Broccoli and cheese Pull apart bread....my 100th post

M...eat...less

Pull apart bread is my most recent obsession. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a great blog called Tickling palates where I found amazing looking garlic and smoked tomato pull apart bread. I was totally inspired so much so that since then I have made three pull apart breads. The first one was a garlic and cheese bread, the second was a cinnamon raisin with orange glaze and now finally this beauty.

The first cheesy bread was awesome; I made it for dinner to accompany some pork. Apparently everyone was starving that night and had no patient to allow the bread to rise and bake in peace. I had to prematurely bake it and also took it out of the oven too early, by the time it was hot out the oven, fingers were clambering at the bread, only to realize the center was under cooked. We had to put the half eaten bread back in the oven to finish cooking.

The second trial round ended up being very delicious but way too sweet…for me at least. I have a sweet tooth cousin who swears it was perfect as is. However all the other normal folks agreed that while it was delicious it was a tad bit too sweet and in an effort not to under bake this one I kept it in the oven way too long and the outsides were much too crispy.

So this attempt really brought everything together, the texture was great, it was fully cooked had the perfect balance of sweetness to saltiness; all in all great bread. We have this for breakfast lunch or dinner. Try it soon

Ingredients

Bread:

3 ½ cup flour

2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup warm water

3 table spoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 table spoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 cup milk

3 tablespoon butter

Filling:

1 whole onion caramelized

1 whole shallot caramelized

1½ cup steamed broccoli heads

5 cloves shredded garlic

4 tablespoons parsley compound butter

½ cup cheddar cheese

½ cup mozzarella cheese

½ cup Italian cheese mix

1 teaspoon salt

Greedy tips: 

• How do I know when the water is perfect for yeast?

My microwave is extremely powerful ¼ cup of water at 30 seconds produces near boiling temperatures. My rule of thumb is if the water burns your finger and is too hot for you to keep your finger submerged in it, its too hot for the yeast and will kill it. But if the water is very warm, just under the point of being too hot, you can keep your finger in it comfortably but it is very very warm, then this is the perfect temperature. Anything Luke warm and under will not activate the yeast.

Too hot will kill it, too cold won’t affect it.  You will know you have hit that sweet pot when it almost begins to bubble within the first 30 seconds of the water touching it. It is ready after about 10 minutes when it foams up, sometimes even foaming as  high as to the lid of the container its in.

• The dough will be very tight, just keep kneading it will become more pliable and elastic
• Rest the initial dough for an hour minimum to double in size
• After you have assembled the filling and the dough in the loaf pan, proof for another hour, the dough will swell and fill the pan
• Bake for 40 minutes at 350 
• I store my bread in the refrigerator. It will get very hard when cold, however to reheat I pull off a piece or cut a slice and give it 30 seconds in the microwave, it becomes as soft and gooey as it is when fresh baked. 

Xoxo Greedygirl