bread bowl on two pieces of aluminum foil (I use foil only rarely these days, but that's what works for this) — see the picture below. Cut it the way you see in the picture, in a criss-cross, and you'll need a good serrated knife for this. (At this point we packed everything up to take to our party and I assembled the rest when we got there, just before it went back into the oven to melt the cheese.) Tuck in the pieces of cubed cheese between all the cuts. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top if desired. Wrap the foil up around it, this holds the heat in more, keeps the bread from browning too much, and helps the cheese to melt.
Put it back into the oven until the cheese is oozing, about 10 minutes.
While that's in the oven, melt the butter and add in the garlic and parsley. Once the bread is done baking and the cheese is oozing, pull it out of the oven and use a pastry brush to brush the butter mixture all over the top just before serving.
Enjoy!
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Kelly the Kitchen Kop via Facebook says
January 17, 2015 at 6:12 AMJan O’Brien Schaefer Hmmm, I’m not sure about it being low-cal, but it’s all real food & that’s most important in my book, from there you can just watch your portion sizes. 🙂
Jan O'Brien Schaefer via Facebook says
January 16, 2015 at 8:36 PMOMG that looks soooo good and with so few calories. I can’t wait to make it.
Melinda says
January 16, 2015 at 10:04 AMHey Kelly!
I really love your recipes! I make them quite often for my family.
But I really wanted to say that I just noticed your new (to me) blog picture. Maybe you’ve had it awhile…I don’t know. lol I usually just pin the recipe. But it caught my eye today so I said all of that to say…I like it! 🙂
Have a wonderfully blessed day!
KitchenKop says
January 16, 2015 at 2:56 PMThanks Melinda, do you mean the one in my “Butter was Framed” shirt?
I like that one just because the shirt is so fun. 🙂
Jackie says
January 16, 2015 at 8:26 AMKelly, the bread looks and sounds delicious. I have a quick question – would parchment paper work for the cheese melting step? I try to not eat anything that touches foil during the cooking process. Just wondering your thoughts on parchment paper.
KitchenKop says
January 16, 2015 at 2:57 PMJackie,
I wanted to use parchment paper (I don’t like using foil either), but unfortunately that doesn’t stay folded around the bread to keep the heat in as it bakes to melt the cheese. So I figured for this one recipe would be okay. 🙂
Kelly