Recipe - James Beards Cheese Bread

1 pack Active dry yeast
1 tablespoon Granulated sugar
1 Three fourths cup Warm (100115 deg) water
5 To 6 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon Salt, or to taste
One fourth cup Butter, softened
1 teaspoon Tabasco
One fourth cup Parmesan cheese, freshly
grated
Three fourths cup Gruyere or Emmenthaler
cheese, shredded

Dissolve the yeast with the sugar in One fourth cup of the warm water and allow
to proof. In a large bowl, mix 5 cups of flour and the salt. Make a well in
the center and add the remaining 1 One half cups warm water, the butter, the
Tabasco, and the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula or with
your floured hands until the dough is well amalgamated. Turn out on a
heavily floured board (use One half cup flour) and knead for 10 to 12 minutes or
until the dough is smooth, elastic, and rather satiny in texture and all
the flour on the board is absorbed; add flour if you need it. Place the
dough in a buttered or oiled bowl and turn to coat on all sides. Cover with
a towel and let rise in a warm, draftfree spot until doubled in bulk,
1One half to 2 hours or slightly more.
Punch down the dough, turn it out on a lightly floured board, and knead
in the cheeses. When thouroughly blended, cut the dough in half and let
rest for 10 minutes, then roll out each half into a rectangle about 11 X 6
inches and let rest for 2 or 3 minutes more. Roll each triangle up,
pinching the edges as you do so, and tucking in the ends so that the loaf
measures about 4One half X 7One half inches. Place the dough in two well buttered
tins, cover, and let rise in a warm spot until the bread has reached the
top of the tin, or slightly higher, or has more or less doubled in size.
Bake on the center of the middle rack of a preheated 375F deg oven for
approximately 30 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when removed
from the tins and rapped with the knuckles on both top and bottom. Bake
directly on the oven rack, without the tins, for a few minutes to firm the
crust. Cool the bread on racks before slicing. VARIATIONS:
* Instead of the butter, use 1/3 cup peanut oil or olive oil. Also use
oil on the baking tins.
* Use fresh Parmesan orRomano only a little over a cup or use a
mixture of the two.
* Use sharp shredded Chedder instead of the Gruyere cheese.
* Bake as one loaf in a 10 X 4One half X 3inch pan, which will make a
thicker , more concentrated loaf and will take slightly longer to bake.
SOURCE: Beard on Bread by James A. Beard Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York
ISBN 0394473450

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini