That's What Bob's Cooking: Le Creuset Crusty Jalapeño Cheddar Bread

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Le Creuset Crusty Jalapeño Cheddar Bread

Hey everyone!

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything….but don’t fret…I am still cooking. As you know the holiday are WAY busy for us all, and I collect a ton of great pictures, and new recipes, as well as revamped the lighting in my kitchen (so the pictures should be better). Working under a compact florescent is not the best lighting!!

Anyhow, last September Craig and I attended our first blogger conference, and I was a little blown away. We have some work to do on the blog, so you’ll see some changes coming up, hopefully soon! (I also got to meet Kelsey Nixon-Kelsey’ Essentials) I think some of the greatest take a ways were the progression of my blog, from the humble starts (2007) on Facebook, then migrating to Blogger (Which was the “best” at the time), the process that my photographs have journeyed through, and the most interesting to me, was my most popular blog post….drum roll please…. Le Creuset Crusty bread I had no idea it would be that popular….of course I make it all the times, so what was I thinking. Right after Christmas, I re-worked that recipe, and now have this version of Jalapeño Cheddar Bread. As usual, we had left over turkey from Christmas, so I also made my Turkey Salad (adapted from Rotisserie Chicken Salad) to go with it!

Enjoy!

Le Creuset Dutch-Oven Jalapeño Cheddar Bread

Ingredients

• 3 ½ cups bread flour, plus more for dusting

• 2 ½ cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

• 3 jalapeñoes, seeded and coarsely chopped

• 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced into rings, divided

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

• 2 cups warm water

• 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, 2 cups of cheddar cheese, the chopped jalapeños, and salt. Stir well.

2. In a separate large bowl, combine the honey, warm water and yeast. Pour the flour mixture on top of the water and use a spatula to stir until the dough comes together.

3. With the spatula, fold the dough around the edges of the bowl toward the center, rotating the bowl each time and folding a total of 8 times. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest in a warm place for 60 minutes, or until almost doubled in size.

4. Using the spatula, fold the dough toward the center again 8 more times. Cover with the towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

5. Place the Dutch oven and lid to the oven, and preheat to 450˚F for 30 minutes.

6. Lightly flour a clean work surface and your hands. Carefully peel the dough out of the bowl and onto the floured surface. Flip over and carefully brush away excess flour. Fold the edges of the dough towards the center 8 times, then flip over the dough and transfer to a piece of parchment paper.

7. Brush the top of the dough with the olive oil, so the cheese will stick. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup (50 g) of cheese on top. Use a sharp knife to score the bread with an “X”, which will allow steam to escape. Arrange the jalapeño rings on top of the cheese.

8. Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven and use the parchment to lift the bread into the pot. Cover with the lid and bake for 40 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for 20 more minutes, until the bread is golden brown.

9. Carefully slide the bread out of the pot and onto a wire rack. Remove the parchment paper and let the bread cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Turkey Salad

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My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!