Beer & Cheddar Spicy Pull Apart Bread

(This post is part of an ongoing series on the 2014 Singapore Blog Awards, sponsored by Panasonic.)

This is a savoury, delicious and impressive looking bread that is good enough to eat at home, or serve at parties. I've made this a few times by making the dough by hand and it is always a conversation piece. The kids love to participate in shaping, stuffing and baking it, as it is quite fun to make, and half the fun is waiting for the bread to "bloom" and transform into something really beautiful.

The bread itself has the taste of stout beer, accentuated by the spicy, cheesy, herb filled filling.

This time, instead of doing the bread by electric mixer and hand kneading like I usually do, I used the Panasonic Bread Maker and it not only saved me at least 2 hours, but also resulted in a smooth, perfectly kneaded dough, which gave way to a bigger, puffier loaf! From now on, I am going to use a bread maker to make this bread. (I never thought I would ever say that....my Le Cordon Bleu Boulangerie teacher will kill me! Shhhh!)

BEER & CHEDDAR SPICY PULL APART BREAD

This recipe is adapted from Deb Perelman's blog, Smitten Kitchen. Her recipe was made with an electric mixer. I hereby declare that this recipe below is now the Bread Maker version. :)

280 grams bread flour
50 grams butter, chopped into cubes (put in ref first and take out once you start baking)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 egg (25 grams)
1 teaspoon instant, dry yeast
160 ml stout beer, chilled to 5 deg C temperature (don't include foam when you measure; just the liquid part)

FILLING:

3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dijonnaise mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry Italian herbs
Dash of freshly ground pepper
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

Procedure:

1.  Put all the bread ingredients, except the yeast, into the bread pan.

2.  Put the yeast in the dispenser. Close the lid, and press Menu 9. The machine will knead for about 15 minutes and after that, there will be a resting period of 50  minutes.

3.  In the meantime, prepare the baking pan. I use a silicone loaf pan, for ease of taking out the bread. Brush this with oil.

4. Prepare the filling by heating and melting the butter. Off the fire, add the mustard, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside.

5. In a separate bowl, mix together the cheese, paprika, herbs, pepper, salt and chili flakes.

6. After the resting period, the Bread Maker will beep. Take out your dough (use oven mitts!). Put it onto a clean, floured surface. Roll it flat into a square. I really don't measure; just roll out into a square shape. Make sure the surface is sprinkled with flour so the dough won't stick.

The dough is shiny and smooth. Tbh, I couldn't have achieved this kind of consistency with kneading with my own hands (not that expert yet!).

Roll flat on a floured surface, with a rolling pin.

7. Cut the dough lengthwise into 4 strips. Brush with the butter mixture. Spoon the cheese mixture on top.

8. Get the next strip and put it on top of the first one. Do the same. Don't worry if the strips are uneven in width. The dough will expand anyway, so it won't matter. Do the same for the third and fourth strip.

9. You may end the top layer with more cheese, or a generous brushing of the butter mixture. Slice the thick strip into 6 equal pieces, to get 6 stacks of squares.

10. Get your baking pan and let it stand on its end. Stack the squares, brushing the top layer of each one, before you put the next one. Once you have all the squares in, brush the top and sides of the dough with more of the butter mixture.

11. Cover the pan with a clean plastic sheet tucked under the pan, or a clean tea towel. Let it rise some more for at least another hour. (For my case, I let it rise for 3 more hours, since we went out to dinner).

12. After the rising period, remove the plastic.  Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Bake the bread for 20 to 30 minutes, making sure that you turn the pan halfway through the process. Bake until it's golden brown.

As you can see from this picture, the dough has fully risen and filled out the baking pan. Compare it with the first photo under no. 11 above.

13. Remove from the pan gently and put on a bread board or chopping board.

Serve warm and let your guests pull the pieces apart. That's why it's called Pull Apart Bread! Bon appetit!