Braided Cheese Bread

Cheese Bread has been a favorite at my family’s table for decades. Tender and flavorful this bread is delicious served with ham, turkey or most any family or festive dinner. Shape this lovely dough into braided loaves or, if you prefer, round pull-apart rolls to serve for brunch, dinner or an afternoon snack.

A Collection of My Best Recipes

This week I am pulling together the recipes I plan to use over the holiday season. Some are quite old. Several of those recipes come from my family and friends. Others I clipped from magazines or newspapers over the years. Still more are on my bookshelves in a variety of cookbooks.

Happily, these days I have quite a few of those family favorites posted at My Own Sweet Thyme. I can easily look up the recipe for my favorite Corn Salad with Pecan Dressing, and for the Rustic Apple Pie I will be making later this week without remembering which book it comes from. I can also find the recipe for the Pumpkin Pancakes we used to make on Thanksgiving weekend without rummaging through my old clippings. Even the recipe for the pretty little Pomegranate Goat Cheese Tarts I created some years ago is easily found through my search box at the top of the page.

There are also a couple of yeast bread recipes that I like to make during the season. These last few years I have been making sourdough bread regularly and it is what we use on a daily basis. As a result, our favorite yeast bread recipes have fallen into disuse.

With the holidays nearly here I looked to My Own Sweet Thyme to remind me how to make Pumpkin Yeast Bread. Then I looked for my other all-time favorite, Cheese Bread, only to realize I’ve never posted it. What? That is crazy! It is definitely time to add this great recipe to my blog.

One Longtime Favorite

I’ve been making Cheese Bread and Pumpkin Braids for decades now. In fact Cheese Bread is one of the first yeast breads I ever made. When I began baking bread I was still in college. At the end of a semester I would dive into the process of mixing, kneading and shaping the dough. I liked the physicality, the effort involved. The result was celebratory and fully appreciated. 

This recipe comes from a slim book I bought around that time. Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Bread Recipes has been on my kitchen bookshelf ever since. It still has a small oval price sticker on the front that reads $3.95. Cheese Bread is on page 15. The paper is warped along the edge. A spot of flour paste marks the page opposite and at the top, over the this recipe for Cheese Bread, there are several stains. A handwritten note, to omit the chopped pimiento, decorates the margin and another reminds me to substitute cheddar cheese for American. 

I still love this recipe. I think I have probably used it to make Cheese Bread at least once or twice a year ever since.  My family expects it around the holidays, but it works well at any time of year. The recipe is fairly simple. It requires just a few ingredients that you probably have on hand right now. It makes a smooth dough that bakes into a soft rich bread, perfect for rolls or braids.

Updating the Process

It’s been some time since I’ve kneaded this recipe by hand. These days I enjoy the ease of using a bread machine to make my yeast doughs. I put the ingredients in according to the manufacturer’s directions and let it run until the dough is ready. Then I remove the dough and shape it by hand. I like to make braided loaves but recently I found it makes great rolls too. 

Braiding is my favorite way to shape yeast dough. I have been shaping loaves this way for many years now. It’s not that hard to learn but I understand that it can seem challenging, especially if you are new to bread-baking.

If you’d rather not braid the dough you can still enjoy this delicious Cheese Bread. Instead of braideing loaves of Cheese Bread you can divide the dough for each loaf into a dozen or so equal portions. Then simply roll each portion of dough into a ball and arrange them in a baking pan. These easy to shape pull apart Cheese Rolls work great for brunch or dinner. The directions are included in a note below the recipe.

Braided Cheese Bread

Course: BreadCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium

Servings

2

loaves

Prep time

30

minutes

Baking time

20

minutes

Rising Time

2

hours 

30

minutes

Total time

3

hours 

20

minutes

This longtime family favorite incorporates cheddar cheese in a smooth dough that makes delicious loaves to go with most any festive or family meal.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk

• 1 egg

• 4 – 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 Tablespoons sugar

• 1 package active dry yeast (Or 1 Tablespoon Bread Machine Yeast)

• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

• Add all ingredients to a bread machine according to manufacturer’s directions. Set the machine to ‘manual’ so that you can take the dough, when ready, and shape the loaves yourself.
  (If you are not using a bread machine you can follow these steps instead:
  a. Mix 2 cups of flour and the yeast in a large mixer bowl.
  b. In a small saucepan, heat and stir the milk, sugar and salt over low heat until warm, 115 to 120F.
  c. Add warm ingredients to the flour mixture. Add the egg and cheese. With an electric mixer, beat ingredients at low speed, for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat another 3 minutes at high speed. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can with a spoon.
  d. Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic, approximately 10 minutes.
  e. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn once.
  f. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place until double, approximately 90 minutes.
  Now continue as follows.)
• When the dough is ready, punch down and divide it into 6 equal portions. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
• To make 2 Braided Loaves: roll each portion into a rope 15 inches long. Place ropes side by side on a greased baking sheet, one inch apart. Shape into two braids using 3 ropes for each, beginning in the middle and working out to the ends of the loaves. Pinch ends and tuck under. Cover loaves and let them rise until nearly double (approximately 1 hour).
• Bake at 375F for 15 – 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• Recipe Source: Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Bread Recipes, page 15.
• To give loaves a little shine, brush the top of the loaves lightly with a bit of egg wash (made from an egg beaten with a Tablespoon of water) just before baking. Or sprinkle the top of the loaf with a little grated cheese, if desired.
• This dough can also be used to make rolls, which are great for brunch or dinner. Instead of dividing dough into six pieces in step 2, above, divide the dough into two equal halves, cover and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Then divide each half into 16 equal pieces. shape each piece into a ball and arrange them in a greased 9-inch round cake pan with ten pieces on the outside ring, five inside those and one in the center. Brush the tops with butter and sprinkle with a bit of grated cheese if desired. Cover and let rise until nearly double and bake as directed above.