I have tried a few recipes from Pinterest, with success. I have never made bread completely from scratch, without the aid of my bread maker. I lovelovelove garlic bread, so I thought it would be fun to try the Hasselback garlic cheesy bread recipe that I had pinned months ago. It did take a lot of time, not active time, but you do need to be around the house to do the many steps in-between letting it rise.
Now, I didn’t take photos of ALL of the steps… there is a lot. But, here is the yeast, water and honey ‘working’ their magic in the bowl. This was the first step.
I did use my mixer when I added the salt and flour. Here is my beautiful bread dough. I did enjoy some pinches. Yum! You cover and let it rise.
Here is where I divided the dough into two baguette sections, and let it rise again. Then, bake… (you’ll want to follow the specific directions you’ll see down below)
While the bread is baking, prepare this. Ahh. My favorite part besides eating pinches of bread dough… the garlic butter sauce. Mmmm. Brush the bread with this yummy stuff, then bake again.
Remove from oven and let the bread cool. Then, cut the bread in slices, and brush the garlic butter in-between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. The recipe calls for white cheddar, but I am from St. Louis so I used PROVEL cheese. YUMMMMM. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
Delish! I made this with a delicious pizza casserole that I also got off of Pinterest, and I’ll share that recipe with you later next week. They both complimented each other very well!
Here is the recipe…
Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread
1 cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 envelope Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 Teaspoons)
1 teaspoon Salt
3 cups Bread Flour
Olive Oil, For Greasing Surfaces
1/3 pounds Sharp White Cheddar, Or Any Other Cheese You Prefer
1/2 cup Garlic Butter
In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together.
Let yeast proof 5 minutes.
Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments. (If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or stir)
Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away.
Let the machine knead the dough. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched shouldn’t leave any dough on your fingers.
Grease the bowl and the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet.
I like to twist mine because it looks cool, but it also keeps its length and doesn’t shrink. Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes.
Start to preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place dough close to the oven where it’s nice and warm. Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap, from the dough reduce oven to 350F, put the bread into the oven and bake 20 minutes.
In the meantime, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter.
Pull loaves of bread out of the oven after 20 minutes and brush with the melted garlic butter. Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begins to turn a golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.
Cut 1-inch slices 3/4’s of the the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
