Cheese & Herb Brioche

It has been quite a while since I baked bread, and I was recently inspired to do so when I was going through some of my old recipe books while organising my ever expanding book shelf. I came across this recipe I had hand written and decided that it will be nice to have a nice warm loaf of bread that is home made.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm milk 

2 tsp dry yeast

1 tbsp caster sugar

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

60gm butter cut into cubes

2 eggs beaten

Cheese & Herb Filling:

60gm butter melted

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 tsp dijon mustard

4 sprig thyme 

2 tbsp chives, finely chopped

1 1/2 cup grated cheddar or tasty cheese

Cheese & Herb filling

Method:

1. Combine milk, yeast and sugar with 1/2 cup warm water in a jug. Set aside until foamy about 5 minutes. 
2. In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Add butter and using your fingertips, rub in until mixture form crumbs. Add milk mixture and the eggs and keep mixing until until the dough comes together.
3. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Form into a ball, place in a clean bowl, cover with a tea towel and set aside in a warm place to proof for 1 hour or until double in size.
4. Meanwhile make the cheese filling by combining the cooled butter with the garlic, mustard, thyme, chives and cheese, stir until well blended.
5. Grease and flour a 10cm x 20cm loaf tin.
6. Using your hands, stretch the dough into a rough 30cm square. Top with the cheese filling spreading the mixture to the edges of the dough.

1. Cut the dough into 6 even strips that will be approximately 5cm wide. Stack the strips on top of each other, you will end up with a 30cm x 5cm stack with 6 layers.
2. With the stack placed horizontally on a board, cut into 6 even pieces, each piece will be 5cm wide. Carefully placed each stacked piece cut side up in the loaf tin, repeating with remaining stacks to fill the loaf tin. Cover with a tea towel and set aside to proof for 1 hour or until well risen.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
4. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and it sounds hollow when tapped on the top. 

While the bread was baking in the oven my daughter T kept looking through the oven glass to see if it was done, the smell was just so inviting, filling the house with the fragrance of freshly baked bread with cheese and herb. As soon as I got it out of the oven T was waiting eagerly with the butter for a slice of the bread, it was hot and the cheese was melting through each slice. I'm glad I found this recipe as I'm definitely going to make it over and over again. This is a family favourite.