Hello friends!
Last night, as I was lying in bed ruminating on all the stuff I had to do tomorrow (now today) I realized something.
I had just taken my last exam.
Of my life.
Ever.
DUDE HOW WEIRD IS THAT?!
It was actually quite anti-climactic; since I don’t have finals (only projects) this just happened to be the last quiz I’d receive in the one class that requires quizzes. A little multiple choice quiz and boom!
No more exams. No more SATs. No more midterms. No more ANYTHING.
Though normally I freak out here and tell you how this whole college thing is going too quickly, today I am saying WOOHOO NO MORE EXAMS.
Heehee I promise that was the end of the barrage of caps-lock-words.
Or was it….
I have another reason to shout “woohoo” today; and it happens to be because of this lovely bread, stuffed with fresh rosemary and chunks of cheddar.
How could you not get excited over the tons of cheese in this bread?!
Way back in late October, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, my boyfriend and I stayed with his parents who luckily had a generator. During the day it was only used for essentials like the refrigerator, so we had to amuse ourselves in any other non-electronic ways.
For me, that meant perusing cookbooks. The one that I read, from cover to cover, and that kept me sane during those days, was Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. It has literally tons and tons of amazing recipes, with wholesome ingredients and rustic charm.
I even had the opportunity to borrow it and bring it back to school with me, where I quickly photocopied all the recipes I could not live without; one of them being this Savory Cheese and Chive Bread. It just seemed so simple and yet so perfect.
Naturally they were out of chives when I went to the grocery store to pick up ingredients, so instead I switched it out for a healthy heaping of rosemary. It worked perfectly and man, this bread is the bee’s knees (do people still say that?). Savory, cheesy, herby, and with a small pat of butter simply mind-blowing.
As a broke college student I went the cheddar route, but if you have a few extra bucks I’d highly suggest going for something like Gruyere. Gruyere is one of my favorite cheeses and would lend itself perfectly to this recipe.
Now I’m off to bake even more bread with the baking club! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Happy Baking!
Savory Cheese and Herb Bread
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper (I used black, but if you have white pepper go for it!)
- 3 eggs, at room temp
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 4 oz /1 cup shredded cheese (such as cheddar or Gruyere)
- 2 oz cheddar or Gruyere cut into small cubes (about 2/3 cup)
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup finely chopped rosemary (depending on how much you like rosemary!)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or butter.
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and olive oil until well combined and slightly foamy.
- Pour wet ingredient mixture over dry ingredient mixture and stir with wooden spoon until just combined. Stir in both shredded and cubed cheeses, as well as rosemary, until evenly distributed. Dough will be thick! That is okay.
- Transfer batter/dough into prepared loaf pan and smooth out top with spatula or back of a spoon. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes in pan before running knife around outer edges, and then flip loaf out onto a cooling rack. Set right side up and cool completely.
All Photos And Writing Copyright © 2013 Jessica Gonzalez | On Sugar Mountain
