Cheese and Cumin bread – Video

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Hello friends!

Do you know when you buy an ingredient for a recipe, but you don’t have the recipe yet? That’s how this bread happened!

Strolling down the grocery store I found an English cheese and I knew I wanted to use it in a bread recipe. I could almost smell it! There are many recipes of loaves with cheese inside, breadsticks stuffed with cheese, etc. But I wanted to make something different.

In Spain, bread is always on the table and in my home, my parents always had a wedge of cheese. Every Friday evening, before dinner, my dad would slice some cheese and we’d all eat it with a piece of bread.

At that time, the local bakery started to make a new type of bread, it was called “torta de aceite”, it was a soft bread made with olive oil. The shape and texture were similar to focaccia, but without toppings and a more delicate crumb. We all loved that bread and we started to enjoy it every Friday evening with our cheese 😊

Then I thought… What if I make a similar type of bread with cheese on top? I was drooling just thinking about it.

I decided to add cumin seeds to this recipe because I also remember my parents used to buy a type of cheese with cumin seeds, and I loved that flavor combination! If you haven’t tried it yet, I encourage you to do so and see if you like it too. But if you don’t like cumin, you can skip it or change it by something you like better.

This bread has an intense aroma and is very soft, with a delicate crumb. You can use it to accompany meals, or as an appetizer, or even as a snack on a Friday evening 😊

The egg and olive oil add fat to the dough and this allows the bread to be very soft and last fresh for several days, although I doubt it’ll last too long!

So, without further ado, let’s get to the recipe!

First, as always, we need to activate the yeast. In this case, I added some sugar to feed the yeast.

Then we mix in the egg and cumin seeds and combine very well.

NOTE: you can add the oil to the wet ingredients now, I prefer to add it later because I think the crumb turns out spongier. But that’s my preference. Just make sure you knead the dough well.

Now we let the dough hydrate for a few minutes before we start kneading.

Add the oil and incorporate it very well. Then knead the dough until it’s soft, elastics, and shiny.

Let the dough rise until it has doubled or tripled in size

Deflate the dough well and let it rest 20 mins.

Shape the dough. You can shape it into a circle, a rectangle… whatever you prefer!

Cut the cheese and put it on top of the dough. I used an aged cheese, and that’s what I’d recommend. I wouldn’t use shredded cheese because: 1) it’ll burn and 2) it doesn’t have the strong aroma of aged cheese.

NOTE: if you prefer a flatter bread, shape it thinner and make sure you pierce large air pockets.

Cover the dough with a clean cotton cloth and preheat your oven at 360F for about 20 mins

This will be the time we’ll let the dough rise, when the oven is ready, brush the bread with egg wash and bake it for 30 mins or until it’s done and has a deep golden brown color.

Your kitchen is going to smell heavenly!

When the bread is ready let it cool down on a cooling rack… If you can!

Let me know what you think about this recipe and if you like it, thumbs up on the video and subscribe to my channel!

Happy baking!