I belong to a group on Facebook called the Cook’s Cook Community Forum. I love this group! It has almost 90,000 members who post pictures of their food and baked goods, share their recipes and give lots of encouragement. One of the group members posted his picture and recipe for Jalapeno Cheddar bread and it had me practically drooling. I figured I had to make it for myself since he was kind enough to share the recipe.

The thought of cheddar cheese and jalapeno peppers is what drove me to make this bread. How can you go wrong? The recipe calls for 2 cups of cheddar and 2 jalapenos chopped and seeded. Both were the perfect amounts for the bread dough. It’s a very wet dough so I used a dough hook in my stand mixer. The dough goes through two rises to develop flavor and a soft crumb.

The results were more than I bargained for! The crust was just that…crusty with a soft middle. Oh yum! The taste? Well I’ll let you be the judge of that. I will say that the flavor of the bread developed overnight. But that’s my opinion.

I’ve included a video from my YouTube channel that shows the process of making this fabulous bread. Give it a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it really is to make bread.

Jalapeño Cheddar Bread

Ingredients 

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups cheddar divided 2 cups and ½ cup
• 2 jalapenos seeded, chopped
• 1 jalapeno sliced
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Dutch Oven 

Parchment paper

Technique:

1. Pre heat oven with Dutch Oven inside to 450*F.
2. In bowl for a stand mixer, combine warm water and yeast. Add flour, 2 cups cheddar cheese, two chopped jalapeños, and salt.
3. Mix with a dough hook in a stand mixer until all ingredients are incorporated well. Dough will be very sticky. 
4. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 60 minutes. 
5. Push dough down with a spatula and let rest another 60 minutes or until doubled in size. 
6. Carefully place dough on parchment paper sprinkled with flour.  Sprinkle hands with flour and shape dough into a circular mound.  Use more flour on hands if dough is too sticky.
7. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. 
8. After 30 minutes, brush top of dough with olive oil and sprinkle ½ cup of cheese on top.
9. Score Dough with a  sharp knife in an X pattern and place sliced jalapenos evenly on top. 
10. Take Dutch Oven out of oven and lower parchment paper with dough into Dutch Oven, cover and place in oven for 30 minutes covered and additional 20 minutes uncovered.
11. Slide bread out of Dutch Oven, take off parchment paper, and place on wire rack to cool for one hour