BaBa's Cheese Bread

Shortly before Christmas I was contacted about a wonderful project called A Blending of Bittersweet Memories. This is a cookbook project “dedicated and designed to share stories of people that have lost loved ones, the lessons they’ve learned, and the food and recipes of those that have passed on.” Food is so closely tied to the memories of loved ones in my life, and I was immediately taken with what I think is a wonderful project. I would encourage anyone who is interested to visit the Bittersweet Memories website and submit your own memory and recipe.

One of my earliest kitchen memories is helping my great grandmother, BaBa, make cheese bread and cinnamon rolls. BaBa lived in the tiny town she was born in, Miami, Arizona, but she would come to Houston every year for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I have so many wonderful memories of BaBa, but oddly enough my favorite memory doesn’t belong to me but to my mom’s two youngest sisters, Jennifer and Suzy. You see, BaBa and Grandpa Jimmy would drive from Miami to Houston, and Jennifer and Suzy would wait for hours (at least in their version of the story!) in the front yard waiting to see their car heading towards my grandparents’ house. I love that story because it sums up the excitement that I think everyone felt when we knew that BaBa was coming to visit.

It wasn’t long after BaBa would arrive in Houston that she was in the kitchen cooking and baking, and I think one of the first things that she made was always a big batch of cinnamon rolls and several loaves of cheese bread. She would make one huge batch of dough that would eventually become both cinnamon rolls and cheese bread. I remember standing in the kitchen with her and helping her kneed the dough for what seemed like forever, and I vividly remember the transformation of the dough from a sloppy mess of yeast, liquid, and flour to a silky smooth dough. We’d set the dough aside to rise with a clean cotton towel covering it, and like magic, when we came back it would fill the bowl to the top. BaBa always let me punch down the dough, and then the real fun could begin. The dough was split in two. Half was rolled out and sprinkled with lots of cinnamon and sugar, and the other half was rolled out and spread with a cheese and egg mixture. After another rise, the bread went in the oven, and soon the house was filled with the smell of fresh bread.

Making bread with BaBa taught me how soothing bread making can be. When I think back on it, I’m amazed at her patience. Having a small child in the kitchen was bound to slow her down, and I remember spilling my fair share of flour, but she was infinitely patient with me. As we made and baked the bread she would tell me stories, and our time in the kitchen created a bond stronger than our blood ties. In making bread with BaBa, I shared a part of who she was. To this day I don’t stick my hands in a bowl of dough without thinking about her, and the smell of fresh baked bread brings her face to my mind. BaBa died when I was a sophomore in high school, but she is always with me in my kitchen.

On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.
--  E.B. White

BaBa’s Cheese Bread
Note:  I don’t have the recipe for BaBa’s cheese bread. To the best of my knowledge, she kept the recipe in her head. The following is a recipe that I’ve worked on and tweaked, and while it’s not an exact replica, I think it’s fairly close. I have no idea why there’s an egg beaten into the cheese, but that’s the way BaBa did it, and I’m loathe to change the one thing that I remember so vividly.

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup buttermilk (you can substitute regular milk if you like)
5 cups bread flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
Two 1/4-ounce packages instant yeast (I use SAF instant yeast. If your yeast is in bulk like mine is, then 2 ¼ tsp = 1 package)
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups coarsely grated cheese (BaBa used cheddar. I use cheddar or sometimes Pepper Jack. I've also been known to get a little over zealous with the cheese.)
1 egg
optional:  pinch cayenne pepper, fresh black pepper, or chopped fresh herbs

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat the water and the buttermilk over medium low heat to 105°F - 115°F.
2. In a large combine the buttermilk mixture, flour, sugar, butter, yeast, and salt. Using a wooden spoon or your hands (BaBa always made bread exclusively with her hands) combine the ingredients into a shaggy, but cohesive ball of dough. Remove dough from the bowl the a clean countertop dusted with flour and knead until silky smooth, about 10 minutes. (Note:  this step can be done from start to finish in a stand mixer with a dough hook if you like. Knead the dough with the dough hook for 5-7 minutes.)
3. Form the smooth dough into a ball and place in an oiled or buttered bowl. Make sure the dough is covered with oil or softened butter on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean cotton towel and set aside to rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour depending on how warm your kitchen is).
4. When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to degas and remove it from the bowl to the counter. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll each portion of the dough into a rectangle (I generally shoot for 8” x 10” or so). If the dough is difficult to roll, you can let it rest for 5 minutes and then roll it out.
5. In a bowl, beat one egg. With a rubber spatula, fold the grated cheese into the beaten egg. If you like, you can flavor the cheese egg mixture with herbs or pepper.NB: If you want your bread to be even cheesier, you can add extra shredded cheese, as I have been known to do on occasion.
6. Spread the 1/2 of cheese mixture over each rectangle of dough, leaving a 1” border on all sides. Roll the dough into a spiral from the short (8”) side of the rectangle. When the dough is rolled into a spiral loaf, carefully pinch all of the seams of the dough together to prevent any cheese from seeping out.
5. Lightly grease 2 - 81/2 inch by 4 1/2 inch loaf pans Transfer the dough to the prepared pans Put the pans in a warm place, cover with a towel, and let rise about one hour, or until doubled in size. (I like to grate a little extra shredded cheese over the top of my loaves. If you want to do this, add the grated cheese to the top just before you put the loaves in the oven.)
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. If you feel that the bread is getting too brown on the top, you can tent it with aluminum foil after about 15 minutes. It’s VERY important to let the bread cook, otherwise the cheese spiral in the bread will collapse (this has happened to me many times). Turn the loaves out of the pans onto a rack to cool. The bread needs to cool completely before slicing, otherwise the cheese will ooze out (this has also happened to me many times. It’s still very tasty, though).