Jalapeño Cheddar Bread

Updated at: Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:52:46 GMT

Step 1

In a large bowl, whisk together the water, yeast, honey and extra virgin olive oil. Tip in the bread flour and fine sea salt and mix with a spoon until no dry patches of flour remain in the dough. Cover the bowl with a towel and leave for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Step 2

While the dough is resting, chop the cheese into small cubes. Drain the jalapeños from their brine and give them a good squeeze to remove any excess liquid. Roughly chop the jalapeños.

Step 3

Remove the towel from the bowl and sprinkle half of the cheese and half of the jalapeños over the surface of the dough. Dip your hand into a bowl of water (so the dough doesn't stick) and perform a series of stretch + folds on the dough. This involves grabbing one side of the dough, stretching it up and over to the other side of the bowl. Repeat this on all sides of the dough until it tightens up into a ball like shape. I normally do about 6-8 stretch and folds for each stretch + fold session. Cover the bowl and let it rest for another 15 minutes.

Step 4

Remove the towel from the bowl and scatter the remaining cheese and jalapeños over the top of the dough. Repeat the stretch + fold process once again and then cover the bowl and leave it to rest at room temperature for 1.5 hours.

Step 5

Once the dough has finished proofing in the bowl, place the Dutch oven or cast iron pot into the oven and preheat to 250C/480F (non fan/non convection).

Step 6

Now it’s time to shape the loaf. The dough will be very sticky and wet - flour is your friend here. Liberally flour your work surface and tip the dough from the bowl onto the flour. Flour your fingers and with both hands, grab the top (12 o’clock) quarter of the bread and pull it over about 2/3 of the way towards the bottom (6 o’clock). With both hands, grab the bottom quarter (6 o’clock) and pull it up and over the portion of dough you just pulled down. Repeat this pulling over motion with the right hand side (3 o’clock) and the left hand side (9 o’clock). The dough should have tightened up into a more ball-like shape. Remember you can flour your fingers between each pulling motion to help prevent sticking.

Step 7

Flip the ball upside down, ensuring there isn’t too much flour on the work surface beneath it. The smooth side of the dough should now be on the top. Dust a little bit of flour over the top of the bread and then cup your hands around the dough and slowly start pulling it around in a slow, circular shape. You’ll notice that with this gentle coaxing around in a circular motion, the ball of dough will tighten up and start to look smoother around the edges. Repeat this motion until the dough ball feels slightly taut. This shaping step is important for creating tension in the dough. More tension in the dough ensures a better rise or ‘oven spring’ as breadfolk call it.

Step 8

Once the dough has been shaped, measure out a piece of nonstick parchment paper big enough for the dough to sit in the middle with about 3 inches of extra space on at least two sides of it. The extra space (or ‘handles’) on the parchment paper is important because you need to have something to hold onto while lowering the bread into the hot pot.

Step 9

Place the shaped dough onto the middle of the parchment paper, and then flip the mixing bowl over the top of dough to cover it while it proofs for 30 minutes. The pot in the oven will continue preheating while the dough proofs under the bowl.

Step 10

After 30 minutes, it’s time to remove the mixing bowl and score the bread for baking. This is quite a wet dough, and while you can try to use a bread lame (a razor with a fancy wooden holder) for this step, I find that using a sharp serrated knife really does a good job here. No fancy equipment needed!

Step 11

With a quick and decisive swipe, make a cut in the dough from the top to bottom. If you’d like, you can make another score in the opposite direction from left to right, but one score will be enough. Scoring the dough will encourage the dough to expand in a more controlled way. Without scoring, the bread will naturally expand and burst in sporadic places, but it could potentially rise a bit less than it would with a controlled score.

Step 12

It’s now time to transfer the dough into the Dutch Oven or cast iron pot. Using heavy duty oven gloves, remove the pot from the oven and place it on to your stovetop/hob, then remove the lid from the pot and set it to the side. Carefully lift up the sides of the parchment paper and lower the bread into the pot. Be very careful not to burn your hands while making this transfer. Place the lid back on and return the pot back to the oven. Set a timer for 40 minutes.

Step 13

After 40 minutes, remove the lid to check on the colour of the bread. It will be a deep golden brown colour when it has finished baking and it should sound hollow when you tap the bottom of it. Replace the lid if you think the bread needs a few more minutes baking. My oven typically takes 43 minutes, but it could take a few minutes less or up to ten minutes longer depending on the strength of your oven - sometimes the temperature gauges are a bit off! You can always remove the lid for those last few minutes so it can crisp up a bit quicker from the direct heat of the oven.

Step 14

Once the bread has finished baking, remove the pot from the oven using heavy duty oven gloves and then transfer the bread to a cooling rack. It’s best to wait at least 30 minutes (1 hour is even better) to cut into your bread. Enjoy!

Step 15

You should expect that the crust of the bread will naturally soften a bit over time. Because of the water content in the focaccia dough recipe, the interior of this loaf should remain moist and soft for at least 2-3 days. You can store it in a linen bread bag, wrap it in a large beeswax wrap or store it in a large 6L plastic zip top bag (the crust will soften a bit more with this option).

Step 16

This makes quite a large loaf, so I will often slice half of the bread and freeze the slices in a large plastic zip top freezer bag. This way I have lovely homemade slices of bread that can be toasted from frozen on demand.

Step 17

You can also freeze the entire loaf of bread. Wait for it to cool completely and then wrap it well in aluminium foil. Then wrap the loaf in plastic wrap or slide it into a large 6L freezer bag and place it into the freezer. When you’d like to reheat it, remove it from the plastic wrap/bag but leave the foil on it. Place the foil-wrapped bread into a 175C/350F oven for 20-30 minutes. Remove the foil and let the crust crisp up for an additional 3-5 minutes. The bread should be as good as new!

Step 18

You can bake this bread without a pot. The main concern when baking a loaf of bread is that the oven is steamy enough to allow the bread to rise nicely before the crust forms. So if you plan to bake the bread on a tray, be sure to put a baking dish with hot water in the bottom of the oven as it preheats. Additionally, you can get a spray bottle and spray a few good pumps of water into the oven before closing the door for the bread to bake. If you have a big enough ovenproof stock pot, you can also try inverting this over the bread on the tray to create a mock Dutch Oven.

Step 19

Without a Dutch Oven, I suggest baking the bread at 230C/450F for 30 minutes and then turn the temperature down to 210C/410F and carefully remove the hot water/steam source from the oven. Continue baking for another 10-15 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom of it.

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