Simple and Delicious Cheese Bread
If you are ever in need of a quick and delicious bread to serve with dinner, look no further- this simple cheese bread is fantastic.
If you are ever in need of a quick and delicious bread to serve with dinner, look no further. This bread is fantastic.
It requires no yeast (for those of you scared of yeast breads or for those who didn’t plan enough time for bread to rise – like I would ever do that!) and is moist and flavorful.
The bread is laden with pockets of sharp cheddar cheese and if serving it with a main course doesn’t convince you to love it, eating it as toast the next day will.
The recipe is simple and fairly quick with the only time constraint coming because the recipe cautions to let the bread cool for 45 minutes before cutting – I’m afraid I don’t aways get that far and while it may crumble a bit from being cut into while warm, it is always worth it.
Another fantastic recipe from Cook’s Illustrated that helped me change up the same old side dishes I always serve with dinner.
Simple and Delicious Cheese Bread
Ingredients
- 3 ounces (85 g) Parmesan cheese, shredded on large holes of box grater (about 1 cup)
- 3 cups (426 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 4-5 ounces (113 to 142 g) sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk, 2% milk may be substituted but don’t use skim milk
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) butter, melted
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- ¾ cup (170 g) sour cream
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position in the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 5 by 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, then sprinkle 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese evenly in bottom of pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper to combine. Using a rubber spatula, mix in cheddar cheese cubes, breaking up clumps, until cheese is coated with flour.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, melted butter, egg, and sour cream.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined (the batter will be heavy and thick). Do not overmix. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; spread to sides of pan and level surface with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan evenly over surface.
- Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
- Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes; invert loaf from pan and continue to cool until warm, about 45 minutes. Cut into slices and serve.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
My family loves this recipe! It’s been a while since I’ve made it, but it’s on the menu for this week.
So I made this delicious looking bread last Monday, froze it whole on Tuesday to take camping this weekend. It spent all week in the freezer. When I pulled it out and let it thaw on Saturday, when I sliced it, there were traces of black outlining all the delicious chunks of sharp cheddar throughout the bread, growing more pronounced the deeper I sliced into the loaf. I can only imagine it was mold. The bread didn’t appear undercooked, and I had checked several times as suggested in different areas of the bread to ensure doneness when baking. I am just flabbergasted as to how the mold could have grown if it was undercooked, especially since it spent one evening cooling in my kitchen, then promptly hit the freezer. Has this happened to anyone else?
I guess next time I’ll shred the cheese instead and overcook it.
Laurie – that is really odd, I must say! I’ve made and frozen this bread before and never had the mold issue. Sorry about that!
I made this last night. I would have added a bit more salt and cayenne pepper. The bread is dense but tasty. Make sure to cook it through as this would be an easy bread to under cook.
Made this last weekend and it is awesome! I am tossing all of my other quick cheese bread recipes away. Think next time I will sub shredded Asiago cheese for the Parm. Thanks Mel!
P.S. You should warn readers that this bread is best for those running 50 plus miles a week! 🙂
Super delicious. Mmm. I used this recipe to make muffins (I can’t find my bread pan!) and they are SO dangerously good. Oh, I didn’t have cheddar so I used the same Italian 5-cheese mix for the bottom of the cupcake trays and for inside the batter. Delicious. Thank you!
Kelly – what a great idea to make this bread into muffin form! I love it. And your p.s. is funny but true. Sorry for the extra calories…
Anonymous – because this is a quick bread and not a yeast bread, I’m afraid it wouldn’t hold up too well as sandwich bread – it is dense and moist and might fall apart if used that way.
Hi Melanie, could this be used as sandwich bread? Maybe if I add less cheese?
Thanks!
Oh my-your bread looks delicious! I seriously can’t resist anything with parmesan, especially breads. Thanks for sharing!
This looks fabulous! I just used the last of my parmesan, or I’d be making this for dinner tonight. Can’t wait to try it!
Nice and simple and looks really delicious. I like the instant gratification of this bread rather than the wait time of yeast based breads.
Mrsblocko – thanks for giving me the link to your blog. I’m glad you liked this recipe!
I love your blog and I nominated you for an “Uber Amazing Blog” award. Check it out at rileyspace.blogspot.com
melted cheese is just gorgeous. who needs a grilled cheese sandwich when you can have cheese bread? >now that i think of it, a grilled cheese sandwich made with cheese bread would be outstanding. 🙂
I made this last night and wrote about it on my blog. http://tomatoesforapples.blogspot.com/2009/07/baked-ziti-and-easy-cheese-bread.html
thank you for the great recipe!
This bread looks amazing and delicious!I’ll give this one a try. I like quick breads and with parmesan, who can resist?
Wow this looks really good!! I think my cheese lovin family would love it!
I made this tonight and found it was very good with a biscuit like consistency. Tasted like cheese biscuits from a restaurant. very easy to make!
Alan and Bonnie – I’m glad you tried this already! I didn’t think about it having a biscuit-like consistency, but I think you are right. Biscuit in bread form!
This looks delicious. I’m a bit of a yeast wimp – so this would work for me!
your cheese bread looks terrific!
Cheese and bread – two of my favorite things. Can’t wait to try it – Yum, yum!!! Now that I’m home from Spring Break I’m ready to get cooking and baking!!
This is not new for me! Still keeping this with me. Looks really yummy too..gearing up with recipes for the hot summer days
hopefully ahead!
right you are! simple but looks great and delish!
If I had all the ingredients, this would already be in the oven. It’s on the list to make after I go to the store next time.
I love cheese bread.
Krista