Cheese bread: pane al formaggio

Anyway you look at it, it doesn’t look like anything special. This is the recipe for which I bought a new baking pan and waited years to have all the ingredients in place at one time. It’s fine. I wouldn’t drive to another town to get it, but it’s fine. The recipe was not fine.

I’ll give you the recipe with my suggestions separate. Anyone who wishes to may try and see what they make of the original. It would be interesting to see if someone got something really fantastic from it.

See what I mean? It’s just there. It tastes good, but not fabulous.

Cheese bread Italian style

a metal baking form, round and higher than wide
I recommend a ring mold

500 g of 00 flour
1 packet of dry yeast granules
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
200 ml warm water I needed 300
1 Tablespoon oilive oil

80 g grated Pecorino
80 g grated Parmigiano
40 g Provolone cut into tiny dice
2 eggs

Mix those all together and then add the two liquids and mix it up the way you like to mix bread. Italians put the dry on the counter, make a dent in the top and put the liquid in it. They then use their hands to mix and then to knead the bread. Sometimes the water escapes and runs off the edge onto the floor. I like to use my dough hooks and a big bowl.

Knead the bread dough until it is smooth and elastic, then oil it and with a damp towel over it, put it in a warm place to rise for 1-1/2 hours.

When it is risen, punch it down. Add the eggs and cheeses and knead them in, which is really easy with dough hooks. Work it well, then grease the baking form really well and form the dough to fit it. Cover it again with a damp towel and put it in the warm place to rise until doubled… about an hour.

Heat the oven to 180°C or 375°F. When it is hot put the bread in and cook it 40 minutes if you have used the tall form and you believe the magazine. Mine took almost an hour and was still slightly uncooked in the center. If I make it again it will be in a ring mold and 40 minutes will probably be right.

Cool on a wire rack and cut when cold. Cut into pieces and share out to the workmen in the house like me. There were no tears or trembling. Maybe if I’d had cheddar?

Actually, the cheese bread experience made this rather humdrum cake look like a triumph! I think with some experimentation it really can become one, but this 1954 magazine recipe was long on saving money and short on powerful flavor. I can make it better.